Systems thinking in the role of fostering technological and engineering literacy

Kurent, Brina (author), Avsec, Stanislav (author)

This study examined whether the systems thinking approach integrating information and communication technology (ICT) and digital tools (hereafter referred to as the STICT approach) improves technological and engineering literacy (TEL) and related outcomes for pre-service preschool teachers. Although there is an expectation for preschool teachers to develop TEL, evidence-based models that systematically combine systems thinking with digital tools and ICT support remain scarce. Using a quasi-experimental design (n = 44; one-semester experiment), the experimental group explicitly integrated systems thinking and digital tools, while the comparison control group followed the traditional approach to teaching design, technology, and engineering (DTE) content; both groups focused on making products for preschoolers. The outcomes included multidimensional literacy, attitudes towards DTE, self-reported systems thinking, aspects of engagement, and focus group reflection. The analyses (ANCOVA/MANCOVA, regression/PLS, multi-group tests, thematic analysis) revealed notable results, including a higher post-test literacy for the experimental group and a lower perceived difficulty with technology. Both groups improved in the self-assessment of systems thinking, with no differences between them. The qualitative findings supported the educational value of the approach. In this pilot classroom experiment (n = 44), findings are consistent with an advantage of the STICT approach on the TEL composite and with lower perceived difficulty of technology, whereas self-assessed systems thinking improved similarly in both groups. Given the small sample and multiple outcomes, estimates carry considerable uncertainty and should be read as preliminary. We theorise that TEL gains arise primarily from systems thinking processes applied during design/evaluation, with ICT functioning as a cognitive-and-motivational scaffold that makes relations/feedback explicit and reduces perceived difficulty; self-assessed systems thinking improved in both groups.

• Language: English
• Keywords: technological and engineering literacy, pre-service preschool teachers, systems thinking, teaching engineering and technology content
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 71 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 14, iss. 1, art. 5
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177774
• UDC: 373.2:62
• ISSN on article: 2079-8954
• DOI: 10.3390/systems14010005
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263593731
• Publication date in RUL: 07.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Systems
• Shortened title: Systems
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2079-8954
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523410713

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: bodoči vzgojitelji, vrtci, sistemsko mišljenje, tehnološka pismenost, inženirska pismenost, vsebine, vzgoja in izobraževanje, tehnika, tehnologija