This study investigates the alignment between curriculum standards and textbooks, based on a standards-based science education context. The analysis sample includes the High School Biology Curriculum Standards and five editions of biology textbooks in China. Porter's alignment model is used to construct a two-dimensional (content areas and cognitive levels) matrix of curriculum standards and textbooks to calculate alignment indices and marginal discrepancies between the two dimensions. The results show that 1) alignment between curriculum standards and textbooks has not been achieved; 2) textbooks are highly consistent and statistically significant, but independent of curriculum standards; 3) the distribution of curriculum standards and textbooks across various core concepts and cognitive levels is unbalanced; 4) both curriculum standards and textbooks overemphasise the cognitive levels of remembering and understanding, while minimally representing the applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating levels. This study examines the development of curriculum alignment in the context of current worldwide standards-based science education reforms and provides a framework for alignment research based on content analysis.

The rapid development of science and technology has made scientific literacy a key focus in education, with scientific concepts considered central to the development of citizens’ literacy. However, misconceptions hinder the improvement of students’ scientific literacy. Misconception tier diagnostic technologies (MTDTs) provide an effective means for assessing the depth of students’ understanding of concepts. This paper provides a systematic review of research on MTDTs from 1985 to 2024. Following PRISMA standards, a comprehensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases. The screening process is described in detail, and the selection steps are visually presented. A total of 28 studies were selected, analyzing the development history, effectiveness, and practical application of this technology across various scientific domains. The results show that MTDTs have undergone rigorous reliability and validity assessments, demonstrating high quality. Four-tier diagnostic technology is regarded as the most accurate method for identifying misconceptions. This technology is most widely applied in physics and biology, with relatively fewer applications in geography. Moreover, MTDTs are more commonly used in high school and higher education but are underused in primary education. With ongoing technological advancements, MTDTs are transitioning toward large-scale online applications. The study also reveals that misconceptions are prevalent among students across various educational stages and subjects. However, interventions targeting these misconceptions lack effective validation and systematic empirical research. Future research should focus on these findings to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the sustainable development of education and student literacy.

Exploring students’ systems thinking (ST) is essential in enhancing science learning, but existing studies have failed to understand students’ ST fully as it relates to ecological issues. This study aimed to fill the aforementioned literature gap by exploring lower-secondary school students’ ST regarding ecological issues. The Systems Thinking Test regarding Ecological Issues, which measures four ST skills (system organisation, behaviour, application, and evaluation), was administered to 1,092 lower-secondary school students. The results reveal low ST performance in ecological issues, with students finding it particularly difficult to identify interactions among components and understand system characteristics. Furthermore, most lacked reflective consciousness and consideration of the diverse dimensions of ecological issues, resulting in monocausal reasoning in system decision-making and evaluation. Comparatively, urban school students performed better than their rural counterparts; additionally, an item-level analysis revealed that climate warming was challenging for the students to understand. This study suggests that greater efforts should be made to address students’ drawbacks and that multi-perspectival teaching is necessary in the context of ecological issues. The addition of system decision-making and evaluation in assessments can enable a broader understanding of ST. Keywords: environment education, lower-secondary school, partial credit model, sustainable development, systems thinking