Integrating the Human Element in the Responsible Research and Innovation Framework into Systems Thinking Approaches for Teachers’ Professional Development

Abstract

The call for integrating systems thinking (ST) with chemistry education focuses on the growing role chemistry will play in meeting global challenges, such as those presented by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In this essay, we address two questions: How might ST help chemistry education address these global challenges? How might we prepare teachers to teach ST in their classrooms? To address these questions, we define these global challenges in terms of coupled human–natural systems, and we suggest a new way to integrate “the human element” into ST in chemistry education; namely, via the responsible research and innovation framework. We then demonstrate how this framework could be used productively to guide the professional development of chemistry teachers.