Guidelines for Learning Material That Foster Students’ Feedback Systems Thinking in Secondary School Biology Education

Abstract

Systems are present everywhere, examples are cells and organisms. In order to understand systems, systems thinking is required. Despite the increasing importance of systems thinking in biology education, it is not regularly integrated into the curriculum by Dutch teachers, which leads to students experiencing difficulties. For instance, students have difficulties with identifying feedback mechanisms, even though control loops consisting of a feedback mechanism are common in biology education. The focus of this study was on tools to foster students’ identification and understanding of control loops. To achieve this, the effectiveness of a pre-determined set of guidelines was determined. The set of guidelines consisted of four theory-based guidelines, namely: let students focus on the components and its functions, the relationships, and the feedback mechanism of control loops. These guidelines were meant to foster students’ ability to identify and understand control loops, also referred to as feedback systems thinking. This consists of three skills: identifying structure and relationships of control loops, and understanding its feedback mechanism. The following research question was proposed: What are guidelines for learning material that foster students’ feedback systems thinking in secondary school biology education? A quasi-experimental research with 37 students (14-17 years old) was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the guidelines. Results indicate that the guidelines resulted in students identifying the structure and the relationships of control loops more often. However, students did not show increased understanding of the feedback mechanism. This study suggests that the four guidelines as a whole is promising in fostering students’ feedback systems thinking to the extent of identification of control loops.