A content analysis of how biology textbook tasks address system thinking skills in the context of the carbon cycle

Understanding the global cycling of carbon is critical to participate in the current public discussion on climate change in an informed manner. Fostering system thinking is key to reach this goal. Of the various influences on students' development of system thinking in relation to the carbon cycle, the present study focuses on the influence of textbooks – both their explanatory text and the activities they provide for students. Research-based information pertaining to ways students work on acquiring system thinking skills when solving textbook tasks on the carbon cycle is scarce. Therefore, this study investigates two research questions: (1) Which system thinking skills are addressed in German biology textbook tasks on the carbon cycle? and (2) Which entities and activities from different levels of biological organization do students deal with when working on the tasks? The second research question relates to the argument that the multi-level character of the carbon cycle causes particular learning difficulties for students. Following a qualitative content analysis, two coding schemes are developed and applied. The main results: the system thinking skills “identifying system organization” and “analyzing system behavior” are more frequently addressed than “system modeling”. The selection of entities and activities of the carbon cycle in the tasks depicts a variety of individual aspects but often does not allow a continuous tracing of dynamics in the carbon cycle along carbon flows. We suggest a greater emphasis on systems modeling in carbon cycle tasks and that the selection of entities and activities should support knowledge integration.