Notes

### Objectives

The primary objective of the article is to understand how young students (aged between 9 and 12 years) reason about ecosystems. The study aims to identify various factors that influence this reasoning, including:

1. Systems Thinking: How students use systems thinking to understand the complexity of ecosystems.
2. Knowledge: The role of prior knowledge in shaping students' understanding.
3. Conceptions: How students' pre-existing ideas or misconceptions affect their reasoning.
4. Representation: The impact of how ecosystems are visually or conceptually represented on students' understanding.

### Methods

To achieve these objectives, the researchers conducted a "thinking-aloud" study with 20 students from a public primary and secondary school. The study used a cross-sectional design to capture a broad range of students' understanding of ecosystems. Here are some key aspects of the methodology:

1. **Participants and Data Collection**: The study involved 20 students aged 9 to 12 years. They were asked to think aloud while answering a questionnaire on ecosystems. The questions aimed to probe students' intuitive cognitive activities related to systems thinking.

2. **Questionnaire**: The questionnaire included 14 questions based on a systems thinking model by Mehren et al. (2018). Each question addressed one systems thinking skill and included a question, a representation of an ecosystem (food web), and three possible answers.

3. **Data Analysis**: The researchers used a theory-based coding frame to analyze the transcribed thinking-aloud protocols. The coding included categories for systems thinking, knowledge, conceptions, and representations. Two independent raters coded the data, and any differences were resolved through discussion.

4. **Ethical Considerations**: All participants and their parents were informed in advance about the study, and consent was obtained. Data analyses were performed with anonymized transcripts.

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