Summary
Authors propose an application of systems thinking for the practice of chemistry education in order to arouse student awareness of the value and importance of learning chemistry and becoming chemistry literate. On the basis of definitions of systems thinking in the literature, they developed a conceptual framework via four aspects that together shape the concept of systems thinking in the context of chemistry education: (a) Understanding system structure, including components of a system and interrelations of components (e.g. the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle, and life cycle analysis), which leads to different behaviors of the complex systems; (b) Understanding complex behavior, including dynamic, emergent, and cause and effect characteristics of components in a system (e.g. green chemistry); (c) Understanding systems at different scale, including macroscopic (phenomena) and microscopic representations (structure), and symbols of elements in a system, namely how the system functions at different levels; (d) Linking society, chemistry, and technology, including the interconnections between society, chemistry, innovation, and technology from the views of global issues on sustainability, environmental protection, and applications of chemistry in industry.
The interactions and impacts of these aspects are used to analyze the chemistry curricular standards in high schools in Israel, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the United States. In a comparison of the four curricula, (a) the curriculum from the Netherlands and that of Israel are more closely linked to context; (b) the curriculum from Taiwan is more focused on chemical concepts for students’ senior years in high schools even though some socioscientific issues, inquiry, and practice were mentioned, while the other two have more application and contexts; (c) the U.S. NGSS used crosscutting concepts to integrate scientific disciplines, but the content in chemistry was not specifically identified. Sustainability and energy transition are common concepts in all curricula, except for the U.S. NGSS. It is obvious that there is an international trend to enhance students’ thinking of interconnections of concepts and relevance in chemistry, yet the degree of emphasis varies.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper deals with systems thinking, sustainable development, and complexity.
Three elements for systems thinking, including purpose (or function/goals, that in a way can be clearly understood and relates to everyday life), elements as characteristics of systems thinking, and interrelation (the way these characteristics relate to and/or feed back into each other), have been reported. Authors summarize the results of a previous review where they identified seven attributes that all complex systems, both natural and manmade, exhibit in varying degrees: interconnectivity, integration, evolutionary development, emergence, complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Systems thinkers are needed to prepare for an increasingly complex, globalized system of systems future. Finally, authors propose a goal-based framework of systems thinking for chemistry education. One of the four aspects of the proposed systems thinking framework links society, chemistry, and technology together with the goal to make our lives focus on sustainable development, environmental protection for better quality of life, and chemical applications in industry. Issues of sustainable development have been suggested to contextualize chemistry learning for relevant chemistry education. Issues that directly relate to systems thinking are climate change, water cycle, nitrogen cycle, sustainable development, and impacts of chemical industry in daily life, society, economy, environment, and ecology.
Various definitions of systems thinking in the existing literature describe the complexity of the behaviors of agents of a phenomenon or a system in order to make good prediction about the outcomes. The field of systems thinking emerged from the literature in general systems theory, complexity theory, cybernetics, systems dynamics, soft and critical systems, and learning systems.
