A multitude of global challenges that society grapples with, including climate change, social injustices, and economic disparities, persist largely due to the shortcomings of effectively responding to complex systems. In this article, we consider adopting systems literacy as a comprehensive educational approach to navigate in complex systems. We…

STEM teacher shortage remains a serious problem in secondary education in many European countries, despite many interventions and many research studies over the last decades. The observation that past interventions and research outcomes have not significantly contributed to reduce teacher shortage implies that places to effectively intervene in…

This study explores the impact of integrating "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace" into the undergraduate public health course PBHL 2950: Disparities in Health as a pedagogical tool to enhance student understanding of systemic inequities. Traditional lecture-based methods often fail to effectively convey complex concepts such as…

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can result in positive "side effects," such as concentration and individual well-being, highly desirable to schools operating within a neoliberalist agenda emphasizing performativity. However, employing a critical literature review, we argue that adverse side effects also occur, though…

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…

This paper presents the design and initial learning research with the MMM modeling platform, seeking to advance middle school students' learning through constructing computational models of complex physical and chemical systems. A complexity-based structure of an MMM interface is introduced. It suggests that a complex system can be described and…

Recent research has identified interventions that improved achievement for students with low test scores in mathematics. The Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades practice guide, developed by the What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC) in conjunction with an expert panel, distills this recent research into…

In this paper, we share results from a classroom intervention that used a conceptual representation to support reasoning about ecosystems. Engaging students in modeling allows them to make their ideas visible while being malleable and available for discussion, which enables students to make meaning out of systems. Further, the…

Urban communities are disproportionality impacted by issues such as community violence, leaving children at higher risk of trauma, and increased adverse childhood experiences. This applied study addresses a research-to-practice gap by demonstrating the longitudinal impact of a district-initiated, school-wide multitiered systems of support approach…

To improve teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and enhance their practice. Roles at the middle tier of education systems, or those professionals working between the school and central level, offer unique capacities to facilitate collaboration, broker knowledge, scale…

To develop the mathematical discourse of an elementary classroom, I designed an action research project around an intervention of Open Space Technology (OST). Guided by the theoretical perspective of complexity thinking, OST principles created a 'space' or a new structure for learning, where participants self-organized according to interests and…

According to the American Psychological Association (APA, 2015), trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event, which can lead to difficulties with emotional regulation, social relationships, and the development of physical symptoms. Traumatic experiences may include physical or sexual abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence,…

Developing students' systems thinking is an often-posed demand in education for sustainable development (ESD) and science literacy. Several studies have shown that systems thinking can be fostered in students of different education levels. Therefore, science teachers who are required to teach ESD-relevant topics should be proficient in systems…

I reappropriate the image of a space-time warp and its notion of disorientation to argue that colonialism created a warp in Trinidad's educational system. Through an analysis of school violence and the wider network of structural violence in which it is steeped, I focus on three outmoded aspects as evidence of this warp--hierarchies, curricula and…

In this mixed-methods study, we examined if students benefitted from a game design course offered during an enrichment hour in terms of gains in their system analysis and design skills. Students at a rural middle school in Southeast US (n = 19) attended a 1-hour game design course offered weekly during an academic enrichment class period, for the…