Commentary Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Connecting Systems Thinking and Service Learning in the Chemistry Classroom Grace A. Lasker*
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School of Nursing & Health Studies, University of Washington Bothell, Bothell, Washington 98011, United States ABSTRACT: Systems thinking has been employed by many disciplines and agencies to address a diversity of needs from technical manufacturing objectives to global health interventions. Chemistry plays a significant role in most of these systems, but there are few resources available to chemistry faculty to help introduce systems thinking processes and models into their programs or classrooms. High-impact practices, such as service learning, are validated pedagogies and programs that have been shown to have the greatest influence on student learning outcomes, skill building, and retention and graduation rates. By incorporating service learning projects into the chemistry classroom, faculty can link systems thinking objectives to service learning projects to help students achieve higher-order visioning around their role as chemists in systems and communities. This commentary suggests using interdisciplinary teams of students around campus- or community-based service learning projects to help chemistry students recognize the impacts of their discipline on larger, complex systems while also helping them realize their potential to make positive change as individuals within these systems. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Public Understanding/Outreach, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Inquiry-Based/Discovery Learning, Constructivism, Green Chemistry, Student-Centered Learning, Systems Thinking, Sustainability
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INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEMS THINKING Systems thinking has been described as a “common language and framework” that addresses complex needs within complex systems to allow teams to work globally around these needs.1 Arnold and Wade later framed this concept as a “system of thinking about systems” and found some commonality between the many definitions of systems thinking.1 Today, a search on “systems thinking” reveals countless frameworks, concepts, tools, and connections between ideas and definitions, both specific within and general to disciplines of research and application. By contrast, few works are available that detail strategies for integrating systems thinking into chemistry education. Nevertheless, chemistry educational programs and chemistry students/graduates are clearly integral pieces within larger systems with global impacts. These larger systems are described by systems thinking approaches, and whereas Arnold and Wade summarized common elements of systems thinking to include “interconnections, the understanding of dynamic behavior, systems structure as a cause of that behavior, and the idea of seeing systems as wholes rather than parts”,1 others define their “systems thinking essential concepts” differently. For example, Acaroglu considers interconnectedness, synthesis, emergence, feedback loops, causality, and systems mapping as key to thinking and designing at a systems level.2 For a new faculty member developing a chemistry course or project using a systems thinking approach, the development process may prove difficult. Which tools should be used? Which framework is best? How are core content and systems thinking processes and tools simultaneously taught and managed in a quarter or semester? Reducing these barriers for integrating systems thinking into the chemistry classroom is important because research shows that students realize cognitive and social benefits from this integration through higher-order inquiry and © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
critical thinking, problem-solving, and the ability to connect social and science systems together using a constructivist approach3−7 This paper proposes a process for conceptualizing and implementing systems thinking into the chemistry classroom by pairing high-impact practices (HIPs) with systems thinking activities in order to increase student success multifold and help students recognize their role as chemists in complex systems.
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HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES IN EDUCATION There are 11 beneficial practices that have been tested and validated for students in higher education settings:8 • First-Year Experiences • Common Intellectual Experiences • Learning Communities • Writing-Intensive Courses • Collaborative Assignments and Projects • Undergraduate Research • Diversity/Global Learning • ePortfolios • Service Learning and Community-Based Learning • Internships • Capstone Courses and Projects A search for “high-impact practices in STEM” reveals numerous publications that largely center on “undergraduate Special Issue: Reimagining Chemistry Education: Systems Thinking, and Green and Sustainable Chemistry Received: April 8, 2019 Revised: May 30, 2019
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00344 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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chemistry honors course and found through qualitative analysis of reflective journals that students repeated six themes 1,223 times across 81 reflections that centered on “(1) social awareness; (2) civic responsibility; (3) challenging beliefs; (4) enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills; (5) personal growth; and (6) evaluating the service-learning experience”.36 These social, civic, and personal growth and awareness outcomes reveal the impact of SL in chemistry, which can translate into advocacy and action beyond. SL projects and community-engaged research oftentimes reveal significant systems-level issues, impacts, and communitylevel needs to students as they work within and together with communities. When SL is leveraged as a key foundation for designing and implementing a systems thinking approach to chemistry, students benefit not only from being challenged to think interdisciplinarily while working within inquiry-based and problem-solving frameworks in ways that increase scientific learning and critical thinking skills37−41 but also from being challenged to consider broader systems-level inputs and the role of chemistry in addressing larger-order problems while enhancing their roles as global citizens.20,42
research” as the primary HIP associated with STEM programs. Since HIPs are validated pedagogical models that have been shown to increase student skills and deeper insight into communities and systems, using HIPs as the foundation for building systems thinking curriculum equates to higher-order student learning potential. Whereas undergraduate research may be an easier way to conceptualize the addition of systems thinking into the chemistry curriculum, it may not be the most impactful HIP on which to focus. A broader approach that challenges students to think outside of chemistry and into cross-connecting interdisciplinary systems such as economics, health, business, policy, manufacturing, and community has the potential to impact students more deeply. Connecting students with communities leverages the service learning (SL) HIP to help students conceptualize the role of communities in leveraging the resources and partnerships required to collectively address systems-level issues. The experience can lead to an increase in students’ leadership abilities,9 civic and social justice responsibility,10−13 critical thinking,14 actionbased knowledge,15 and ability to develop culturally tailored interventions and competencies.16,17 By connecting SL with systems thinking, students are challenged to think about their greater place in complex global systems and to “think about how chemistry may be used to provide services and functions to other sciences and end-uses as opposed to being an end all to itself to advance the science of chemistry”.18
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SYSTEMS THINKING AND SERVICE LEARNING TOGETHER IN THE CHEMISTRY CLASSROOM Chemistry is inherently submicroscopic, and it can be challenging for students to see the greater impact of molecules and chemical reactions beyond the beaker. Learning objectives in chemistry courses and programs generally lack “strategies that move beyond understanding isolated chemical reactions and processes to envelop systems thinking”.42 Broadening chemistry into larger systems and greater applications can help students recognize how chemicals have significant impacts on life. Integrating SL into a course or project to help advance a student’s understanding of this broader impact may be intimidating, but considering the college campus as a community and focusing on the needs of fellow students and campus spaces is an impactful way to transition courses or projects. Having students conduct a needs assessment as the first part of a course-long project, for example, can identify issues within the college community that can be tied back to the content and focus of a particular chemistry course. Interdisciplinary student teams provide an even greater learning experience with beneficial outcomes for all. Public health, global health, environmental science, engineering, sociology, business, and education departments, for example, pair well with chemistry in order to address systems-level issues or concerns. For example, students might employ a survey about clean air on campus. As issues emerge as potential threats from the survey, interdisciplinary teams of students can develop a systems thinking approach to impacting (or describing) the issue that investigates all related components (e.g., secondhand smoke concerns, new construction and chemicals, off-campus pollution affecting campus, etc.). Framing the project or course from a systems thinking approach allows SL and systems thinking to come together as pedagogical partners in supporting students. As another example, students may be introduced to a molecule such as carbon tetrachloride in the laboratory but in the classroom learn how cytochrome P450 transforms it to a trichloromethyl radical that reacts with cell membranes and causes cellular damage.43 Students can learn about redox reactions but then apply that knowledge to cellular
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SERVICE LEARNING AS A HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICE Service learning is a teaching strategy that intentionally engages students into communities through service activities in order to describe or address a “real-world” need or issue to directly serve that community.19 According to Bringle and Hatcher, students “reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility”.20 SL as a HIP has been researched and validated for decades across multiple institutions and disciplines of study. Strong relationships between SL and multiple outcomes have been demonstrated, most notably by a seminal longitudinal study by Astin and Sax that surveyed 3,450 incoming freshmen across 42 U.S. educational institutions to determine what impact SL had on student outcomes.21 They found that when controlling for other factors related to a student’s inclination for service learning, religion, leadership, gender, etc., SL increased academic success, life-skills development, and a sense of civic duty. SL helps students meet academic goals and allows students to gain skills in reflection, teamwork, and collaboration.22 Additionally, Gillis and MacLellan suggested that when SL is presented with a critical pedagogy lens, students and communities can investigate deeper root issues and causes in structural oppression, inequity, and ethical issues.23 Incorporating SL into the classroom supports students as they find their relevance and purpose as chemists while also supporting retention, student satisfaction, performance, and persistence,10,24−26 among other important indicators of student success. SL has also been shown to increase skills in teaching and communicating scientific concepts27−29 and in developing technical and analytical skills.30−32 When an SL option is added to a chemistry course, it provides the opportunity for students to reflect on their purpose and place in communities33 and deepen cultural understanding, knowledge, and humility.34,35 For example, Sewry and Paphitis integrated SL into a B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00344 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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around implementing more climate-friendly practices and products, asking community members to participate in an art exhibit around climate change and analyzing their responses to the exhibit, teaching a class to children about how to reduce energy usage, or designing an eco-friendly product that reduces pollution or energy-use impacts and testing the product with community members. Using a systems thinking approach additionally helps students deconstruct reductionist points of view that are pervasive in media and politics47 and helps “decode complexity, allowing possible consequences of decisions to be simulated and examined”.48 It allows faculty to introduce concepts such as the precautionary principle as the what, social and environmental justice as the why, and green chemistry as the how. Rather than become overwhelmed by the complexity of the systems (which become even more complicated when students are introduced to systems of oppression, racism, ableism, and others as confounding systems of change), students can see the role that chemistry (and they as global citizens) can have as change agents in describing and addressing complex concerns.36,42
impacts and then recognize broader implications for health, medical, and environmental systems. An SL project in this topic area might include survey or focus-group work that engages dry-cleaning workers who are at risk for exposure or an occupational health and safety event for workers around this and other harmful potential chemical exposures in the workplace. SL engages students with the idea that community-level impacts can be linked to the smallest of molecules.44 Students can describe those impacts and design mitigation plans to reduce those impacts by applying systems thinking processes and tools. Beyond just recognizing the impact that chemicals have on a global systems level, students must be able to use systems thinking tools and approaches to qualify these connections through a stepwise process. For the first step, students must understand and describe the system using tools such as concept mapping, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, social network analysis, causal loop diagrams, timelines, trends, rich pictures, etc.45 The second step involves dialogue and collaboration. Students should be challenged to think about who the impacted stakeholders are and participate in networking within the community in order to build relationships and engage in planning. Social media, town hall meetings, small group dialogue, informal conversations, and other networking methods are all tools to support this second step.45 These first two steps both use tools that are also common in SL, so students can see the commonality of these two activities during projects that employ these initial steps. The third step involves codesigning solutions for identified needs. For this step, students can be introduced to the five stages of Design Thinking (Empathize, Define the Problem, Ideate, Prototype, and Test) or other models such as problem structuring methods (PSMs), scenario development, conceptual models, (participatory) system dynamic modeling and simulation, etc., as appropriate for the scope of the project and the level of the student.45 The final step involves assessing the outcome/product and making adaptations as needed. Grounding the process in a theory such as Theory of Change helps students learn how to bridge theory to application. Theory of Change is a great framework to use because “each stepfrom the ideas behind it, to the outcomes it hopes to provide, to the resources neededare clearly defined within the theory”.46 Reflective practice is also an important part of both SL and systems thinking that helps students meet more complex learning objectives as part of the experience.45 For some courses or projects, students may be expected to work only within step one or two, but in higher-level capstone experiences or upper-level courses students may be challenged to apply aspects of step three and/or four within the scope of their work. Another way to situate SL and systems thinking is by investigating global sustainability issues such as climate change. The complexity of tackling climate change is no doubt beyond the scope of all of us individually. But drilling more deeply into the systems that impact the issues and the outcomes of changes within the systems allows students to see not only that the web of complexity is actually definable but also that they have a place in the system as chemists and individuals. SL projects for climate change-related impacts might include doing a windshield survey where students drive through and document green spaces in urban settings, completing a focus group survey with various organizations to determine barriers
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CONCLUSION High-impact practices have been validated as a means to assist students in gaining valuable skills in higher education settings. Service learning as one of these practices has been associated with increased academic success, life-skills development, sense of civic duty, student satisfaction, performance and persistence, skills in teaching and communicating scientific concepts, and technical and analytical skills. When service learning is employed in the classroom, students are connected with communities to identify and address a real-world issue or provide support to impacted communities. Sometimes these issues are a part of a complex network of systems-level impacts. Linking systems thinking with service learning in chemistry classrooms provides a framework for students to tackle higherorder problem solving at the systems level while also encouraging interdisciplinary partnerships as key. Four steps of systems thinking (understanding the system, introducing dialogue and collaboration in codesigning solutions, assessing the outcome/product, and making adaptations as needed) can be integrated into a campus- or community-based service learning project for chemistry students that ensures not only important skills building and other benefits of high-impact practices but the opportunity for students to see their place in complex systems as chemists and recognize their ability to make positive impacts within these global systems.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Grace A. Lasker: 0000-0001-5848-5547 Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00344 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
