While research on teaching and learning about complex systems has achieved solid
grounding in the learning sciences, few educational studies have focused on articulating
design features for classroom implementation that can serve a modular purpose for building
curricular and instructional experiences. Furthermore, despite the fact that several studies
describe important roles for teachers in constructing successful classroom learning
experiences, only a few of them examine how teachers’ instructional practices, knowledge,
and beliefs influence student learning outcomes and the extent to which teachers are interested
and willing to teach through complex systems approaches. Furthermore, we do not know what
supports teachers themselves say that they need to teach about complex systems in their
classrooms. In this study, we present a curriculum and instruction framework that outlines
how teaching and learning about complex systems in high school science classroom contexts
can be done. We articulate the features of the framework and provide examples of how the
framework is translated into practice. We follow with evidence from an exploratory study
conducted with 10 teachers and over 300 students aimed at understanding change in teachers’
instructional practices; the extent to which students learned from the activities; what teachers’
perceptions were in terms of utility and usability; and what other supports teachers needed.