DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20061

Summary
The paper describes a study that deals with the development of system thinking skills at the junior high school level. The findings revealed the development of a system thinking framework (The System Thinking Hierarchical (STH) Model) in the context of the earth systems consisting of several sequential stages arranged in a hierarchical structure. The cognitive skills that are developed in each stage serve as the basis for the development of the subsequent higher-order thinking skills. The study showed that in spite of the minimal initial system thinking abilities of the students, most of them made some meaningful progress in their system thinking skills, and a third of them reached the highest level of system thinking in the context of the hydro cycle. Two main factors were found to be the source of the differential progress of the students: (a) the students’ individual cognitive abilities, and (b) their level of involvement in the knowledge integration activities during their inquiry-based learning both indoors and outdoors.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper deals with systems thinking and complexity.
The literature review reveals eight characteristics of systems thinking: (1) the ability to identify the components of a system and processes within the system; (2) the ability to identify relationships among the system’s components; (3) the ability to organize the systems’ components and processes within a framework of relationships; (4) the ability to generalize; (5) the ability to identify dynamic relationships within the system; (6) understanding the hidden dimensions of the system, recognizing patterns and interrelationships which are not seen on the surface; (7) the ability to understand the cyclic nature of systems; (8) thinking temporally (retrospection and prediction), namely understanding that some of the presented interaction within the system took place in the past, while future events may be a result of present interactions. These eight characteristics were arranged as a hierarchic model of the stages by which system thinking develops in three levels: (a) analysis of system components (characteristic 1); (b) synthesis of system components (characteristics 2 3, 4, 5); and (c) implementation (characteristics 6, 7, 8). Each group of skills (specific level) is used as the basis for the development of the next level’s skills.
A system approach is considered as an attitude of the mind in facing complexity and systems thinking as an understanding of how the behavior of the system arises from the interaction of its agents over time (dynamic complexity).

Point of Strength
The strength of the publication is the development of a system thinking framework consisting of several sequential stages arranged in a hierarchical structure, which is used for assessing students' understanding about different dimensions of an earth system.