TY  - JOUR
U1  - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
A1  - Frey, Sven
A1  - Beege, Maik
A1  - Renkl, Alexander
A1  - Riess, Werner
ED  - Turner, Benjamin L.
ED  - Rieder, Erica
ED  - Menendez, Hector
T1  - The Impact of System Models on Systems Thinking in the Context of Climate Change in Elementary School
JF  - Systems
N2  - In the context of climate change, the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) is of particular importance in schools. Developing key competencies, such as systems thinking to understand complex relationships, is essential in teaching students how to solve sustainability-related problems through ESD. Previous research has shown that using system models in the classroom can foster systems thinking. This study investigated the effects of using alternative system models with varying visualization of temporal developments in developing different facets of systems thinking based on a heuristic structural competence model. Overall, 293 elementary school students were assigned to one of four groups (a qualitative system model without time representation vs. a qualitative system model with time representation vs. a quantitative system model with time representation vs. the control group) and participated in a five-lesson classroom intervention in pre-post-test design. The results showed a large effect of fostering systems thinking in all experimental groups compared to the control group. The qualitative system models led to higher learning gains than the quantitative system model, especially with system modeling and solving complex problems, which requires higher systems thinking skills. The results were interpreted by referring to situational interest in interacting with the respective system model.
KW  - -
KW  - systems thinking
KW  - modeling
KW  - climate change
KW  - environmental education
KW  - elementary school education
Y1  - 2025
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:frei129-opus4-34686
SN  - 2079-8954
SS  - 2079-8954
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13040220
DO  - https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13040220
VL  - 13
IS  - 4
PB  - MDPI
ER  -