생태계의 단계적 외적표상화 과정에서 나타난 고등학생들의 시스템사고 발달

This study aims to investigate the system thinking development of high school students through their construction of external representations of an ecosystem. Thirty-five eleventh grade students carried out a step-bystep task designed to facilitate their system thinking by constructing external representations. The study shows that the task helped the students to develop their system thinking. First, the students were encouraged to focus on the critical factors of an ecosystem through co-reflection of their representations. Second, this heightened focus allowed the students to consider various elements of the system at the micro-level. Third, as the students organized the relationship between various elements through their drawings, they began to comprehend relatedness among the elements. Lastly, as the students continued to re-position the structure and relationship of the system, they got to recognize the cyclic aspect of the complex system. The process of constructing external representations facilitated students’ reflection on their thinking by visualizing the relationships of the elements and minimizing their cognitive load. External representations were utilized as cognitive tools for system thinking and contributed to the ability of the students to think. However, lack of related ecological knowledge seemed to constrain students from applying their system thinking to other contexts. Some strategies to facilitate the students’ system thinking were discussed.