A Study on the Abilities and Characteristics of the Systems Thinking for Pre-service Elementary Teachers

예비초등교사들의 시스템사고 능력 및 특성에 대한 연구

This study focused on the analysis of the abilities and characteristics of the systems thinking for pre-service elementary teachers. Systems thinking is defined as the ability to see the world as a complex system in which one understands that everything is connected to everything else. For this study, 345 subjects carrying of the 2nd grade were selected and participated in making out the protocol developed by Sweeney and Sterman(2000) for the estimating ability of the systems thinking. As a result, the proportion of the correct answers based on the total points of view was 63%. However, the proportion of correct answer was considerably different according to the gender. The women group showed 53%, while the men group was 76%. Especially, there was a great difference in the rates of correct answer depending on their academic tracks of the humanities or natural science courses in the high school. The average rates of the correct answers for the natural science and the human science were 84 and 46%, respectively. Consequently, the ability of the systems thinking for pre-service elementary teachers is highly related with their gender and learning experience in the high school. The results of this study may contribute the practical use of the systems thinking in the area of the science education.