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

Forschende

  1. Achatz Müller

Publikationen

  1. Integrated Reporting zwingt die Unternehmen zu einer konsequenten Reorganisation der Berichtsstrukturen
  2. O-Ton Oberstufe
  3. Enhancement of cellular immune response to a prostate cancer DNA vaccine by intradermal electroporation.
  4. Was ist Kritik im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung?
  5. § 33
  6. Die Unbegreiflichkeit des Reiches Gottes
  7. Wohlfahrtsverluste durch Steuern
  8. "Wir sind immer noch sprachlos"
  9. Karl Mays "Weihnacht!"
  10. Powder Metallurgically Manufactured Metal Matrix Composites
  11. Workshop "Hochschulmanagement"
  12. We Are the Art, Whoever We Are
  13. Zu Gast in einem fremden Haus
  14. § 290 Verzinsung des Wertersatzes
  15. Das erschriebene Leben des "verhinderten Romanschriftstellers"
  16. Gegen\Dokumentation
  17. Der Regierungsentwurf für ein Abschlussprüfungsreformgesetz (AReG)
  18. What about coal? Interactions between climate policies and the global steam coal market until 2030
  19. "Lehren" über Nachhaltigkeit und Naturschutz
  20. "Sie und Er" interdisziplinär, hrsg.von U. Krebs; J. Forster
  21. Brauchen wir eine Regelung zur Kooperationspflicht in der VOB/B?
  22. Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekte als diskursive Arenen
  23. Unfreiwillig mit Schmitt
  24. Prozessanalytische Modellierung von Wissenskommunikation in chat-basiertem CSCL
  25. Von Liebhaberei und wirtschaftlichem Nutzen
  26. Kann man Entrepreneurship an Universitäten lernen?
  27. Textüberarbeitungsprozesse durch Randkommentare initiieren
  28. Religion als performative Praxis im Jugendalter
  29. Künstliche Intelligenz und der Sinn von Pädagogik
  30. Handbook on life cycle sustainability assessment
  31. Do works councils inhibit investment?
  32. Ordnungsverantwortung in Demokratie und Marktwirtschaft
  33. Zuhören gestalten
  34. Karl Mays "Winnetou"
  35. Wirtschaftswissenschaften
  36. New frontiers in arts sociology
  37. The Performance of Foreign Affiliates in German Manufacturing: Evidence from a new Database
  38. Formen der Beschäftigung