Dedicated Assignments as a Means of Advancing Junior Students’ Systems Thinking and Abstract Thinking

AbstractTo design and maintain complex engineering systems, engineers need to adopt the characteristics of the so-called systems thinker and abstract thinker. The study described here aimed to investigate whether systems thinking and abstract thinking could be advanced simultaneously, through dedicated assignments, at a relatively early stage. Twenty-six high-school electronics students (Grade 11), who were executing their final project, took part in the study. Fourteen tasks focusing on systems thinking and abstract thinking were integrated into the curriculum. At the beginning and end of the school year, students took an achievement test, designed to assess their systems and abstract thinking. The test findings pointed to a significant improvement in both systems thinking and abstract thinking.KeywordsSystems thinkingAbstract thinkingHigh-school electronics students