Abstract for: The Perceptions Of Teachers On Using The Systems Thinking Approach In In-class Applications

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the teachers using the Systems Thinking Approach in in-class applications. Systems Thinking in Education training are organized by the Systems Thinking Association in Turkey. 480 teachers were trained between 2014-2019. The study group of the research constituted thirty-one teachers who replied to the questionnaire sent to fifty teachers who are known to be using this approach. In the study, the critical incident technique which is one of the qualitative research methods was used. In the research, teachers’ perceptions were studied by sub-problems such as what were the situations in which they thought that System Thinking practices were successful, concepts that were placed in the students' discourse about System Thinking and what habits they had acquired, and situations in which System Thinking applications fail.Content analysis showed that “graphs” was the most frequently used term. The most referred to categories were graphs, stock-flow and loops. The perceptions about stock-flow, using the Systems Thinking approach in daily life, problem solving, making thinking visible, seeing the bigger picture, having different points of view were observed to be positive. The negative perceptions about loops and the teacher competency were more dominant than positive.