• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1237-1247
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• 2013

The purposes of this study are 1) to revalidate the developed Measuring Instrument Systems Thinking and 2) to compare systems thinking skills between gifted and non-gifted high school students. For the test, 116 gifted science students and 553 non-gifted students were sampled from high schools. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed and Independent t-test was performed using the average of the two groups. The finding of the exploratory factor analysis indicated 5 factors in the model with 4 items per single factor. The result of confirmatory factor analysis was generally appropriate and acceptable (5 factor model: ${\chi}^2/df$ : 2.765, TLI=.907, CFI=.929, IFI=.930, RMSEA=.044). The reliability for 20 items turned out to be high because the Cronbach's alphas were at .875 and .693~.751 per each factor. In addition, the result of t-test showed that systems thinking skills among gifted science students were significantly higher than non-gifted students. This study could be expanded to measuring systems thinking with qualitative research tools and to various school levels.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.318-330
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• 2023

This study aimed to verify the validity of a measurement tool for Vietnamese high school students' systems thinking abilities. Two quantitative assessment tools, the Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Lee et al., 2013) and the Systems Thinking Scale (Dolansky et al., 2020), were used to measure students' systems thinking after translation into Vietnamese. As a result, it was revealed that Cronbach-α for each tool (i.e., STMI and STS) was .917 and .950, respectively, indicating high reliability for both. To validate the construct validity of the translated questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS 21.0. For concurrent validity, correlation analysis using structural equation modeling was performed to validate the translated questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS loaded on the intended factors and appropriate factor loading values were obtained. For confirmatory factor analysis, a structural equation model organized with 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS was used. The result of this showed that the convergent validity values of the model were all appropriate, and the model fit indices were analyzed to be χ²/df of 1.892, CFI of .928, TLI of .919, SRMR of .047, and RMSEA of .063, indicating that the model consisting of the 22 items of the two questionnaires was appropriate. Analysis of the concurrent validity of the two tools indicated a high correlation coefficient (.903) and high correlation (.571-.846) among the subfactors. In conclusion, both the STMI and STS are valid quantitative measures of systems thinking, and it can be inferred that the systems thinking of Vietnamese high-school students can be quantitatively measured using the 22 items identified in our analysis. Using the tool validated in this study with other tools (e.g., qualitative assessment) can help accurately measure Vietnamese high school students' systems thinking abilities. Furthermore, these tools can be used to collect evidence and support effective education in ODA projects and volunteer programs.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2019

The purposes of this study are: 1) to verify the systems thinking factor structure of elementary school students and 2) to compare systems thinking according to their preferred subjects in order to get implications for following research. For the study, pre-tests analyze data from 732 elementary school students using the STMI (Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument) developed by Lee et al. (2013). And exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the factor structure of the students. Based on the results of the pre-test, the expert group council revised the STMI so that elementary school students could respond to the 5-factor structure that STMI intended. In the post-test, 503 data were analyzed by modified STMI and exploratory factor analysis was performed. The results of the study are as follows: First, in the pre-test, elementary school students responded to the STMI with a test paper consisting of two factors (personal internal factors and personal external factors). The total reliability of the instrument was .932 and the reliability of each factor was analyzed as .857 and .894. Second, for modified STMI, elementary school students responded a 4-factor instrument. Team learning, Shared Vision, and Personal Mastery were derived independent factors, and mental model and systems analysis were derived 1-factor. The total reliability of the instrument was .886 and the reliability of each factor was analyzed as .686 to .864. Finally, a comparison of systems thinking according to preferred subjects showed a significant difference between students who selected science (engineering) group and art (music and physical education). In conclusion, it was confirmed that statistically meaningful results could be obtained using STMI modified by term and sentence structure appropriate for elementary school students, and it is a necessary to study the relation of systems thinking with various student variables such as the preferred subjects.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.157-171
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• 2024

The purposes of this study were: (1) to revalidate the revised Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Re_STMI) reported by Lee et al. (2024) among Vietnamese high school students and (2) to investigate the differences in systems thinking abilities between Korean and Vietnamese high school students. To achieve this, data from 234 Vietnamese high school students who responded to translated Re_STMI consisting of 20 items and an Scale consisting of 20 items were used. Validity analysis was conducted through item response analysis (Item Reliability, Item Map, Infit and Outfit MNSQ, DIF between male and female) and exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis using Promax). Furthermore, structural equation modeling was employed with data from 475 Korean high school students to verify the latent mean analysis. The results were as follows: First, in the item response analysis of the 20 translated Re_STMI items in Vietnamese, the Item Reliability was .97, and the Infit MNSQ ranged from .67 to 1.38. The results from the Item Map and DIF analysis align with previous findings. In the exploratory factor analysis, all items were loaded onto intended sub-factors, with sub-factor reliabilities ranging from .662 to .833 and total reliability at .876. Confirmatory factor analysis for latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students yielded acceptable model fit indices (χ²/df: 2.830, CFI: .931, TLI: .918, SRMR: .043, RMSEA: .051). Lastly, the latent mean analysis between Korean and Vietnamese students revealed a small effect size in systems analysis, mental models, team learning, and shared vision factors, whereas a medium effect size was observed in personal mastery factors, with Vietnamese high school students showing significantly higher results in systems thinking. This study confirmed the reliability and validity of the Re_STMI items. Furthermore, international comparative studies on systems thinking using Re_STMI translated into Vietnamese, English, and other languages are warranted in the context of students' systems thinking analysis.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.995-1006
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• 2013

The purposes of this study were to develop an instrument to measure high school students' systems thinking and to validate the scale. The scale of systems thinking was made up for 5 factors - systems thinking, mental model, shared vision, personal mastery, and team learning through analyses of related literature. Six items per factor were constructed and the scale consisted of a total of 30 items for the pretest. After exploratory factor analysis, the number of total items was reduced to 20 items. For the main test, 280 students were sampled from high school and analyzed valid cases were 260 students. The finding of the exploratory factor analysis indicated 5 factors in the model, and 4 items per single factor. The result of confirmatory factor analysis was generally appropriate and acceptable (5 factor model: $x^2/df$=1.275, TLI=.946, CFI=.959, RMSEA=.033). The reliability for 20 items turned out to be reliable because the Cronbach's alphas were .840 and .604~.723 per each factor. This study should be expanded to various school levels and should be standardized for further research. The subsequent studies regarding diverse learning program development and implementation and the verification on the students' impact within the developed program can be recommended.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.173-185
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of systems thinking on high school students' self-regulatory efficacy and self-confidence that constitute science self-efficacy. We set self-regulatory efficacy as a factor of students' systems thinking affects their self-confidence on science through self-regulatory efficacy. A total of 210 students were sampled from general high schools and 188 valid cases were analyzed. The instrument has 39 items that consist of 20 items measuring systems thinking and 19 items of science self-efficacy. The result of the exploratory factor analysis indicated that 20 items for systems thinking, 8 items for self-regulatory efficacy, 4 items for self-confidence are reasonable. Testing the goodness of fit of a structural equation model, it turn out to be appropriate (${\chi}^2$=344.498, df=242, TLI= .921, RMSEA= .044) using 24 items (mental model, personal mastery, systems analysis, self-regulatory efficacy, and self-confidence were constructed). In addition, the mental model, which is one factor of systems thinking, is mediated by self-regulatory efficacy that affects self-confidence directly and/or indirectly. The results suggest that systems thinking affects science self-efficacy directly and indirectly. Utilizing systems thinking in science education can produce a theoretical basis in improving students' confidence and self-efficacy about science.