Effects of an Educational Scenario Exercise on Participants' Competencies of Systemic Thinking

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

Problem statement: Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims to shape key competencies of individuals and therefore needs methods to enable learners to acquire these competencies. Systemic thinking can be regarded as a meta-competency in ESD, because it contains many important aspects found in most key competencies of ESD. Scenario analysis is described as a learning environment that fosters the acquisition of systemic thinking and other important competencies, but empirical proof of this assumption is rarely found in the literature. This article presents such an empirical study and develops a specific instrument to investigate the effects on participants' competencies taking part in ESD seminars in which scenario analysis was used as methodology. Approach: A study was conducted of four educational seminars, using a pre/post design with two treatment groups which took part in a scenario analysis seminar and two control groups. Altogether 72 university students from different disciplines (semesters 1-6) were involved. In a questionnaire, constructs like domain specific knowledge and the perception of the future as well as systemic thinking were operationalized quantitatively in order to achieve a practicable and quick measurement. Similarity Judgement Rating was used to elicit participants' knowledge structures about climate change in order to gain concept-maps for comparison with reference models. Paired t-test, mean values, factor and cluster analysis and correlation were used. Results: No significant changes in the structural knowledge, perception and formal knowledge of the groups could be observed although some developments were noted, e.g. in the perception of the future. The fact that treatment groups showed little advancement in factual knowledge could be read as a hint that generally only weak (measurable) effects had taken place. Conclusion: Some indications were found that the measurement instrument works in principle, but that its application in the thematic domain of climate change seems to be problematic due to a relatively high level of general knowledge and systemic interrelations of concepts (of climate change) that cannot be precisely described. The hypothesis of educational effects of participation was not confuted but should be investigated in a different thematic context.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftJournal of Social Science
Jahrgang7
Ausgabenummer1
Seiten (von - bis)51-62
Anzahl der Seiten11
ISSN1549-3652
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 2011

Dokumente

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Die Nihilisierung des Nihilismus - Alfred Seidel (1895-1924)
  2. Verwaltungsrecht
  3. Magnesium melt protection
  4. Using social media photos to explore the relation between cultural ecosystem services and landscape features across five European sites
  5. Kinderflohmärkte
  6. Click Here to Shop Now!
  7. O-Ton Oberstufe
  8. Karl Mays "Weihnacht!"
  9. Architektur Campus Leuphana
  10. Zeit-los im Studio?
  11. Do Serious Breaches Give Rise to Any Specific Obligations of the Responsible State?
  12. Markets
  13. Traits of dominant plant species drive normalized difference vegetation index in grasslands globally
  14. Anspruch und Wirklichkeit
  15. Governing new European democracies
  16. Affect is King
  17. Neustrukturierung des Mittleren Freihafens zum Central Terminal Steinwerder (CTS)
  18. Unterstützung des Nachhaltigkeitsmanagements durch Unternehmensarchitekturmanagement
  19. Party, Coalition, Premiership
  20. Diversitätsbezogene Einstellungen von Lehramtsstudierenden
  21. Der Regierungsentwurf für ein Abschlussprüfungsreformgesetz (AReG)
  22. "Lehren" über Nachhaltigkeit und Naturschutz
  23. Die Berufsbetreuung
  24. The effects of training on employee suggestions and promotions in an internal labor market
  25. Die Angst vor Migranten. Gefühle als Modus des politischen Denkens
  26. Weichenstellung Kohlekonsens
  27. Unfreiwillig mit Schmitt
  28. Akteur – Individuum – Subjekt
  29. Wachstumsdeterminanten junger Unternehmen
  30. Recycling of magnesium drive train components
  31. Prozessanalytische Modellierung von Wissenskommunikation in chat-basiertem CSCL
  32. Export und Import im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe
  33. Loi et jugement‘ de Carl Schmitt
  34. Kann man Entrepreneurship an Universitäten lernen?
  35. Fakt, Fake und Fiktion
  36. Eckpunkte zu einem Rahmencurriculum
  37. Briefe : 1932 - 1992 / Golo Mann
  38. Anlassbezogene Sekundärmarktpublizität und soziale Netzwerke in Deutschland und den USA
  39. Productivity and international firm activities
  40. Tod und Hospizarbeit
  41. Die Energiewende in Deutschland
  42. Karl Mays "Winnetou"
  43. The artistic spirit of cities
  44. Grammes, Tilmann; Schluß, Henning; Vogler, Hans-Joachim: Staatsbürgerkunde in der DDR: Ein Dokumentenband. Wiesbaden (VS Verlag) 2006
  45. Tim und Struppi im „Land der Philosophen“
  46. Datengetriebene Agilität
  47. I Need A Dollar
  48. Innovation Contests for Sustainability-Oriented Product Innovation