Abstract for: Exploring undergraduates’ ability to apply systems thinking and transferability skills via causal loop diagrams

This study investigated the extent to which undergraduates can model a scenario on global warming from a systems thinking perspective after completing a course on systems thinking on energy systems. The scenario was different from the ones they have been exposed to in the course, and we were interested to see whether they could transfer their learning to a different context. It entailed the construction of causal loop diagrams (CLD), a diagrammatic tool that has hardly been used in the science education literature. The scenario sketched straddles the natural sciences. The CLDs were constructed using Vensim PLE, a modelling software program freely available on the web. It was found that the students’ ability to apply systems thinking in the different context can be categorized into five levels, ranging from incorrect to correct. Findings indicate that, overall, 75% of the sample exhibited predominant ability to transfer systems thinking to the different context. The contributions of this study to the literature are mainly in the exploration of systems thinking ability of a multi-disciplinary cohort of students on a scientific phenomenon; and assessing systems thinking skills of students based on how they can transfer it to a context that is not part of the course.