Abstract
This thesis describes developmental research which was carried out at the Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education at Utrecht University. My research aimed at a useful approach for modern ecology education in upper secondary school. The challenge was to develop a theory-based and empirically validated design of a learning and teaching strategy to reach this modern education. The central research question was:
What are the characteristics of a valid, feasible and effective learning and teaching strategy about ecosystem behaviour using modelling and systems thinking in authentic practices?
An ecosystem is complex and dynamic. Knowledge from and insight in this complexity and dynamics has societal relevance. However, because of lack of such knowledge and insight in upper secondary education, students do not have the opportunity to develop ecological literacy. This literacy seems more important than acquiring a vast amount of ecological knowledge.
By making use of activities such as systems thinking and modelling, complex and dynamic processes can become transparent for students, performing these activities themselves. Therefore, a learning and teaching strategy was developed making use of contexts, embedded as ecosystem-related authentic practices. In these contexts concepts such as ecosystem, dynamics and complexity are approached in a functional way.
The three selected authentic practices are: ecologists investigating the optimization of mussel culture in the Easter Scheldt, dune managing people working on the management of the rabbit population in a water resource area in the dunes, and scientists deciding together how to act in an area in Southern Africa which is overcrowded with elephants.
The developed learning and teaching strategy, after having been tested in classroom, does provide an answer to the above mentioned research question. An answer is sought to five subquestions related to the validity, feasibility and effectiveness of the strategy:
- Which ecology-related authentic practices seem appropriate for enabling students to grasp and value the role of systems thinking and modelling?
- What are the opportunities for systems theory to clarify complexity at various levels of biological organization such as organism, population and ecosystem?
- What are the opportunities for computer modelling to clarify dynamics at various levels of biological organization such as organism, population and ecosystem?
- Which pedagogical approach is helpful for students in using modelling and systems thinking?
- Which pedagogical approach is helpful for students in developing scientific ecological concepts starting from concepts embedded in authentic practices?
In the development of my learning and teaching strategy the concept-context approach, where a context is described in cultural historical way as a practice, is linked with the problem-posing approach. The learning activities of the students are linked by a sequence of questions which can be solved by performing these activities. In the end all answers contribute to the solving of the central problem in the series of lessons.
The scientific ideas of the concept ‘ecosystem’ are raised. There have developed various views on this concept, dependent on the perspective of people. Four views with their specific characteristics are described: the holistic, cybernetic, dynamic and chaotic view. Nowadays, dynamic and chaotic views are dominant in the science of ecology.
Ecology upper secondary education only uses static models (such as food webs) which do not provide students with the opportunity to grasp the dynamics of an ecosystem. I tested the assumption that holistic and cybernetic views were dominant in Dutch upper secondary education. In the examination syllabus, the schoolbooks and the lessons there are hardly any traces of modern ecological views. Between ecologists and teachers there are substantial differences in their views on the concept ‘ecosystem’. Teachers are more inclined to old-fashioned views and they are less consistent in their views than ecologists. The choices of teachers and ecologists for important concepts that should be taught only partly agree with each other.
From the preliminary structure of the learning and teaching strategy, a scenario was derived, which was transformed in lesson materials.
For each lesson, the various activities are described, with aberrations from the scenario and their possible cause.
After that, for all five sub-questions it is described whether the designed learning and teaching strategy is successful and if not, which attempts have been done for improvement. The learning and teaching strategy seems to be valid, in terms of introducing adequate ecosystem-related practices where dynamics and complexity are important sub-concepts, enabling students to understand ecosystem behaviour. My strategy is feasible, in terms of the characteristics of a realistic, clear and relevant use of practices, with a transparent role for systems thinking; where there is a problem that elicits student’s ideas; and where the learning and teaching strategy is clear to the students. However, in terms of the characteristics of the (open) systems character of an ecosystem, the modelling activities and the plausibility of the sequence of the selected practices, the strategy is not (completely) feasible.
In some aspects our learning and teaching strategy appears to be effective. Most students performed rather well on discriminating levels of organization, exploring models and getting an idea of complexity and dynamics, although on the last subject their understanding appeared to be rather superficial. A number of the ten intended learning outcomes have been realised. However, three outcomes were certainly not (completely) attained, where ‘exemplify the relation between complexity, dynamics, stability and diversity’ is an outcome which is central in my opinion.
Key words – biology education | ecology | ecosystem | systems thinking | modelling | learning and teaching strategy | developmental research
Full reference
Westra, R.H.V. (2008). Learning and teaching ecosystem behaviour in secondary education – Systems thinking and modelling in authentic practices. Utrecht: Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (Series on Research in Science Education, 56) – 266 p. (including 9 p. summaries in English and Dutch) – ISBN 978-90-73346-62-8.URL: http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2008-0220-200526/UUindex.html
References
Westra, R.H.V., Boersma, K.Th., Savelsbergh, E.R. & Waarlo, A.J. (2005). Systems thinking in ecology education: Modelling ecosystems. In H.E. Fischer (Ed.), Developing Standards in Research on Science Education (pp. 235-240). London: Taylor & Francis.
Westra, R., Boersma, K., Waarlo, A.J. & Savelsbergh, E. (2007). Learning and teaching about ecosystems: Systems thinking and modelling in an authentic practice. In R. Pintó & D. Couso (Eds.), Contributions from Science Education Research (pp. 361-374). Dordrecht: Springer.
Westra, R., Boersma, K., Savelsbergh, E. & Waarlo, A.J. (2007). Views on ecosystems in research and school ecology. A comparative study. Paper presented at the ESERA Conference 2007, Malmö, Sweden, 21-25 August 2007.
Westra, R.H.V., Boersma, K.Th., Savelsbergh, E.R. & Waarlo, A.J. (2008). Towards understanding ecosystem behaviour through systems thinking and modelling. In Proceedings of the sixth Conference of European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (ERIDOB), London, UK, 11-15 September 2006 (in press).
Correspondence
Dr. René Westra
Petrus Canisius College, Blekerskade 11, 1814 CG Alkmaar
Email: r.westra@pcc.nu
