CHARACTERIZING JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS' AND THEIR STUDENTS' SYSTEMS THINKING SKILLS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE HUMAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM

The characteristics of biological systems are influenced by different components and interactions that occur at the different levels of organization. Thus, it is usually impossible to understand a biological phenomenon without understanding the components and processes that assemble it as a whole. The complexity of biological systems, combined with the conventional way of teaching them, which emphasizes the systems' components and generally avoids deeper discussions of the processes and relationships within systems, can lead students to difficulties developing their systems thinking skills. In the current study we examined the possible relations between the biology systems thinking skills of teachers and that of their students, in the context of the human transport system. Towards this end, we analyzed two case studies, each of which focused on one junior high school teacher and her students. In both cases the teachers used identical instructional materials. The study findings point out to a connection between the teacher's mental model about the human transport system and the change that takes place in the mental model of her students. The students of the teacher who tend to emphasize the biological levels of organization of the system, present significant improvement in their ability to connect between the various levels of organizational of the system. While the students of the teacher who tends to emphasize the dynamic relationships in the system, present significant improvement in their ability to identify dynamic relationships, and only a mild improvement in their ability to connect between various organizational levels.