Understanding Complex Systems: Comparing Secondary Teachers' and Undergraduate Students' Knowledge and Perspectives

• In Event: Unpacking Sense-Making and Achievement in Science Learning Environments

Abstract

Complex systems (CSs) have gained increasing attention in science education due to their prevalence in the natural world and the importance in addressing pressing issues such as climate change, pandemics, and biodiversity loss. Guided by the multilevel complexity framework, we launch a survey study to understand the extent to which high school teachers and undergraduate students have the underlying knowledge of CSs and the contours of this knowledge. Our results suggest that teachers’ and undergraduates’ knowledge of CSs shared similar constructs. Although teachers’ overall knowledge was more closely aligned with the experts in CSs than the students’, a large portion of teachers and undergraduates possessed an underdeveloped understanding of the decentralized organization of CSs.

Authors

• Lin Xiang, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Zitsi Mirakhur, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author