Present and future social and ecological challenges are complex both to understand and to attempt to solve. To comprehend the complex systems underlying these issues, students need systems thinking skills. However, in science education, a uniform delineation of systems thinking across contexts has yet to be established. While there seems to be consensus on a number of key skills from a theoretical perspective, it remains uncertain whether it is possible to distinguish levels of systems thinking, and if so, how they would be determined. In this study, we investigated the impact of the specifics of a system on the skills and levels of systems thinking. We administered a 36‐item multiple‐choice test to 196 Grade 5 and 6 students. For our analysis, we followed a quantitative approach, applying a systems thinking model that incorporates the latest insights on the levels and skills of systems thinking in geography to the context of ecology. By following an Item Response Theory approach, we confirmed a set of systems thinking skills that are necessary to understand complex systems in ecology: identifying system organization, analyzing system behavior, and system modeling. We examined whether individual skill levels can be distinguished to determine whether a system's general principle or system‐specific features cause difficulty for students. Our results indicate that system specifics, such as type of relation within ecosystems (e.g., predator–prey), appear to determine the formation of levels. Students struggled most with the difference between basic, direct cause‐and‐effect relationships and indirect effects. Once they understood the relevance of indirect relationships in moderately complex systems, a further increase in complexity caused little additional difficulty. Accordingly, we suggest that systems thinking should be examined from a variety of perspectives. To promote interdisciplinary learning, a systems thinking model that defines key commonalities across fields while leaving space for system specifics is needed.

中文翻译：

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系统细节对系统思维的影响

当前和未来的社会和生态挑战既难以理解，也难以解决。为了理解这些问题背后的复杂系统，学生需要系统思考能力。但是，在科学教育中，尚未建立跨上下文的系统思维的统一描述。从理论的角度来看，尽管在一些关键技能上似乎已达成共识，但仍不确定是否有可能区分系统思维的水平，如果可以的话，将如何确定它们。在这项研究中，我们调查了系统细节对系统思维技巧和水平的影响。我们对196名5年级和6年级学生进行了36项多项选择题测试。为了进行分析，我们采用了定量方法，应用系统思维模型，该模型将有关地理学系统思维水平和技能的最新见解与生态环境结合起来。通过遵循项目响应理论的方法，我们确认了理解生态系统中的复杂系统所必需的一组系统思维技能：识别系统组织，分析系统行为和系统建模。我们检查了是否可以区分个人技能水平，以确定系统的一般原理或系统特定功能是否会给学生带来困难。我们的结果表明，系统的特定性，例如生态系统中的关系类型（例如，捕食者与被捕食者），似乎决定了水平的形成。学生在基本，直接因果关系与间接影响之间的差异中挣扎最大。一旦他们了解了适度复杂的系统中间接关系的相关性，复杂性的进一步增加几乎不会带来额外的困难。因此，我们建议应从多种角度研究系统思维。为了促进跨学科学习，需要一种系统思维模型，该模型定义跨领域的关键共性，同时为系统细节留出空间。