System Thinking Skills at the Elementary School Level

Autor/inn/en	Assaraf, Orit Ben-Zvi; Orion, Nir
Titel	System Thinking Skills at the Elementary School Level
Quelle	In: Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47 (2010) 5, S.540-563 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-4308
Schlagwörter	Elementary School Students; Water; Inquiry; Earth Science; Active Learning; Measures (Individuals); Foreign Countries; Grade 4; Thinking Skills; Cognitive Ability; Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Science Education; Israel + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wasser; Earth sciences; Geowissenschaften; Aktives Lernen; Messdaten; Ausland; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; Denkfähigkeit; Elementarunterricht; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung
Abstract	This study deals with the development of system thinking skills at the elementary school level. It addresses the question of whether elementary school students can deal with complex systems. The sample included 40 4th grade students from one school in a small town in Israel. The students studied an inquiry-based earth systems curriculum that focuses on the hydro-cycle. The program involved lab simulations and experiments, direct interaction with components and processes of the water cycle in the outdoor learning environment and knowledge integration activities. Despite the students' minimal initial system thinking abilities, most of them made significant progress with their ability to analyze the hydrological earth system to its components and processes. As a result, they recognized interconnections between components of a system. Some of the students reached higher system thinking abilities, such as identifying interrelationships among several earth systems and identifying hidden parts of the hydrological system. The direct contact with real phenomena and processes in small scale scenarios enabled these students to create a concrete local water cycle, which could later be expanded into large scale abstract global cycles. The incorporation of outdoor inquiry-based learning with lab inquiry-based activities and knowledge integration assignments contributed to the 4th grade students' capacity to develop basic system thinking abilities at their young age. This suggests that although system thinking is regarded as a high order thinking skill, it can be developed to a certain extent in elementary school. With a proper long-term curriculum, these abilities can serve as the basis for the development of higher stages of system thinking at the junior-high/middle school level. (Contains 5 tables, 5 figures, and 1 note.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10