The effect of relationship type on reasoning strategies for systems understanding.

This study investigates whether explicit training and attention to functional relationships can improve the reasoning and understanding about complex physical systems better than training and attention to causal relationships alone.

Functional relationships describe the nature or function of change between two objects and are considered dynamic, complex counterparts to simple, static causal relationships.

The causal models of physical systems that are developed in one's mind are critical in allowing for the generation of predictions and explanations of a system's behavior.

However, learners often do not account for the complex nature of causality in their causal models, likely due to their limited perceptions of causality itself (Chi, 2000; Grotzer, 2003; Wilensky & Resnick, 1999).

To address these limitations, a focus on functional relationships is proposed as an instructional approach to engage learners in an active perspective and evoke fluid views of system interactions to better enable mental simulation and mental model development (Tsuei, 2004; Chan & Black, 2006).

In this study, participants were randomly assigned to either the Functional group, who received training on functional relationships, the Causal group, who received training on causal relationships, or to a non-treatment control group.

They then learned about a system selected for the study by reading an article and constructing relationships, or taking notes in the control group.

Participants were asked in written posttests and structured interviews about their understanding of the systems and the strategies used in constructing relationships or taking notes.

A list of representative strategies including mental simulation, looking for definitions, and considering the ability to manipulate objects was identified after reviewing the interview transcripts.

Findings suggest that functional relationships engage different reasoning strategies than causal relationships when learning about complex systems, specifically those that are considered to elicit dynamic thinking.

Though causal models of systems may be more salient for learners, an emphasis on functional relationships appears to be a more effective means to promote robust reasoning about a system.

The positive findings from this study provide educators a revised perspective from which to present information to students, specifically, to stimulate functional reasoning when designing materials on complex topics.