This contribution presents three lesson activities for lower secondary education that were developed to teach system thinking in concert with subject matter. The pedagogical approach is described, leading to a practical design philosophy for lesson activities using qualitative representations. These …

In this paper, we discuss the pedagogical approach of two lessons that are aimed at learning domain knowledge and systems thinking simultaneously using qualitative representations. Next to understanding basic cause-effect relationships, these lessons focus on the notion that systems can move through …

Systems thinking is a complex skill for learners in secondary education. We argue that qualitative representations can be valuable tools to actively engage in learning this skill. However, the effectiveness of these tools is currently hampered by complexity and the lack of instructional embedding. In …

Having learners (K7–10) acquire system thinking skills is challenging. Together with teachers we deploy qualitative representations of complex systems to enable this learning process. Teachers select their own topics for their leaners to work on which makes that lessons vary in content depending on the …