IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i5p1478-d212689.html

Systems Thinking Skills of Preschool Children in Early Childhood Education Contexts from Turkey and Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Şebnem Feriver

    (Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06800, Turkey)

  • Refika Olgan

    (Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06800, Turkey)

  • Gaye Teksöz

    (Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara 06800, Turkey)

  • Matthias Barth

    (Institute of Integrative Studies, Leuphana University, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany)

Abstract

This study presents an attempt to contribute to the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by conceptualizing systems thinking skills of four- to six-year-old preschool children with the role of age in this particular skill. For this purpose, we developed and tested a method and instruments to assess and conceptualize systems thinking skills of 52 preschool children in early childhood education contexts from Turkey and Germany. By employing qualitative case study research, we concluded that the young children showed some signs of complex understanding regarding systems thinking in terms of detecting obvious gradual changes and two-step domino and/or multiple one-way causalities, as well as describing behavior of a balancing loop. However, their capacity was found to be limited when it comes to detecting a reinforcing loop, understanding system mechanisms by acknowledging the unintended consequences, detecting hidden components and processes, demonstrating multi-dimensional perspective, solving problems through high-leverage interventions, and predicting the future behavior of the system. Age had a notable effect on the total systems thinking mean scores of the participants.

Suggested Citation

  • Şebnem Feriver & Refika Olgan & Gaye Teksöz & Matthias Barth, 2019. "Systems Thinking Skills of Preschool Children in Early Childhood Education Contexts from Turkey and Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1478-:d:212689
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1478/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1478/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amanda Weeks & Hal Swerissen & John Belfrage, 2007. "Issues, Challenges, and Solutions in Translating Study Instruments," Evaluation Review, , vol. 31(2), pages 153-165, April.
    2. Maria Hofman, 2015. "What is an Education for Sustainable Development Supposed to Achieve— A Question of What, How and Why," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 9(2), pages 213-228, September.
    3. David Griggs & Mark Stafford-Smith & Owen Gaffney & Johan Rockström & Marcus C. Öhman & Priya Shyamsundar & Will Steffen & Gisbert Glaser & Norichika Kanie & Ian Noble, 2013. "Sustainable development goals for people and planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 495(7441), pages 305-307, March.
    4. Sterman, John., 1994. "Learning in and about complex systems," Working papers 3660-94., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brina Kurent & Stanislav Avsec, 2023. "Systems Thinking Skills and the ICT Self-Concept in Preschool Teachers for Sustainable Curriculum Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-28, October.
    2. Eva-Maria Waltner & Werner Rieß & Christoph Mischo, 2019. "Development and Validation of an Instrument for Measuring Student Sustainability Competencies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-20, March.
    3. Brina Kurent & Stanislav Avsec, 2024. "Synergizing Systems Thinking and Technology-Enhanced Learning for Sustainable Education Using the Flow Theory Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-42, October.
    4. Şebnem Feriver & Refika Olgan & Gaye Teksöz & Matthias Barth, 2022. "Impact of early childhood education settings on the systems thinking skills of preschool children through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's theory," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 85-103, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lu, Jinfeng & Dimov, Dimo, 2023. "A system dynamics modelling of entrepreneurship and growth within firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(3).
    2. Day Yang Liu & Wen Chun Tsai & Pei Leen Liu & Chung Yi Fang, 2021. "Determinants of sales revenue in innovation diffusion effects of Taiwan sports lottery during the FIFA World Cup 2018," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(4), pages 43-58, June.
    3. Hazhir Rahmandad & Nelson Repenning, 2016. "Capability erosion dynamics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 649-672, April.
    4. Ingrid Boas & Frank Biermann & Norichika Kanie, 2016. "Cross-sectoral strategies in global sustainability governance: towards a nexus approach," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 449-464, June.
    5. Katarzyna Tworek & Katarzyna Walecka-Jankowska & Anna Zgrzywa-Ziemak, 2019. "The role of information systems in shaping integrative logic for business sustainability," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 29(4), pages 125-146.
    6. Martinico-Perez, Marianne Faith G. & Schandl, Heinz & Fishman, Tomer & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2018. "The Socio-Economic Metabolism of an Emerging Economy: Monitoring Progress of Decoupling of Economic Growth and Environmental Pressures in the Philippines," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 155-166.
    7. Vincenzo Formisano & Bernardino Quattrociocchi & Maria Fedele & Mario Calabrese, 2018. "From Viability to Sustainability: The Contribution of the Viable Systems Approach (VSA)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    8. Valentina Minutiello & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Michael Murgolo, 2026. "Small but Impactful: The Growing Role of SMES in Sustainability and ESG Reporting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 925-940, January.
    9. Zhijiang Li & Decai Tang & Mang Han & Brandon J. Bethel, 2018. "Comprehensive Evaluation of Regional Sustainable Development Based on Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, October.
    10. Steve O’Hern & Roni Utriainen & Hanne Tiikkaja & Markus Pöllänen & Niina Sihvola, 2021. "Exploratory Analysis of Pedestrian Road Trauma in Finland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-14, June.
    11. Carmen Ruiz-Puente & Daniel Jato-Espino, 2020. "Systemic Analysis of the Contributions of Co-Located Industrial Symbiosis to Achieve Sustainable Development in an Industrial Park in Northern Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-28, July.
    12. Meri Duryan & Dragan Nikolik & Godefridus Merode & Leopold M. G. Curfs, 2015. "Reflecting on the efficacy of cognitive mapping for decision-making in intellectual disability care: a case study," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 127-144, April.
    13. Cechvala, Sarah, 2024. "Systems thinking for management practitioners and scholars: Strengthening the tools to analyze “wicked problems”," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 783-795.
    14. Rositsa T. Ilieva, 2017. "Urban Food Systems Strategies: A Promising Tool for Implementing the SDGs in Practice †," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-35, September.
    15. Giorgio Mion & Angela Broglia & Angelo Bonfanti, 2019. "Do Codes of Ethics Reveal a University’s Commitment to Sustainable Development? Evidence from Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Arnaud Z. Dragicevic, 2026. "Deconstructing (De)growth," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S1), pages 783-792, January.
    17. Xiaoli Zhao & Pavel Castka & Cory Searcy, 2020. "ISO Standards: A Platform for Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.
    18. Shizuki Fukuda & Michio Murakami & Keigo Noda & Taikan Oki, 2016. "How Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Increases Subjective Well-Being in Developing Nations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-19, February.
    19. Sarah Cechvala & Brian Ganson, 2024. "Systems Perspectives on Business and Peace: The Contingent Nature of Business-Related Action with Respect to Peace Positive Impacts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 523-544, October.
    20. Marco Filippo Torchio & Umberto Lucia & Giulia Grisolia, 2020. "Economic and Human Features for Energy and Environmental Indicators: A Tool to Assess Countries’ Progress towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-19, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:5:p:1478-:d:212689. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.