System thinking as a sustainable competency in facilitating conceptual change through STEM based learning in biology

Abstract

Pro-contra about concept mastery in STEM learning inspired this study to encounter conceptual change and STEM-project at the same time using R and D at different educational (junior, senior, university) levels. System thinking was chosen as medium to combine conceptual change and STEM learning, as it was found as part of Scientific Literacy in PISA and STEM approach, and as a UNESCO competency for Education for Sustainable Development. Groups of students from different levels of education were involved as research subjects. Certain consideration in choosing the biology topics and pre-posttests (concept mastery and system thinking skills) was administered for all level. Using system thinking oriented learning material it was reported that 7th graders can understand (plant & animal) cells structure well, no misconception for new concepts (prokaryote, plant tissue system), as they experience EDP in STEM-project and produce cell models. Conceptual change in high schools still resulted in misconception when the pre-post tests were taken once, but not for pre-post tests taken in each meeting. Topic choice and specific learning material for STEM based learning with system thinking oriented are very important to have complex system topic that enable to develop three types of system thinking.

Stem-Based Learning Process Analysis of Students' Science Process Skills

“…The STEM approach with the Engineering Design Process (EDP) pattern is suitable to be applied to ecological material as well as environmental change and preservation so that learning is more effective and varied. Every activity carried out by students seems to enjoy learning biology (Rustaman, 2021). STEM-EDP learning increases the effectiveness of a set of products and learning outcomes.…”

Development of STEM Integrated Flipped Classroom Learning Program to Improve Students' Systems Thinking Skills

“…Apart from that, many positive things can be gained from applying systems thinking skills, including growing the ability to solve problems and other more difficult skills (Andriani & Hamdu, 2021;Meilinda et al, 2018), increasing the ability to analyze problems in a structured manner, making conclusions (Richmond, 1994), analyzing the dynamics of a model or system (Rebs et al, 2019) and helping students link relationships between seemingly unrelated problems into interrelated ones (Clark et al, 2017;Rustaman, 2021). This ability is to the demands of climate change material which is complex material so that understanding variations, causes, and effects requires systems thinking skills (Abbott, 2014;Roychoudhury et al, 2017;Shepardson et al, 2012).…”