Students' view toward biology as a complex system

Abstract

System thinking is found to be a proper approach to address the complex problems of our modern world. However, while it is practiced in various science disciplines, it is not yet embedded proportionately into science education. In this study, through a mixed methods approach, I first examined students' system thinking skills in response to complex problems and then, in a separate study, I investigated how concept map as an assessment tool could assess and enhance students system thinking skills. My results indicated that students tend to use simple causal reasoning to argue about complex biological problems and largely draw on domino causal pattern to show the relationship among biological concepts. I also found that students' system thinking skills improved when they were prompted about complex causalities and scaffolded for making diverse causal relationships. At the end, based on the results of my studies, I developed a teaching framework for complex systems that provides instructors with guidelines on how to embed causal mechanisms and the features of complexity into their teaching practices.