Promoting Conceptual Change for Complex Systems Understanding: Outcomes of an Agent-Based Participatory Simulation

Abstract

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas, and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Students, however, often have difficulty learning these components, and limited research exists to understand what types of interventions may best help improve understanding. We investigated 32 high school students' understandings of complex systems components and whether an agent-based simulation could improve their understandings. Pretest and posttest essays were coded for changes in six components to determine whether students showed more expert thinking about the complex system of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Results showed significant improvement for the components Emergence (r = .26, p = .03), Order (r = .37, p = .002), and Tradeoffs (r = .44, p = .001). Implications include that the experiential nature of the simulation has the potential to support conceptual change for some complex systems components, presenting a promising option for complex systems instruction.

Emerging technologies as pedagogical tools for teaching and learning science: A literature review

“…ABMs have been shown to be effective pedagogical tools in learning about emergent phenomena in multiple domains. Rates et al () studied the effectiveness of using an agent‐based model in improving high school students' understandings of complex systems components (e.g., the Chesapeake Bay watershed). This study found that students showed more expert thinking about the complex system of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.…”

Interactions between reasoning about complex systems and conceptual understanding in learning chemistry

“…An extensive body of research into people's reasoning about complex systems points out various biases which divert people from noticing nonlinear, invisible causes and bottom‐up processes of emergence (Grotzer, ; Rates et al, ). Jacobson et al () claim that it is common for students at all levels to inappropriately apply “clockwork” systems thinking to complex systems, according to which the system operates thanks to a simple mechanism of cause and effect, controlled by a single top‐down cause.…”

“…Several earlier designs for learning science with a complex systems perspective implemented the computational ABM. Such designs have demonstrated important advantages to learning through a complexity approach to support conceptual change in several scientific domains [(Holbert & Wilensky, ; Levy & Wilensky, ) in chemistry; (Brady et al, ) in physics; (Dickes, Sengupta, Farris, & Basu, ; Yoon et al, ; Wilkerson‐Jerde et al, ) in biology; (Blikstein & Wilensky, 2009; Jacobson et al, ) in materials science; (Levy & Mioduser, ) in robotics], or in systems thinking as a more general form of reasoning (Rates et al, ). Learning through this approach focuses on entities and their actions, such as movement, interactions, and global flows, and allows students to comprehend parallel processes by which emergent phenomena form.…”

“…Various studies have examined interventions to assist students in understanding complex systems (Heppenstall, Crooks, See, & Batty, ; Liu & Hmelo‐Silver, ; Peppler, Thompson, Danish, Moczek, & Han, ; Scherer, Holder, & Herbert, ; Sweeney & Sterman, ; Yoon & Hmelo‐Silver, 2017). Teaching about the general characteristics of complex systems may help students build conceptual links between domains (Chi, Roscoe, Slotta, Roy, & Chase, ; Goldstone, ; Jacobson, Kapur, So, & Lee, ; Lemke & Sabelli, ; Rates, Mulvey, & Feldon, ). This study examines students' perceptions of the structure of matter in in terms of characteristics of complex systems and how it relates to learning approaches.…”

“…Different from this literature, Rates et al () report on a progression of three models of complex systems regarding watersheds; however, they coded presuming there are three such models and did not test for their coherence as a mental model.…”