Students' ideas about the scientific underpinnings of climate change: a systematic review of the literature

Climate change understanding is an important factor in responding to the climate crisis. Although students' ideas about the scientific underpinnings of climate change constitute an important field of science education research, a systematic overview of the multitude of findings on this topic has yet to occur. To address this potential examination, we analysed and synthesised 44 peer-reviewed studies from the past decade, following PRISMA guidelines to ensure rigour throughout the process. The findings show that a variety of ideas are reported in the analysed literature, especially general ideas about climate change and global warming, the greenhouse effect, and the carbon cycle. Contrarily, few studies explore students' ideas about the climate system and the nature of climate science. The majority of the studies included were conducted in Western cultural contexts, investigating lower- and upper-secondary students' ideas via qualitative and quantitative methods. Although the sources and reasons behind students' ideas are discussed in several of the studies analysed, empirical data on them is rare. We identified research potential concerning students' ideas about e.g. climate system notions and concepts, as well as potential improvements in the comparability of findings. Insights provided by our systematic review can serve as an information source for educators.