Summary
Authors claim that systems thinking is relatively unfamiliar to chemists and chemistry educators. The learning objectives for chemistry programs at both the high school and university level rarely include substantial and explicit emphasis on strategies that move beyond understanding isolated chemical reactions and processes to envelop systems thinking.
Authors report important strands of argument that support the case for reorienting chemistry education today. Mainly, addressing the sustainability challenges (e.g. finding cleaner energy sources, developing cost-effective ways of purifying water, avoiding the exhaustion of crucial resources etc.) elicit a compelling set of potential benefits arising from reorienting chemistry education toward systems thinking:
• More opportunities for developing a more unified approach within the discipline of chemistry itself, which is too often taught, researched and practiced within compartmentalized subdisciplines.
• Stronger engagement among the education, research and practice elements of chemistry, including the important interface between academia and industry.
• Enabling students to better understand the interactions between chemistry and other systems, including the physical, ecological and human systems of the planet, and develop the capacity for thinking and working across disciplinary boundaries, as a prerequisite for understanding the relevance of chemistry to comprehensively address twenty-first century challenges, including sustainable development.
• Enabling the development of an evidence-based approach to thinking about, understanding, and responding to risk.
• Providing a framework for projecting chemistry as a ‘science for society’ that can help to create positive attitudes towards the discipline from the media, public and policy makers.
Very little literature explicitly describes systems thinking in chemistry education. Moreover, none of this literature addresses the comprehensive reorientation called for or outlined in this paper. However, many approaches to tackling learning challenges involve strategies for introducing aspects of systems thinking to learners. Educational approaches that introduce green chemistry and engineering principles, and life cycle analysis provide entry points for considering overlaps between the boundaries of different systems. A variety of tools can assist in visualizing systems and the interactions between their components, including causal loop diagrams, concept mapping and dynamic systems modeling. In the context of introducing systems thinking into chemistry education, authors argue that it is pertinent to answer several questions. What are the chemistry systems that need to be understood? How do learners acquire an understanding of systems concepts and the ability to use systems tools and processes? What are the important interactions between the chemistry system and other systems? How can educators facilitate the acquisition, by learners, of the conceptual understanding and range of knowledge of the other systems that is necessary for a systems-thinking approach to be meaningful?
These questions may be addressed by making use of a proposed framework for analysis. The chemistry learner is placed at the center of this framework, which comprises three nodes that contribute to the understanding of the interdependent components within and among the complex and dynamic systems involved in student learning. The learner systems node explores and describes the processes at work for learners, which include taxonomies of learning domains, learning theories, learning progressions, models for the phases of memory, the transition from rote to meaningful learning and social contexts for learning. The chemistry teaching and learning node focuses on features of learning processes applied to the unique challenges of learning chemistry. These include the use of pedagogical content knowledge; analysis of how the intended curriculum is enacted, assessed, learned and applied; and student learning outcomes that include responsibility for the safe and sustainable use of chemicals, chemical reactions and technologies. The earth and societal systems node orients chemistry education toward meeting societal and environmental needs articulated in initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and descriptions of the earth's planetary boundaries. Educational systems to address the interface of chemistry with earth and societal systems include green chemistry and sustainability education and use tools such as life cycle analysis.
Reorienting chemistry education through systems thinking can benefit students’ learning of the subject. It can also enhance chemistry's impact as a science for the benefit of society, further strengthening its already considerable capacity to contribute to addressing global problems and advancing global sustainable development. These will be ample rewards for trying that will challenge traditional approaches to teaching this vitally important discipline.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper deals with “systems thinking”. Systems thinking in STEM — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — describes approaches that move beyond the fragmented knowledge of disciplinary content to a more holistic understanding of the field. Systems thinking approaches emphasize the interdependence of components of dynamic systems and their interactions with other systems, including societal and environmental systems. Such approaches often involve analyzing emergent behavior, which is how a system as a whole behaves in ways that go beyond what can be learned from studying the isolated components of that system.
