Math matters: mathematical knowledge plays an essential role in Chinese undergraduates' stock-and-flow task performance

People's understanding of accumulation (stock) and of rates of change (flows) is essential to successful decision making in dynamic environments. However, past research suggests that highly educated Western people are often unable to infer the behavior of stock–flow systems. In an empirical stu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gonzalez, C. (Author), Qi, L. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: John Wiley and Sons Ltd 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
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001 10.1002-sdr.1640
008 220511s2019 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 08837066 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Math matters: mathematical knowledge plays an essential role in Chinese undergraduates' stock-and-flow task performance 
260 0 |b John Wiley and Sons Ltd  |c 2019 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.1640 
520 3 |a People's understanding of accumulation (stock) and of rates of change (flows) is essential to successful decision making in dynamic environments. However, past research suggests that highly educated Western people are often unable to infer the behavior of stock–flow systems. In an empirical study involving a population of university students in China, we tested whether mathematical knowledge, global–local processing and domain experience affect participants' performance in stock–flow tasks. We find that Chinese undergraduates had good performance in general, and individuals with more mathematical knowledge performed better on stock–flow tasks. We discuss the possible reasons that explain these participants' success. Future research needs to extend our work to more diverse populations across different cultures, nations and education systems. Comparative studies on the content of math education under a cross-cultural frame are desirable to uncover more essential factors for people's understanding of stock–flow structures. © 2019 System Dynamics Society. © 2019 System Dynamics Society 
650 0 4 |a academic performance 
650 0 4 |a China 
650 0 4 |a economics 
650 0 4 |a higher education 
650 0 4 |a knowledge 
650 0 4 |a mathematics 
650 0 4 |a student 
700 1 |a Gonzalez, C.  |e author 
700 1 |a Qi, L.  |e author 
773 |t System Dynamics Review