Abstract
Understanding the functioning of natural systems is not easy, although there is general agreement that understanding complex systems is an important goal for science education. Defining what makes a natural system complex will assist in identifying gaps in research on student reasoning about systems. The goal of this commentary is to propose a framework that explicitly defines the ways in which biological systems are complex and to discuss the potential relevance of these complexity dimensions to conducting research on student reasoning about complexity in biology classrooms. We use an engineering framework for dimensions of complexity and discuss how this framework may also be applied to biological systems, using gene expression as an example. We group dimensions of this framework into components, functional relationships among components, processes, manifestations, and interpretations within biological systems. We explain four steps that discipline-based education researchers can use to apply these dimensions to explore student reasoning about complex biological systems.
Highlights
BackgroundThe passion for our work stems from a deep sense of awe for the complexity of natural systems that we have come to recognize as beautiful
For many science educators, the passion for our work stems from a deep sense of awe for the complexity of natural systems that we have come to recognize as beautiful
We present a sort of prescription for how a biology education researcher may use the dimensions of complexity, using gene expression as an example, to highlight how we have found these dimensions to be useful in organizing our own thinking about potential research questions
Summary
The passion for our work stems from a deep sense of awe for the complexity of natural systems that we have come to recognize as beautiful. One example is the structures-behaviorfunction (SBF) framework that has been used to both support and research students’ systems thinking (Bray-Speth et al 2014; Dauer et al 2013; Hmelo-Silver et al 2007; Table 1 Dimensions of complexity (right column), taken and adapted from Feltovich et al (2004), organized into components, functional relationships, etc. SBF representations have some limitations in that the nature of some manifestations may be challenging to represent in a static drawing unless noted The goal of this commentary is to present a framework for complexity dimensions and to discuss the potential relevance of these complexity dimensions to teaching and to conducting research on student reasoning about complexity in biology classrooms. We present a sort of prescription for how a biology education researcher may use the dimensions of complexity, using gene expression as an example, to highlight how we have found these dimensions to be useful in organizing our own thinking about potential research questions
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