Abstract
One of the keys to science and environmental literacy is systems thinking. Learning how to think about the interactions between systems, the far-reaching effects of a system, and the dynamic nature of systems are all critical outcomes of science learning. However, students need support to develop systems thinking skills in undergraduate geoscience classrooms. While systems thinking-focused instruction has the potential to benefit student learning, gaps exist in our understanding of students’ use of systems thinking to operationalize and model SHS, as well as their metacognitive evaluation of systems thinking. To address this need, we have designed, implemented, refined, and studied an introductory-level, interdisciplinary course focused on coupled human-water, or sociohydrologic, systems. Data for this study comes from three consecutive iterations of the course and involves student models and explanations for a socio-hydrologic issue (n = 163). To analyze this data, we counted themed features of the drawn models and applied an operationalization rubric to the written responses. Analyses of the written explanations reveal statistically-significant differences between underlying categories of systems thinking (F(5, 768) = 401.6, p < 0.05). Students were best able to operationalize their systems thinking about problem identification (M = 2.22, SD = 0.73) as compared to unintended consequences (M = 1.43, SD = 1.11). Student-generated systems thinking models revealed statistically significant differences between system components, patterns, and mechanisms, F(2, 132) = 3.06, p < 0.05. Students focused most strongly on system components (M = 13.54, SD = 7.15) as compared to related processes or mechanisms. Qualitative data demonstrated three types of model limitation including scope/scale, temporal, and specific components/mechanisms/patterns excluded. These findings have implications for supporting systems thinking in undergraduate geoscience classrooms, as well as insight into links between these two skills.
Highlights
A hallmark of environmental problem solving is the complicated interweaving of components with varying rates and magnitudes of response to change [1]
Post hoc comparisons using Tukey’s honestly significant difference (HSD) test indicated that the mean score for components was significantly higher than the mean score for mechanisms, which was higher than the mean score for phenomenon/patterns (Table 4)
In the context of water systems, students express a variety of levels of understanding and often alternative conceptions across the continuum of kindergarten through to grade 12 (K-12) and undergraduate formal education [9,14,16]
Summary
A hallmark of environmental problem solving is the complicated interweaving of components with varying rates and magnitudes of response to change [1]. Water 2020, 12, 1040 skill development to engage students in authentic learning opportunities grounded in real-world scenarios where students can gain experience thinking about, explaining, and making decisions about complex coupled human-natural systems. Learning how students use systems thinking is important from an informed populace standpoint; decision making and implementing changes in human actions to benefit the hydrologic system is critical to the overall earth system [11]. To test this hypothesis, we collected and analyzed data from three consecutive years of the course, Water in Society, to respond to the following study questions: 2. How do students evaluate their own systems thinking models of a real-world sociohydrologic issue?
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