Developing a learning progression for water in socio-ecological systems

Background/Question/Methods

Changes in student thinking can be described as the process of learning a new way of viewing and interacting with the world. Gee (1991) labels ways of viewing the world Discourses, which include the ways of talking, thinking, and acting that link people to socially meaningful groups. Embedded within Discourses are practices and knowledge from which people draw when engaging in various roles in their lives. Science education seeks to help students develop a science-based Discourse that is characterized by viewing the material world in terms of connected systems in which processes are constrained by principles such as conservation of matter and energy. Learning progressions describe student learning of new, scientific Discourses based around scientific concepts such as the water cycle. Learning progressions can inform development of science curriculum, instruction, and assessment to support students in developing scientific views of the world. Here we present a learning progression for water and substances in water in socio-ecological systems.

Results/Conclusions

Assessments of student thinking on the water cycle reveal patterns in students’ thought processes as they progress through school.  Results show that student views about water in environmental systems are distinctly different from scientific understandings of water in environmental systems. Students’ thinking is characterized as force-dynamic in nature. Force-dynamic thinkers view the world as a stage where actors have abilities to make things happen. An example of this view would be water as part of the background landscape, where water is an “enabler” or a necessity of life for the actors including humans, plants, and animals. Data show that by the time students graduate from high school, few successfully develop scientific, model-based views of the world. Challenges students face in moving from force-dynamic to model-based Discourses include developing awareness of hidden and invisible components of connected systems, identifying and considering mechanisms and variables that constrain pathways of water and substances in water moving through connected systems, and learning to use representations such as maps and diagrams to reason about water in socio-ecological systems.