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Systems Modelling and the Development of Coherent Understanding of Cell Biology
Open accessAbstract
This article reports on educational design research concerning a learning and teaching strategy for cell biology in upper‐secondary education introducing systems modelling as a key competence. The strategy consists of four modelling phases in which students subsequently develop models of free‐living cells, a general two‐dimensional model of cells, a three‐dimensional model of plant cells, and finally they are engaged in formal thinking by modelling life phenomena to a hierarchical systems model. The strategy was thought out, elaborated, and tested in classrooms in several research cycles. Throughout the field‐tests, research data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews, audio‐taped discussions, completed worksheets, written tests, and questionnaires. Reflection on the research findings eventuated in reshaping and formalizing the learning and teaching strategy, which is presented here. The results show that although acquiring systems thinking competence at the metacognitive level needs more effort, our strategy contributed to improving learning outcomes; that is, acquisition of a coherent conceptual understanding of cell biology and acquisition of initial systems thinking competence, with modelling being the key activity.
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“In contrast to the other studies in Boersma's analysis, Verhoeff et al. (2008) for example, includes thinking backward and forward between general systems models and concrete biological objects and processes as an explicit element of systems thinking.”
From The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education (2018) · cites this paper as Verhoeff et al. (2008)
In the citing paper
“It is remarkable that many studies (Verhoeff et al., 2008;Hmelo-Silver et al., 2017;Tripto et al., 2017) highlight the development of systems language, while (except for Verhoeff et al., 2008) no explicit reference is made to one of the systems theories from which the vocabulary has been derived from.”
From The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education (2018) · cites this paper as Verhoeff et al., 2008
In the citing paper
“Looking at our analysis in section The Conceptual Nature of Systems Thinking, it is striking that three studies feature systems modeling strategies that clearly have a theoretical basis Eilam and Reisfeld (2017), Hmelo-Silver et al. (2017), and Verhoeff et al. (2008).”
From The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education (2018) · cites this paper as Verhoeff et al. (2008)
In the citing paper
“The table shows that in the study of Ben-Zvi Assaraf and Orion (2005) two of the six perspectives were recognized, and respectively three, four and four of the perspectives in the studies of Verhoeff et al. (2008), Hmelo-Silver et al. (2017) and Eilam and Reisfeld (2017).”
From The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education (2018) · cites this paper as Verhoeff et al. (2008)
In the citing paper
“The study is grounded in the GST.”
From The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education (2018) · cites this paper as Verhoeff et al. (2008)
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- Verhoeff, R. P., Waarlo, A. J. and Boersma, K. Th. Learning and teaching cell biology from a systems perspective—An interim report of a developmental research project.Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (ERIDOB). October22–262002, Toulouse, France.
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Cited by
The Theoretical Nature of Systems Thinking. Perspectives on Systems Thinking in Biology Education
Verhoeff, R. P., Knippels, M.-C. P. J., Gilissen, M. G. R., & Boersma, K. T. (2018) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2018.00040 · Cited by 151
Self-citationThe feasibility of systems thinking in biology education
Boersma, K., Waarlo, A. J., & Klaassen, K. (2011) · Journal of Biological Education · doi:10.1080/00219266.2011.627139 · Cited by 97
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Verhoeff, R. P., Waarlo, A. J., & Boersma, K. T.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Verhoeff, Roald P.
- ORCID
- Verhoeff, Roald P.
- Venue
- International Journal of Science Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2008-03-19
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 543-568
- ISSN
- 0950-0693 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-5289
- OpenAlex
- W2054753130
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 26.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- International Journal of Science Education (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Education › Science and Education Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Evolution and Science Education
- Keywords
- system modeling, systems thinking, cell biology education, upper secondary school, plant cells, hierarchical models, conceptual understanding, metacognition, formal thinking, science education strategies
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Systems Modelling and the Development of Coherent Understanding of Cell Biology. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/09500690701237780
- The paper
- Verhoeff, R. P., Waarlo, A. J., & Boersma, K. T. (2008). Systems Modelling and the Development of Coherent Understanding of Cell Biology. International Journal of Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690701237780
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
