Most of humanity's important and difficult problems such as pandemics, environmental health, and social unrest require recognizing and understanding complex systems. Students often have difficulty understanding complex systems concepts and previous research indicates that scaffolded computer simulations may facilitate learning. Few studies,…

Regarding future ecological challenges, it is highly relevant for students to understand the processes within ecosystems and the effects of external influences on their conservation. Since ecosystems are complex, difficulties in learning are often examined from a systems thinking perspective. However, challenges also arise in other areas,…

Background: Obesity-driven nutrition education in schools does not appear to result in healthier adolescent food choices. This study explored food systems as an alternative pedagogical approach to engage students in nutrition education. Methods: After playing a food systems computer game, 250 13- to 16-year-old students in 5 Western Australian…

Understanding molecular processes and coordinating the various activities across levels of organization in biological systems is a complicated task, yet many curricular guidelines indicate that undergraduate students should master it. Employing mechanistic reasoning can facilitate describing and investigating biological phenomena. Biofilms are an…

Complex systems affect every part of our lives from the ecosystems that we inhabit and share with other living organisms to the systems that supply our water (i.e., water cycle). Evaluating events, entities, problems, and systems from multiple perspectives is known as a "systems thinking" approach. New curriculum standards have made…

This study examines how lower secondary school students understand the circulatory system, using the structure-behavior-function (SBF) framework for conceptual representation. It evaluates the progress of students' understanding after interventions with two different teaching approaches, one using a biology textbook supported by augmented reality…

Background: Whole-of-community interventions have been recommended and show promise for preventing obesity; however, research to understand the mechanisms underlying their success or failure is lacking. Complex systems approaches may be useful to address this gap. Purpose: To describe the evolution and utilization of qualitative and quantitative…

This study aimed at exploring and theorizing the role of Jordanian Universities in supporting innovation among university students within the context of education for sustainable development from the point of view of Jordanian University students. For that, the researcher adopted the grounded theory methodology by Strauss and Corbin. The study was…

Increasing interconnectedness of people and goods enhances the complexity of geographical problems. For students to understand geography, systems thinking--and in this context, the use of causal diagrams--is a promising approach. A quasi-experimental design is used in which the systems thinking ability of students working with causal diagrams is…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the conventional high school instruction about conservation of mechanical energy in Canton Sarajevo. To that end we tested 441 high school students from six different schools in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) for their competence to apply the law of conservation of mechanical energy.…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine how novice special education teachers perceive administrative support during the first five years of teaching. This study was guided by the Cooperrider's appreciative inquiry (AI), and the Critical Systems theory (CST) conceptual framework. Purposeful sampling was used to select…

We conducted interviews with 16 postsecondary students at a large public university on pollination systems knowledge. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed with open-ended prompts to elicit student explanations of pollination systems. Congruent themes were developed through coding of the interview transcripts into low, medium, and…

This study examines the perspectives of school psychologists as they expand their role to provide a comprehensive range of behavioral health services. Participants were in the first cohort of schools within an urban district that implemented this model of expanded service and were studied using mixed methods of semistructured interviews and scaled…

Project EQuIPD--Engaging Quality Instruction through Professional Development--sought to establish and test for efficacy a professional development model to produce highly qualified teachers in STEM practices for all children, especially for students who are in traditionally underserved schools and districts within the State of Florida. The…

To integrate technology in teaching and learning, the need arises to investigate the teaching needs of educators making the transition from a traditional to technology mediated environment. This qualitative study selected a convenience sample of 120 faculty and administrators. Using an interview guide, interviewers met with 100 participants. Data…