Systems Thinking in Biology: Validating an Assessment Method

Abstract

Systems thinking (ST) is the ability to understand and interpret complex systems which is essential in biology education because it indicates biological reasoning. Until now, no general method of assessment was developed to measure the extent of students’ ST based on this definition of ST. The aim of this research is to determine to what extent the designed assessment method visualizes the extent of students’ ST in biology education, and to determine to what extent there is progress in students’ ST after being taught about ST. In this research three assessment methods in the form of drawing tasks were developed, tested and analysed throughout one year on two different schools, to study if there was an increase in the students’ ST. In one school, the students got lessons about ST (n= 47) and the other served as a control (n=41). ST was measured by the use of the seven characteristics of systems: boundary, hierarchy, components, interactions, input-output, feedback, dynamics. The results suggest that the test could measure the extent of students’ ST, apart from the characteristic of boundary, and feedback in the second test. The results show that there was an increase in the explicit use of systems language in the experiment group, although no solid conclusions could be made from the results of the drawings due to differences in teaching methods. These outcomes show, that although improvements are necessary, the test showed potential in measuring students’ ST.