Correlation between systems thinking and abstract thinking among high school students majoring in electronics

Abstract

Many studies highlight the importance of systems thinking and abstract thinking among engineers, especially as part of the Industry 4.0 framework. The study described in this paper characterized the relation between systems thinking and abstract thinking among high school students carrying out projects that combine hardware and software. Thirty-six Israeli 12th graders majoring in electronics participated in this study. The students filled out an anonymous Likert-like questionnaire used for evaluating their self-reported systems thinking and abstract thinking skills. Additionally, the students took a multiple-choice test examining systems thinking and abstract thinking. The findings indicate a significant moderate positive correlation between the two abilities, both in the questionnaire and the test. This correlation may have both theoretical and educational implications.