Abstract for: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Systems Thinking Course for Teachers in an M.A. Program in Learning Sciences

The aim of this study is to design a curriculum based on the systems thinking approach for M.A. students in Learning Sciences program in a university, to apply the program and to investigate the effect of the program on problem solving skills of M.A students. The single group experimental design with pre-post test is applied in this research. The study was applied with 12 M.A. students, also working as a teacher, in Learning Sciences program in Istanbul / Turkey. Teachers have experience in different branches from preschool to secondary school. Within the scope of the research, an intensive curriculum of 42 hours of systems thinking was designed for the learners. The effect of the systems thinking curriculum was evaluated using the scale of problem construction and problem solving. The test is applied before and after the systems thinking course. Problem construction and problem solving pretest and posttest data were evaluated in 7 criteria: the quality and quantity of the problem, the rate of analysis, the depth of the analysis, the width of the analysis, the established relationship, the number of cycles, the use of ST (systems thinking) tools. The results of the research show that the teachers who received systems thinking training caused a significant change in problem construction and problem solving skills.