Assessing an Introduction to Systems Thinking. Issue 1 (18th December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Monroe, Martha C.; Plate, Richard R.; Colley, Lara
• Is Part Of: Natural sciences education. Volume 44:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 11
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2015-12-18
• Subjects: Agricultural education -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Natural resources -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 507.1
• DOI: 10.4195/nse2014.08.0017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2168-8281

Abstract

Abstract : This research study investigated the learning outcomes of a brief systems thinking intervention at the undergraduate level. A pre/post experimental design ( n = 50) was used to address two primary questions: (1) Can a brief introduction to systems thinking improve students' understanding of systems thinking? and (2) Which teaching method (of two) works best under such time constraints? Participants were divided into three groups: control, lecture only, and model demonstration. Test results suggest that both lecture‐only and model‐manipulation groups increased their understanding of systems thinking slightly over the control group, but showed no significant difference between each other. Results from focus groups conducted 3 months after the intervention suggest that model‐manipulation participants may have been more successful than lecture‐only participants at incorporating systems thinking into their own mental models to understand an ecological system.