Towards an Analysis of Visual Images in School Science Textbooks and Press Articles about Science and Technology

This paper aims at presenting the application of a grid for the analysis of the pedagogic functions of visual images included in school science textbooks and daily press articles about science and technology. The analysis is made using the dimensions of content specialisation (classification) and social-pedagogic relationships (framing) promoted by the images as well as the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code (formality), thus combining pedagogical and socio-semiotic perspectives. The grid is applied to the analysis of 2819 visual images collected from school science textbooks and another 1630 visual images additionally collected from the press. The results show that the science textbooks in comparison to the press material: a) use ten times more images, b) use more images so as to familiarise their readers with the specialised techno-scientific content and codes, and c) tend to create a sense of higher empowerment for their readers by using the visual mode. Furthermore, as the educational level of the school science textbooks (i.e., from primary to lower secondary level) rises, the content specialisation projected by the visual images and the elaboration and abstraction of the corresponding visual code also increases. The above results have implications for the terms and conditions for the effective exploitation of visual material as the educational level rises as well as for the effective incorporation of visual images from press material into science classes.     

美国中学科学教科书中科学本质观的实证研究——以《科学入门》为例

科学本质教学是科学教育的重要目标。科学教科书作为科学教学的核心课程资源,对教师的课堂教学和学生科学本质观的形成发挥着重要作用。本文应用内容分析法对美国《科学入门》教科书中科学本质观的分析表明,该教科书呈现了较为完整的科学本质观;突出科学的实证性、暂定性与发展性;为科学划界,区分科学与非科学;显性呈现关于科学与技术的关系;注重体现社会文化对科学的影响;所呈现的科学观是实践优位的。该教科书呈现的科学本质观能够为我国理科教科书编写提供多方面的启示。     

中学理科教材中科学史研究的中外比较与启示

国内外学者对中学理科教材中科学史的内容设计进行了大量研究,该领域的研究在历史与背景、研究视角、研究对象等方面存在明显差异。据此,建议国内学者今后应该以HPCS教育观指导研究、扩大研究对象范围、追求研究方法和工具的精细化和本土化、加强教材编写与课程标准、教学实施的动态衔接研究。     

美国科学教材FOSS、STC、INSIGHTS比较分析

FOSS、STC、INSIGHTS是在20世纪80年代末美国新一轮科学课程改革的背景下,在＂2061计划＂的推动下启动的三项科学课程研究项目,也是当下美国较为流行的三套小学科学课程教材。本文对三套教材的出台背景作简要介绍,并通过对三套教材的课程内容、教学资源、特点等进行对比,透视美国科学教育的特点及整体发展趋势。     

关于小学科学教材中生态文明教育的思考

生态文明教育包括生态文明知识、生态文明意识、生态文明行为、生态文明理念等多个方面。小学科学课程中的很多内容属于生态文明知识,有着对生态文明行为的要求,渗透着生态文明意识的培养,在技术与工程领域需要运用生态文明理念进行思考。在小学科学教材编写中,应从小学科学课程标准中梳理属于生态文明教育的学习目标,在教材框架中进行综合考虑,通过实践活动、拓展与应用、内容渗透等形式加以落实。     

法国初中数学教材特点剖析及启示

法国数学教育比较优秀,数学教材是数学教育的重要载体,但国内对法国数学教材的研究比较少。首先介绍法国的教育体制,然后通过实例,对使用比较广泛的法国初中数学教材进行剖析。法国初中数学教材对中国教育工作者的启示：注重“低起点,小步子”;讲究直观实验与严谨推理相结合;注重分层教学;合理设计课前准备活动、课后活动。研究对中国初中数学教材的发展及数学教学改革具有一定的参考价值与意义。     

杜亚泉编辑自然科教科书的思想与实践

杜亚泉是民国时期著名的自然科教科书编辑者。讲求实学、救世济民的理想和对自然科教科书作用的认识,是他编辑自然科教科书的动因。他提出了选择教材的＂四要件＂思想和应处理好的三对关系,并贯彻和体现在其所编辑的自然科教科书内容中。他编辑教科书的思想与实践发挥了重要的启民智、育新人的历史作用,是一份珍贵的文化遗产,对我们今天仍有借鉴意义。     

Framing of transitional pedagogic practices in the sciences: enabling access

Educational literature shows that students from working-class backgrounds are significantly less likely to persist to completion in higher education than middle-class students. This paper draws theoretically and analytically on Bernstein’s ([1990. Class, Codes and Control, Volume IV: The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse. London: Routledge; 2000. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield]) thesis that, through differential framing of pedagogic practices, the curriculum has capacity to accommodate all groups of students. Pedagogic practices in both a science foundation course and four first-year mainstream science courses in a higher education institution in the South African context are examined. Whilst the foundation course exhibits modalities that generally favour access, the mainstream courses have some modalities that appear to be constraining. It is argued from a social justice perspective that holistic curriculum transformations that better enable epistemic transitions are an urgent imperative, and that consideration of differential framing of pedagogic modalities offer a close-up empirical means of conceptualising such reforms.     

小学英语教材的使用原则

教材是教师和学生共用的实践课堂教学活动的有效工具。基于新课程标准编写的小学英语教材要求教师转变忠实于教科书的教材观,在使用教材的过程中,能够在理解教材组织结构的基础上来合理优化使用教材。同时帮助学生做好充分的学习准备并加强课堂监控和后续教学活动的管理和设计。     

Textbooks of doubt: using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks

Middle school students are learning about climate change in large part through textbooks used in their classes. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the language employed in these materials frames this topic. To this end, we used systemic functional analysis to study the language of the chapters related to climate change in four sixth grade science textbooks adopted in the state of California. The linguistic variables investigated were: types of nominal groups; processes; circumstances; and the modality system. Our findings showed that these textbooks framed climate change as uncertain in the scientific community – both about whether it is occurring as well as about its human-causation. The implications for science education are discussed in relation to how the current political and public discourses of climate change, rather than the scientific discourse, is influencing how textbooks discuss this topic.     

Science and Literature: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Teachers of science and the history of science may wish to enliven and contextualise their subject matter by citing literary references to scientific ideas; similarly, teachers of literature may wish to examine the impact of science on their own field. Both groups of scholars may wish to examine how science and literature inform each other in their common social and cultural context. The question that arises is whether or not the relationship between science and literature has stable features that can give structure to such studies? There are various possibilities: the study of ‘science and literature’ could chart the impact of science on literature, or the impact of literature on science, or both; or look at how both science and literature have historically responded in similar or different ways to a common historical context. Amid this melee of options, the primary purpose of this paper is to sketch a conceptual framework to assist the science educator to explore the literary response to scientific ideas. For the sake of brevity, science will be taken to include the natural sciences (including the pseudo sciences of alchemy and astrology since they were once regarded as authentic) but not technology or medicine. Literature will be taken to mean fictive writing – poems, plays, novels – but will not include here science fiction. These exclusions are partly for reasons of space, but also because science fiction has its own literature of critical analysis within literary scholarship.     

Sexist stereotypes in the language textbooks of the Greek primary school: a multidimensional approach

School textbooks are the main means of instruction and the main tool for the organisation of the teachers’ pedagogic practices. Stereotypes concerning the two genders are inscribed in the curriculum and become evident inside the school textbooks. The present study, through a content analysis of the Greek-language textbooks used in the third grade of the Greek primary school, examines the existence of gender stereotypes throughout the full range of these books. Additionally, semi-structured interviews with a sample of teachers who have taught the particular subject in the past are carried out. The findings show that there is a need for evaluation of the existing language textbooks in primary schools, with the aim of promoting a more gender-balanced learning material. Moreover, the classroom teachers raise the need for the promotion of initial as well as in-service training for teachers on issues of ‘gender stereotypes’, ‘language sexism’ and ‘gender-mainstreaming policies’.     

高中语文必修教材自然科学小论文文本特征评析

人教版高中语文必修教材学习自然科学小论文,这类文本体现了论证的严密性、论证方法的灵活性和总体结构的差异性等特征,要注重把握并鉴析其文本之间的异同。     

A Reconstruction of Structure of the Atom and Its Implications for General Physics Textbooks: A History and Philosophy of Science Perspective

Recent research in science education has recognized the importance of history and philosophy of science. The objective of this study is to evaluate the presentation of the Thomson, Rutherford, and Bohr models of the atom in general physics textbooks based on criteria derived from history and philosophy of science. Forty-one general physics textbooks (all published in the United States) were evaluated on two criteria based on Thomson's work, three on Rutherford's work, and three on Bohr's work. Results obtained show that general physics textbooks do not systematically include a history and philosophy of science perspective. Most textbooks present an inductivist perspective in which experimental details are considered to be paramount. On the contrary, a historical reconstruction of the experimental details inevitably includes: the context in which an experiment is conducted, the theoretical framework that guides the scientist, and alternative interpretations of data that lead to conflicts and controversies. Examples are provided to show how historical reconstructions of atomic models can provide students an opportunity to appreciate how scientists work and science progresses. It is plausible to suggest that textbook presentations based on a history and philosophy of science perspective can perhaps arouse students' interest in the subject and hence lead to greater conceptual understanding.     

近年来中国近代中小学教科书研究综述

近年来,我国学者从历史学、出版学、教育学、社会学几个视角对中国近代中小学教科书的发展脉络、编审制度、学科分类、编辑特征、出版机构、作用功能等问题展开了研究。对这个研究领域的成果加以梳理,我们发现这一领域的研究价值和空间都非常大,有待于学界进一步深入挖掘。     

编写出版中学理科教科书要尽情尽心尽力——兼析上海科技版《物理（九年级,全一册）》

保证中学教育质量需要优质的中学理科教科书,为此,需要深刻认识：中学教科书是国家的教育、文化名片,是中学教育质量的基本保障;中学教科书是＂典＂,是标准,它要全方位的规范、准确,教科书的编写出版工作无小事,其细节当完备,修订理科教科书应关注、致力于完善它的细部.通过阅读通用义务教育教科书《物理（九年级,全一册）》（修订版）小札,指出了其中值得修正的地方,进而提出了相应的对策：编写、出版理科教科书,当对学生、对社会、对历史负责;文字简洁、准确,内容科学、图片清晰是理科教科书的核心元素;教科书修订工作要加强,必须严格执行标准.     

Reconsidering the Character and Role of Inquiry in School Science: Analysis of a Conference

We summarize a conference on scientific inquiry bringing together science educators, cognitive scientists and philosophers of science with three goals:

初中数学课标教材使用情况调查与研究

对教材的使用情况进行调查,有利于提高其编写水平。调查围绕四个基本维度展开:知识、思想与文化,认知水平与能力发展,编辑制作水平,适用性与特色。从调查结果来看,课标教材基本得到了教师的认可,但也存在许多有待改进之处。     

鲁科版高中化学教科书STS教育内容分析

STS教育体现了高中化学新课程改革全面提升学生科学素养的教育理念,重视科学、技术与社会相互联系,有助于学生正确地分析、解决化学问题.鲁科版高中化学教科书注重在人类生活背景下建构化学知识,选取了丰富的STS教育内容,其组织和呈现方式特点为：利用教材的章节标题呈现;利用教材栏目体系呈现;STS内容与元素化合物知识相互融合渗透.