ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' SYSTEMS THINKING ABILITIES THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL CASE-BASED EVALUATION ON RESPIRATORY SYSTEM MATERIAL

Abstract

System thinking is one of the essential competencies in 21st-century biology education because it helps students understand the interrelationships among components within a biological system holistically. However, biology learning and assessment processes in schools still tend to emphasize concept memorization rather than students’ ability to analyze inter-system relationships and cause-and-effect mechanisms of biological phenomena. This study aimed to analyze students’ system thinking skills through environmental case-based assessment on the topic of the human respiratory system. The study employed a quantitative descriptive approach involving eleventh-grade senior high school students as research subjects. The research instrument consisted of essay questions based on environmental cases related to air pollution, cigarette smoke, and forest fires. Students’ system thinking skills were analyzed based on three indicators: identification of system components, relationships among components, and cause-and-effect analysis. Data were analyzed using percentage scores and students’ ability categories. The findings showed that students’ system thinking skills were in the moderate category. Students were more capable of identifying system components than explaining relationships among systems comprehensively. Environmental case-based assessment helped students relate respiratory system concepts to real environmental problems in their surroundings, making learning more contextual and meaningful. This study indicates that environmental case-based assessment has the potential to be used as an alternative assessment approach for measuring and improving students’ system thinking skills in biology learning.