Multiple Representations in Modeling Strategies for the Development of Systems Thinking in Biology Education

For biological researchers, systems thinking is a basic conceptual framework, and many educationalists consider systems thinking as a metacognitive skill that enables students to understand and cope with the new scientific advancements that reach our society. With this in mind, we investigated the implementation of systems thinking in upper secondary biology education in several studies. In this chapter, we report a critical appraisal of our systems modeling approach that emerged from these studies. We first lay a theoretical foundation under our emergent modeling approach which prescribes the sequence in which multiple representations should be placed in a bottom-up educational strategy. Second, we articulate two studies that both designed and evaluated the development of a learning and teaching strategy that engaged students in developing multiple representations of living systems with increasing complexity. One study focused on the development of an initial systems model in cell biology, and the other addressed the use of computer modeling as a tool in the understanding of the dynamics in ecosystems. We conclude by critically looking back at these study results in the formulation of some general recommendations about the use of multiple representations in the development of systems thinking.