Fostering Understanding of Complex Systems in Biology Education: Pedagogies, Guidelines and Insights from Classroom-based Research (Contributions from Biology Education Research)

✍ Scribed by Orit Ben Zvi Assaraf (editor), Marie-Christine P. J. Knippels (editor)

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 283
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book synthesizes a wealth of international research on the critical topic of ‘fostering understanding of complex systems in biology education’. Complex systems are prevalent in many scientific fields, and at all scales, from the micro scale of a single cell or molecule to complex systems at the macro scale such as ecosystems. Understanding the complexity of natural systems can be extremely challenging, though crucial for an adequate understanding of what they are and how they work.

The term “systems thinking” has become synonymous with developing a coherent understanding of complex biological processes and phenomena. For researchers and educators alike, understanding how students’ systems thinking develops is an essential prerequisite to develop and maintain pedagogical scaffolding that facilitates students’ ability to fully understand the system’s complexity. To that end, this book provides researchers and teachers with key insights from the current research community onhow to support learners systems thinking in secondary and higher education. Each chapter in the book elaborates on different theoretical and methodological frameworks pertaining to complexity in biology education and a variety of biological topics are included from genetics, photosynthesis, and the carbon cycle to ecology and climate change. Specific attention is paid to design elements of computer-based learning environments to understand complexity in biology education.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
Chapter 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Complex Systems in Biology Education
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Systems Dynamics and Systems Thinking
1.3 From Structure, Behavior, Function to Phenomena-Mechanisms-Components
1.4 Agent-Based Modeling
1.5 Thinking in Levels
1.6 Conclusion
References
Chapter 2: Long Term Ecological Research as a Learning Environment: Evaluating Its Impact in Developing the Understanding of Ecological Systems Thinking – A Case Study
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Literature Review
2.2.1 The Ecosystem as Complex System
2.2.2 The Difficulties Associated with Understanding Complex Ecological Systems
2.2.3 Developing and Assessing System Thinking
2.3 Methods
2.3.1 Setting and Population
2.3.2 Research Tools and Data Analysis
2.4 Results
2.4.1 Analysis Level
2.4.2 Synthesis Level
2.4.3 Implementation Level
2.4.4 Students’ Understanding of the Content and the Value of LTER
2.5 Discussion
References
Chapter 3: Involving Teachers in the Design Process of a Teaching and Learning Trajectory to Foster Students’ Systems Thinking
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Definitions of Systems Thinking
3.1.2 Teaching Systems Thinking
3.1.3 Focus of the Research
3.2 Method
3.2.1 Participants
3.2.2 LS Meetings
3.2.3 Designed Lessons
3.2.3.1 Lesson 1
3.2.3.2 Lesson 2
3.2.4 Pre- and Post-interviews
3.3 Results
3.3.1 RQ1: Contributions of the Teachers
3.3.2 RQ2: Learning Experiences
3.4 Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Supporting University Student Learning of Complex Systems: An Example of Teaching the Interactive Processes That Constitute Photosynthesis
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 What Makes Biological Systems Complex?
4.1.2 How Students Learn About Complexity
4.1.3 How Instruction Can Support Student Learning of Complex Systems
4.1.4 Teaching and Learning the Complexity of Photosynthesis
4.2 Classroom Context and Methods
4.3 Results from Implementation
4.4 Conclusions and Implications
References
Chapter 5: High School Students’ Causal Reasoning and Molecular Mechanistic Reasoning About Gene-Environment Interplay After a Semester-Long Course in Genetics
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Background of the Study
5.3 Aims and Objectives
5.4 Method
5.4.1 Sample
5.4.2 Assessment of Students’ Reasoning
5.4.3 The Interviews
5.4.4 Coding the Students’ Responses to the Open-Response Task
5.5 Results
5.5.1 Findings for the First Question of the Task: What Does the Eye Color of Fruit Flies Depend on?
5.5.2 Findings for the Second Question of the Task: Tracing Trait Formation
5.5.3 Findings from the Interviews
5.6 Discussion and Educational Implications
References
Chapter 6: Systems Thinking in Ecological and Physiological Systems and the Role of Representations
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Similarities and Differences of Complex Systems
6.3 Systems Thinking
6.4 Representations of Complex Systems
6.5 Purpose and Methodology
6.6 Systems Thinking in Ecological Contexts
6.7 Systems Thinking in Physiological Contexts
6.7.1 Process Continuity
6.7.2 Self-Regulation
6.7.3 Causal-Mechanistic Relations
6.8 Discussion
References
Chapter 7: The Zoom Map: Explaining Complex Biological Phenomena by Drawing Connections Between and in Levels of Organization
7.1 Introduction
7.2 What Makes Biological Explanations Complex? The Perspective of Scientists
7.2.1 Characteristics of Biological Explanations
7.2.2 A Plethora of Biological Levels
7.2.3 Organizing the Levels of Biological Organization
7.2.4 Comparing the Levels of Scientific Disciplines
7.3 What Makes Biological Explanations Complex? – The Students’ Perspective
7.3.1 Students’ Difficulties for Explaining Phenomena
7.3.2 Zooming in on the Construction of Explanations
7.4 Guiding the Process of Explaining with the Zoom Map—The Educators’ Perspective
7.4.1 Theoretical Learning Principles for Teaching Complex Phenomena
7.4.2 The Zoom Map
7.5 Design of the Study and Materials
7.5.1 The Zoom Map Prepared for a Particular Explanation
7.5.2 Experience-Based Conceptions Are Needed to Construct an Explanation
7.5.3 External Representations Depict the Mechanism
7.5.4 Participants
7.5.5 Analysis
7.6 Results
7.6.1 A Zoom Map to Explain Upright and Wilted Leaves
7.6.2 A Zoom Map Demands Exhaustive Editing
7.6.3 Learners Drill Down to Lower Levels in Their Explanations
7.6.4 Direction of Explanation: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, or yo-yo
7.7 Discussion
7.8 Implications for Biology Teaching
References
Chapter 8: Pre-service Teachers’ Conceptual Schemata and System Reasoning About the Carbon Cycle and Climate Change: An Exploratory Study of a Learning Framework for Understanding Complex Systems
8.1 Introduction
8.1.1 Knowledge About the Carbon Cycle and Climate Change
8.1.2 Climate Change Education
8.1.3 Systems Thinking and the Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) Conceptual Framework
8.1.4 Research Objectives
8.2 Methods
8.2.1 Participants
8.2.2 Learning Intervention
8.2.2.1 Concept Maps
8.2.2.2 Lab Experiments
8.2.2.3 Computer Simulations
8.2.2.4 Concept Map Revision and Reflections
8.2.3 Data Collection and Analysis
8.2.3.1 Concept Map Analysis
8.2.3.2 Interview Analysis
8.3 Results
8.3.1 Group A: Slovenian Pre-service Lower-Secondary-School Biology Teachers
8.3.2 Group B: Cyprus Pre-service Primary School Teachers
8.3.3 Group C: Cyprus Pre-service Preschool Teachers
8.4 Discussion
8.4.1 Educational Implications and Suggestions for Future Research
References
Chapter 9: Teaching Students to Grasp Complexity in Biology Education Using a “Body of Evidence” Approach
9.1 Introduction
9.1.1 What Is a Body of Evidence Approach?
9.1.2 A BOE Approach for Middle School Science: Understanding Goals
9.2 Research Questions
9.3 Methods
9.3.1 Design
9.3.2 Participants
9.3.3 Curriculum
9.3.4 BOE Intervention Components
9.4 Data Sources and Analysis
9.4.1 Concept Maps
9.4.2 Post-interviews
9.5 Results
9.5.1 Concept Maps
9.5.2 Interviews
9.5.2.1 Confounding Causal Factors with Sources of Evidence
9.5.2.2 Expressing the Value of Multiple Possible Explanations/Models
9.5.2.3 Recognizing a Collection of Evidence Intended to Support a Claim
9.5.2.4 Making Connections to Other Learning about Evidence
9.5.2.5 Acknowledging Ecosystems Science Experimentation as Sensitive to Not Harming the Environment
9.6 Discussion
Appendix
Overview of the Plus BOE Curriculum
Experimentation Tools in EcoXPT
EcoXPT Thinking Move Posters Including a Body of Evidence Approach
Script for Body of Evidence Approach Thinking Move Video
Body of Evidence Worksheet
Thinking About Different Types of Evidence Worksheet (Both Classes)
Supporting Materials for Body of Evidence Thinking Move
Learning from Opportunistic Experiments
Discussion Sheet
Uncertainty and Constructing a Best Explanation
Discussion Sheet
References
Chapter 10: Science Teachers’ Construction of Knowledge About Simulations and Population Size Via Performing Inquiry with Simulations of Growing Vs. Descending Levels of Complexity
10.1 Introduction
10.1.1 Simulations
10.1.2 Performing a Simulation-Based Scientific Inquiry
10.2 The Study and Its Context
10.2.1 Participants
10.2.2 Data Collection
10.2.3 Data Analysis
10.2.4 Procedure
10.3 What Did we Learn About Teachers’ Knowledge and SBSI?
10.3.1 Teachers’ Knowledge About Simulations and their Function
10.3.2 Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge and Beliefs About Teaching with Simulations
10.3.3 Teachers’ Knowledge and Understanding of Population Dynamics and Related Representations
10.3.4 Science Teachers’ Inquiry Performance
10.3.5 SBSI Time Duration
10.3.6 Inquiry Phases
10.3.7 Teachers’ Talk About Population Dynamics and SBSI Experiences
10.4 Promoting System Thinking through the Use of Simulations – Few Recommendations for a Pedagogy and a Learning Environment As Well As Implications for Instruction and Learning
References
Chapter 11: Designing Complex Systems Curricula for High School Biology: A Decade of Work with the BioGraph Project
11.1 Developing a Coherent Understanding of Biological Systems
11.2 The BioGraph Curriculum and Instruction Framework
11.2.1 Curricular Relevance: What Is Being Learned?
11.2.2 Cognitively-Rich Pedagogies: How Does Learning Happen?
11.2.3 Tools for Teaching and Learning: What Is Used to Support Instruction and Learning?
11.2.4 Content Expertise: What Is the Knowledge to Be Learned?
11.3 Designing for Teacher PD
11.3.1 Face-to-Face PD: Exploring Teacher Learning and Community Development
11.3.2 Online Asynchronous PD: Exploring How to Scale BioGraph Resources
11.4 Research Findings
11.4.1 Students Improve in Biology and Complex Systems Understanding
11.4.2 Students Understanding of Biology as a Coherent Set of Ideas Improves
11.4.3 Teachers Indicate High Usability in their Biology Courses
11.4.4 Developing Teacher’s Social Capital Is Key
11.5 Benefits of Computer-Supported Complex Systems Curricula and Lessons Learned
References
Chapter 12: Lessons Learned: Synthesizing Approaches That Foster Understanding of Complex Biological Phenomena
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Perspectives and Frameworks
12.3 Analysis of the Contributions in Terms of System Characteristics
12.3.1 Understanding Complexity in the Carbon Cycle
12.3.2 Understanding Complexity in Ecosystems
12.3.3 Understanding Complexity in Plant Physiology
12.3.4 Understanding Complexity in Genetics and Human Physiology
12.4 Pedagogical Guidelines and Scaffold Strategies
12.4.1 Modelling
12.4.1.1 Qualitative Pen and Paper Modelling Activities
12.4.1.2 Computer Based Modelling Activities
12.4.2 Authentic Inquiry Approach
12.4.3 Cross-Level Reasoning
12.4.4 Use of System Language
12.4.5 Summary
References