Using concept maps to evaluate preservice biology teachers’ conceptualization of COVID-19 as a complex phenomenon

Frontiers in Education

Education

Dirk Krüger¹  Johannes Jagemann¹  Orit Ben Zvi Assaraf²  Tom Bielik³  Moritz Krell⁴ 

[1] Department of Biology Didactics, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany;Department of Science and Technology Education, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel;Faculty of Education, Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba, Israel;IPN-Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany;

关键词: systems thinking (ST);    complexity;    concept map (CM);    COVID-19;    preservice biology teachers;   

DOI  :  10.3389/feduc.2023.1107000

 received in 2022-11-24, accepted in 2023-05-11,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic showed the critical importance of supporting teachers’ and students’ systems thinking when making sense of complex phenomena. This study sets to explore preservice biology teachers’ (PBTs) mental models of COVID-19 as complex phenomenon using concept maps.Methods27 PBTs concept maps of COVID-19 outbreak were collected and taken for analysis. Structural and complexity attributes were identified in participants’ concept maps and the relationships between them were tested, providing statistical analyses using exemplary concept maps.ResultsThe results suggest that the appearance of many concepts in a map (structural attribute) does not necessarily indicate high level of complexity, but rather the amount of simple structural relationships (complexity attribute). On the other hand, the results indicate that higher structural sophistication (e.g., high number of connections and junctions) could be associated with the complexity level of the map.DiscussionThis study provides a practical method for evaluating the complexity level of PBTs’ systems thinking, suggests a possible link between structural and complexity attributes in their concept maps, and demonstrates the need to further support PBTs in developing their systems thinking skills in the context of complex biological phenomena.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Bielik, Jagemann, Krell, Krüger and Ben Zvi Assaraf.