Assessing technology and engineering learning outcomes of pre-service preschool teachers through epistemic networks of DSRP systems thinking

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

As technology-enhanced learning environments increasingly promote active and situated engagement, assessment must move beyond isolated tests of knowledge and skills to capture learners’ performance in authentic contexts. In technology and engineering education, systems thinking is often embedded in product-based learning, yet technical product quality alone may not show how pre-service preschool teachers organise, connect, and justify systemsrelated ideas. The aim of this study was to examine systems-oriented reasoning as part of complex technology and engineering learning outcomes by combining the Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives (DSRP) framework with Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). Students’ written reflections on the “Product as a System” were coded across the four DSRP dimensions and re-encoded as binary indicators of DSRP achievement levels for ENA. Using ENA, we identified differences in the prominence and cooccurrence of DSRP-related reasoning elements between students taught through the technology-enhanced systems-thinking approach (STICT) and those taught through a traditional approach. The findings revealed distinguishable DSRP epistemic network structures between the two groups, with the STICT group displaying a more heterogeneous structure and the traditional group showing a more concentrated network around system organisation, functional relationships, and multiple perspectives. The ENA indicators were more clearly associated with written report quality than with technical product quality. This study contributes to the assessment of systems-oriented reasoning. It suggests that integrating DSRP-based coding and ENA provides complementary evidence about systems-oriented reasoning beyond that captured by product quality alone, thereby contributing to a broader assessment of technology and engineering learning outcomes in authentic higher education assessment tasks.

• Language: English
• Keywords: epistemic network analysis, learning outcome assessment, pre-service preschool teachers, systems thinking, technology and engineering education
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 20 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, art.1931621
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-188611
• UDC: 378
• ISSN on article: 2504-284X
• DOI: 10.3389/feduc.2026.1931621
• COBISS.SI-ID: 292288259
• Publication date in RUL: 24.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in education
• Shortened title: Front. educ.
• Publisher: Frontiers Media SA.
• ISSN: 2504-284X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 526812697

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: izobraževanje na področju tehnologije in inženirstva, bodoči vzgojitelji, analiza epistemoloških mrež, ocenjevanje učnih izidov, sistemsko razmišljanje, višje in visokošolsko izobraževanje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0451
• Name: Strategije vzgoje in izobraževanja za trajnostni razvoj ob uporabi inovativnih na učečega osredinjenih izobraževalnih pristopov

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-4573
• Name: Razvijanje veščin 21. stoletja za trajnostni razvoj in kvalitetno izobraževanje v času hitrih tehnološko pogojenih sprememb gospodarskega, socialnega in naravnega okolja