An Analysis of Systems Thinking Skills in Chemistry Education Using a Bibliometric Approach
28th Congress of The Society of Chemists and Technologists of Macedonia, Ohrid, Makedonya, 23 - 26 Eylül 2026, ss.158, (Özet Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
- Basıldığı Şehir: Ohrid
- Basıldığı Ülke: Makedonya
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.158
- Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Chemistry education has
historically developed through a reductionist approach focused on molecular
structures, formulas, and reaction mechanisms. Although this approach has made
significant contributions to the production of scientific knowledge and
technological advancement, it is not sufficient on its own to address complex
problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, and
sustainability. Therefore, chemistry education needs to be reconceptualized
through a holistic approach that considers chemical processes in relation to
social, economic, and environmental systems. In this context, systems thinking
has emerged as an important approach for understanding the dynamic
relationships among the components of complex structures, feedback loops, and
the emergent properties of a system as a whole. Accordingly, it is important to
transform chemistry curricula on the basis of systems thinking and to support
students in developing systems thinking skills. The aim of this study is to examine
the development, main trends, and research gaps in academic studies on systems
thinking and related skills in the chemistry education literature through
bibliometric analysis. Within this scope, the study was conducted in the Web of
Science (WoS) database using the keywords (("systems thinking" OR
"system thinking") AND ("skill" OR "skills") AND
("chemistry")), and 108 sources were retrieved. Studies outside the
Education Educational Research category and book chapters were excluded from
the dataset, and the analyses were conducted based on 76 articles. The study
examined publication and citation trends by year, the productivity and
collaboration levels of countries, and the shared citation network. The
findings indicate a marked increase in the number of publications and citations
after 2019, suggesting that systems thinking skills have become an emerging
paradigm in chemistry education. Publication and collaboration analyses by
country show that the USA, Canada, Israel, and England are the countries contributing
most substantially to the field, whereas Turkey’s contribution remains
relatively limited. Keyword analysis reveals that “systems thinking” is located
at the conceptual center of the field and that this concept reflects the
current direction of the field through its strong connections with
“sustainability” and “green chemistry”. Co-citation analysis shows that the
study by Orgill et al. (2019) is the most cited study in the field.1
In conclusion, systems thinking skills can be considered an emerging research
area in chemistry education, and further studies are needed in this field.