ERIC Number: EJ1265056
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1305-8223
EISSN: N/A
Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries
Hokayem, Hayat; Jin, Hui; Yamaguchi, Etsuji
EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, v16 n2 Article em1819 2020
Feedback loop reasoning is an important stepping-stone toward systems thinking. To date, studies on feedback loop reasoning in ecology have focused on college students, while only a limited effort has been made to investigate a more general systems thinking of students at the lower elementary level. The goal of this study is to investigate how elementary students reason about feedback loop relationships among interdependent organisms (predator-prey), and address the knowledge sources of students as part of context of reasoning about this topic. This study was conducted in three countries, with 128 first through fourth grader participants from Japan, Lebanon, and the United States. These students participated in semi-structured clinical interviews focusing on the predator-and-prey relationships. We found that the majority of students used one-way causal reasoning, and only a few students reasoned using two-way causality with multiple feedback loops in the predator-prey relationship.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Thinking Skills, Feedback (Response), Learning Processes, Ecology, Children, Information Sources, Foreign Countries, Cultural Context, Scientific Concepts, Misconceptions
Modestum. No: 1 Windrush Road, Hilton Derbyshire, DE65 5LB, UK. e-mail: ejmste@ejmste.com; Web site: https://www.ejmste.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan; Lebanon; Michigan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A