• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.161-171
• /
• 2019

The purposes of this study are: 1) to verify the systems thinking factor structure of elementary school students and 2) to compare systems thinking according to their preferred subjects in order to get implications for following research. For the study, pre-tests analyze data from 732 elementary school students using the STMI (Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument) developed by Lee et al. (2013). And exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the factor structure of the students. Based on the results of the pre-test, the expert group council revised the STMI so that elementary school students could respond to the 5-factor structure that STMI intended. In the post-test, 503 data were analyzed by modified STMI and exploratory factor analysis was performed. The results of the study are as follows: First, in the pre-test, elementary school students responded to the STMI with a test paper consisting of two factors (personal internal factors and personal external factors). The total reliability of the instrument was .932 and the reliability of each factor was analyzed as .857 and .894. Second, for modified STMI, elementary school students responded a 4-factor instrument. Team learning, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery were derived independent factors, and mental model and systems analysis were derived 1-factor. The total reliability of the instrument was .886 and the reliability of each factor was analyzed as .686 to .864. Finally, a comparison of systems thinking according to preferred subjects showed a significant difference between students who selected science (engineering) group and art (music and physical education). In conclusion, it was confirmed that statistically meaningful results could be obtained using STMI modified by term and sentence structure appropriate for elementary school students, and it is a necessary to study the relation of systems thinking with various student variables such as the preferred subjects.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.318-330
• /
• 2023

This study aimed to verify the validity of a measurement tool for Vietnamese high school students' systems thinking abilities. Two quantitative assessment tools, the Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Lee et al., 2013) and the Systems Thinking Scale (Dolansky et al., 2020), were used to measure students' systems thinking after translation into Vietnamese. As a result, it was revealed that Cronbach-α for each tool (i.e., STMI and STS) was .917 and .950, respectively, indicating high reliability for both. To validate the construct validity of the translated questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS 21.0. For concurrent validity, correlation analysis using structural equation modeling was performed to validate the translated questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS loaded on the intended factors and appropriate factor loading values were obtained. For confirmatory factor analysis, a structural equation model organized with 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS was used. The result of this showed that the convergent validity values of the model were all appropriate, and the model fit indices were analyzed to be χ²/df of 1.892, CFI of .928, TLI of .919, SRMR of .047, and RMSEA of .063, indicating that the model consisting of the 22 items of the two questionnaires was appropriate. Analysis of the concurrent validity of the two tools indicated a high correlation coefficient (.903) and high correlation (.571-.846) among the subfactors. In conclusion, both the STMI and STS are valid quantitative measures of systems thinking, and it can be inferred that the systems thinking of Vietnamese high-school students can be quantitatively measured using the 22 items identified in our analysis. Using the tool validated in this study with other tools (e.g., qualitative assessment) can help accurately measure Vietnamese high school students' systems thinking abilities. Furthermore, these tools can be used to collect evidence and support effective education in ODA projects and volunteer programs.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.45 no.2
• /
• pp.157-171
• /
• 2024

The purposes of this study were: (1) to revalidate the revised Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Re_STMI) reported by Lee et al. (2024) among Vietnamese high school students and (2) to investigate the differences in systems thinking abilities between Korean and Vietnamese high school students. To achieve this, data from 234 Vietnamese high school students who responded to translated Re_STMI consisting of 20 items and an Scale consisting of 20 items were used. Validity analysis was conducted through item response analysis (Item Reliability, Item Map, Infit and Outfit MNSQ, DIF between male and female) and exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis using Promax). Furthermore, structural equation modeling was employed with data from 475 Korean high school students to verify the latent mean analysis. The results were as follows: First, in the item response analysis of the 20 translated Re_STMI items in Vietnamese, the Item Reliability was .97, and the Infit MNSQ ranged from .67 to 1.38. The results from the Item Map and DIF analysis align with previous findings. In the exploratory factor analysis, all items were loaded onto intended sub-factors, with sub-factor reliabilities ranging from .662 to .833 and total reliability at .876. Confirmatory factor analysis for latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students yielded acceptable model fit indices (χ²/df: 2.830, CFI: .931, TLI: .918, SRMR: .043, RMSEA: .051). Lastly, the latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students revealed a small effect size in systems analysis, mental models, team learning, and shared vision factors, whereas a medium effect size was observed in personal mastery factors, with Vietnamese high school students showing significantly higher results in systems thinking. This study confirmed the reliability and validity of the Re_STMI items. Furthermore, international comparative studies on systems thinking using Re_STMI translated into Vietnamese, English, and other languages are warranted in the context of students' systems thinking analysis.