From the evaluation literature related to research and innovation policy, calls have long been made for improved evaluation processes especially where projects and programmes may be evaluated from a systems perspective. Drawing on the literature of innovation systems and innovation for inclusive development (I4ID) this research proposes a…

Scholarship within the social sciences of agriculture, food, and natural resources (AFNR) exists, in part, to inform solutions to complex problems. Increasingly, complex problems are found at the nexus of social and ecological systems; therefore, scholarship within the social sciences of AFNR must mirror this social-ecological characteristic.…

Systems thinking encompasses a set of skills for understanding, analyzing, and working with systems consisting of multiple interconnected elements and exhibiting emergent properties. Such systems are all around us, and helping students to develop such skills is central to equipping them to tackle professional and societal challenges. While the…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways that a chemistry course could reposition itself by adopting interdisciplinary approaches based on systems thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as overarching frameworks, to give an overview of several challenges that chemistry in higher education is facing, and to discuss how those can…

Influence diagrams, derived from the mystery method as its learning output, represent an externalization of systems thinking and are, therefore, valid to research; so far they have not been conceptualized in the research literature for teaching systems thinking in education for sustainable development. In this study, 31 of those diagrams are…

Many edusemiotic writers have begun to closely align edusemitoics to biosemiotics; the basic logic being that, if the life process can be defined through the criterion of semiotic engagement, so can the learning process (Stables in J Curr Stud 38(4):373-387, 2006). Thus, the ecological concept of umwelt has come to be a central area of…

Object-based learning is an approach that aims to foster observational skills and sensory awareness. Paradoxical plant objects that do not lend themselves to all-too-easy explanations and interpretations can be used to practice the search for ecological explanations and the formation of evolutionary hypotheses. They can be the basis of…

How does the teaching of climate change and sustainability fit into the teaching of the traditional content and skills of the core science strands? In this article, Rosemary Hipkins responds to this question that was asked by a teacher who is concerned that complex context that dominates the narrative of teaching can cause confusion for students…

Revisiting an essay from 1999, this article explores the current conditions in higher education, and society more broadly, that help shape the roles for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and educational development. By seeing the current "crises" of higher education not only as "problems" to be investigated but as…

This article analyzes the potential for reshaping disciplinary divides by engaging with theories and movements that relate to educational change. Generating educational structures that diverge from conventional discipline-based models are a common way of attempting contemporary educational reforms. Interdisciplinary approaches are analyzed in this…

Given the present need for biochemistry and molecular biology educators to transform their courses into an online format, novel methods aimed at promoting student learning and engagement must be considered. Herein, we describe the integration of graphical systems modeling as a tool for introducing biochemistry to secondary-level students. We…

A core element of systems thinking is perspective taking. Perspectives help people distinguish between salient and irrelevant information, take particular types of actions, and make sense of the world. In this article, we consider what systems thinking and perspective taking means for designers in education. First, we present a framework,…

The current socio-ecological challenges and phenomena that are major topics of geography education, like climate change and migration, are highly complex. Maturity in these contexts requires a networked way of thinking, and a systemic competence that is difficult to develop in geography classes alone. Digital games that simulate complex systems…

Objective: Despite significant enrollment in community colleges, persistence and graduation rates are quite low. This study aims to better understand how students' person--environment relationships and self-organization together contribute to the persistence decisions of community college students. Using Spencer et al.'s "phenomenological…

This article aims to investigate social learning in the Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) from a number of principals' perspectives. An abductive approach has been adopted to analyse the data from individual interviews with seven principals in school-age educare. The results are understood through an interactionist perspective, with…