Investigating educators’ perspectives towards systems thinking in chemistry education from international contexts

Abstract

Systems thinking in chemistry education (STICE) has been proposed as an approach that could better equip students with abilities to connect their chemistry knowledge with other disciplines, with the skills needed to tackle complex global issues. However, educational change in chemistry is a complex effort that involves many interconnected factors that enable or hinder chemistry educators’ adoption of new pedagogical approaches. Using an adapted version of the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) model, we investigated factors that connect with chemistry educators’ willingness and ability to implement a STICE approach in their courses. We surveyed a group of 56 secondary and post-secondary chemistry educators from ten different countries, to capture chemistry educators’ perspectives towards a STICE approach. Through thematic analysis of responses, we found that educators’ willingness and ability to implement STICE is influenced by their knowledge, beliefs, experiences, contextual and personal factors. We discuss specific aspects of the reform model that experts and administrators can address to reduce barriers to implement and engage with STICE. We also highlight future chemistry education research that is needed to explore specific aspects of educators’ perspectives and STICE more broadly.

“Systems thinking encourages a safe space to offer different perspectives and insights”: Student perspectives and experiences with ST activities

“…[32][33][34][35][36] Research suggests that developing ST abilities requires carefully designed instruction with focus on students' learning and applying ST skills. 32,[37][38][39][40][41] There have been multiple lists of ST skills published in the literature, [1][2][3] including several studies in the context of chemistry education. 17,32 In our previous study, we used the five characteristics of systems thinking in chemistry education (STICE) to identify the baseline ST skills (skills demonstrated without explicit scaffolding) employed by undergraduate chemistry students.…”

“…We aimed to achieve two goals in this study: (1) understand student experiences of and perspectives toward using a ST approach in individual and collaborative environments and (2) make explicit connections of our research findings to teaching practice. These goals can contribute to achieving long-term goals, such as identifying ways to best implement ST (including tools like system maps) into chemistry courses to support the development of ST skills.…”

“…Recent efforts have been directed toward understanding educators' perspectives of systems thinking (ST) in chemistry education; [1][2][3] however, students' perspectives are much less well known. While many ST resources and activities have been published, the extent of understanding student perspectives has been limited to receiving feedback of their experience.…”