Investigating Educators’ Perspectives toward Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education from International Contexts

Systems thinking in chemistry education (STICE) has been proposed as an approach that could better equip students with abilities to connect their chemistry knowledge with other disciplines and with the skills needed to tackle complex global issues. However, educational change in chemistry is a complex effort that involves many interconnected factors that enable or hinder chemistry educators’ adoption of new pedagogical approaches. Using an adapted version of the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) model, we investigated factors that connect with chemistry educators’ willingness and ability to implement a STICE approach in their courses. We surveyed a group of 56 secondary and postsecondary chemistry educators from ten different countries, to capture chemistry educators’ perspectives toward a STICE approach. Through thematic analysis of responses, we identified four key themes as follows. Theme 1: Educators’ willingness and ability to implement STICE is influenced by their knowledge, beliefs, experiences, contextual and personal factors; Theme 2: Educators report experiences with aspects of STICE without knowing or specifically calling it ST; Theme 3: Some educators implement limited aspects of STICE when teaching chemistry in context; and Theme 4: The ratings of barriers can guide priorities for educational change efforts. This paper discusses specific aspects of the reform model that experts and administrators can address to reduce barriers to implement and engage with STICE. We also highlight future chemistry education research that is needed to explore specific aspects of educators’ perspectives and STICE more broadly.