Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries

Hayat Hokayem; Hui Jin; Etsuji Yamaguchi

doi:10.29333/ejmste/112582

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Hayat Hokayem ¹ ^* , Hui Jin ², Etsuji Yamaguchi ³

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¹ Texas Christian University, USA² Educational Testing Service, USA³ Kobe University, JAPAN^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Feedback loop reasoning is an important stepping-stone toward systems thinking. To date, studies on feedback loop reasoning in ecology have focused on college students, while only a limited effort has been made to investigate a more general systems thinking of students at the lower elementary level. The goal of this study is to investigate how elementary students reason about feedback loop relationships among interdependent organisms (predator-prey), and address the knowledge sources of students as part of context of reasoning about this topic. This study was conducted in three countries, with 128 first through fourth grader participants from Japan, Lebanon, and the United States. These students participated in semi-structured clinical interviews focusing on the predator-and-prey relationships. We found that the majority of students used one-way causal reasoning, and only a few students reasoned using two-way causality with multiple feedback loops in the predator-prey relationship.

Keywords

learning progression
feedback loop reasoning
predator-prey relationships

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 16, Issue 2, February 2020, Article No: em1819

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

Publication date: 23 Nov 2019

Article Views: 3222

Article Downloads: 1402

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How to cite this article

APA

Hokayem, H., Jin, H., & Yamaguchi, E. (2020). Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(2), em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

Vancouver

Hokayem H, Jin H, Yamaguchi E. Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(2):em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

AMA

Hokayem H, Jin H, Yamaguchi E. Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(2), em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

Chicago

Hokayem, Hayat, Hui Jin, and Etsuji Yamaguchi. "Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2020 16 no. 2 (2020): em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

Harvard

Hokayem, H., Jin, H., and Yamaguchi, E. (2020). Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(2), em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582

MLA

Hokayem, Hayat et al. "Feedback Loop Reasoning and Knowledge Sources for Elementary Students in Three Countries". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 2020, em1819. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/112582