Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens

Eleonora Barelli; Laura Branchetti; Giulia Tasquier; Luca Albertazzi; Olivia Levrini

doi:10.29333/ejmste/84841

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Eleonora Barelli ¹ ^* , Laura Branchetti ², Giulia Tasquier ¹, Luca Albertazzi ³, Olivia Levrini ¹

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¹ Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, ITALY² University of Parma, ITALY³ Municipality of Dozza, Bologna, ITALY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The issue of scientific citizenship in the context of STEM education has been under debate for over two decades. We present a preliminary study which aims to investigate if, how and why the development of hard scientific skills grounded in the discipline of complex systems (suitably simplified and adapted) may foster the development of citizenship skills that can impact on people’s approaches to facing problems and making decisions. We carried out a pilot study with a group of 34 volunteer adult citizens. The data analysis showed that: i) in the beginning, only a few participants were comfortable dealing with scientific and epistemological concepts related to complex systems, favouring instead a “common sense” approach towards decision-making; ii) in some successful cases, there was an alignment between scientific competences and decision-making strategies, suggesting that it is possible to design activities based on authentic scientific concepts in order to develop citizenship skills.

Keywords

Adult Education
complex systems
experts and novices
scientific citizenship
social skills

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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 14, Issue 4, April 2018, 1533-1545

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

Publication date: 27 Jan 2018

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How to cite this article

APA

Barelli, E., Branchetti, L., Tasquier, G., Albertazzi, L., & Levrini, O. (2018). Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(4), 1533-1545. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

Vancouver

Barelli E, Branchetti L, Tasquier G, Albertazzi L, Levrini O. Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(4):1533-45. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

AMA

Barelli E, Branchetti L, Tasquier G, Albertazzi L, Levrini O. Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2018;14(4), 1533-1545. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

Chicago

Barelli, Eleonora, Laura Branchetti, Giulia Tasquier, Luca Albertazzi, and Olivia Levrini. "Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2018 14 no. 4 (2018): 1533-1545. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

Harvard

Barelli, E., Branchetti, L., Tasquier, G., Albertazzi, L., and Levrini, O. (2018). Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(4), pp. 1533-1545. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841

MLA

Barelli, Eleonora et al. "Science of Complex Systems and Citizenship Skills: A Pilot Study with Adult Citizens". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 14, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1533-1545. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/84841