Research methods for criminal justice graduate students: Comparing textbook coverage and classroom instruction

Research methods are perhaps the most difficult subject matter to teach in the graduate criminal justice curricula. This is in part due to the mix of practitioners and aspiring researchers in most criminal justice graduate departments, leading many instructors to question whether their own coverage is in line with the needs of their graduate students as well as the coverage of other instructors. Also complicating matters is that research methods textbooks are not geared specifically for the graduate level, and thus may neglect topics that are necessary for today's criminal justice graduate students. The present study addresses these concerns by providing an analysis of 11 current criminal justice research methods textbooks, as well as a survey of 36 instructors of graduate criminal justice and criminology research methods classes. Both the texts and instructors are found to place a strong focus on quantitative methods, while the textbooks tend to place a greater emphasis on qualitative methods than the instructors. Moreover, both the texts and instructors neglect topics crucial to today's criminal justice graduate student, including grant writing, article writing and critiquing, and standards for collaborative research efforts.     

A study of the relationship between concept emphasis in high school biology textbooks and achievement levels

A two part study investigated any relationship between student achievement and textbook content as well as any impact of a national project's recommendations on textbook content. First, analyses of student responses to biological items on the 1977 National Assessment of Educational Progress's survey of science showed a direct, linear relationship between achievement level and concept emphasis in biology textbooks. Second, a comparison between biology textbooks, published a decade apart, indicated significant changes in the degree of emphasis placed on 10 commonly accepted conceptual areas. Closer examination revealed that change in the amount of emphasis in one conceptual area, Growth and Development, was responsible for the significant difference found. Generally, the recommendations of the biology project were not reflected in the newer textbooks.     

Evolution in secondary school biology textbooks of the PRC,the USA,and the latter stages of the USSR

The presentations of evolutionary theory in 13 prominent, secondary-school biology textbooks—3 Chinese, 8 American, and 2 Soviet—were examined using the methods of content analysis. For each book, the amount of text devoted to each of 80 evolutionary topics was assessed. Such word counts were enumerated not only for the main narrative, but also for eight supplemental components (illustrations, marginal information, appendixes, etc.). Pronounced differences in topic emphasis among the 13 textbooks and systematic trends between countries are discussed. The strong emphasis on evolution in the USSR textbooks is impressive, but these textbooks also neglect some major themes, and they devote considerable text to certain concepts of an erroneous or dubious nature. The PRC (People's Republic of China) textbooks fail to introduce a considerable number of topics that are prominent in the other two systems. The eight USA textbooks exhibit great diversity in terms of total evolutionary content, number of themes treated, and which topics are emphasized. Unlike the USSR and PRC textbooks, the USA books position a vast amount of evolutionary content (26.5%-55.8%) within components outside the main narrative. The evolutionary text of USA editions is dispersed throughout and is presented surprisingly early. Several individual themes that proved particularly revealing are examined, including human evolution, law of recapitulation, evolution and religion, evidences of evolution, punctuated equilibria, and artificial selection.     

Analysis of Five High School Biology Textbooks Used in the United States for Inclusion of the Nature of Science

Five high school biology textbooks were examined to determine the inclusion of four aspects of the nature of science: (a) science as a body of knowledge, (b) science as a way of investigating, (c) science as a way of thinking, and (d) science and its interactions with technology and society. The textbooks analyzed were BSCS Biology—A Human Approach (Kendall/Hunt), BSCS Biology—An Ecological Approach (Kendall/Hunt), Biology—The Dynamics of Life (Glencoe), Modern Biology (Holt), and Prentice Hall Biology (Prentice Hall). The same six chapters or sections were analyzed in each textbook, which were the methods of science, cells, heredity, DNA, evolution, and ecology. A scoring procedure was used that resulted, for the most part, in good intercoder agreement with Cohen’s kappa values ranging from 0.36–1.00. The five recently published biology textbooks in the United States have a better balance of presenting biology with respect to the four themes of science literacy used in this research than those analyzed 15 years ago, especially with regard to devoting more text to engaging students in finding out answers, gathering information, and learning how scientists go about their work. Therefore, these biology textbooks are incorporating national science education reform guides that recommend a more authentic view of the scientific enterprise than similar textbooks used 15 years ago.     

The inclusion of STS material in the most frequently used secondary science textbooks in the U.S.

Science-technology-society (STS) has been identified by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the Departments of Education in a variety of states, and a variety of commissions and panels concerned with reform in science education as a new direction and goal for science education. Because most teachers are dependent upon textbooks for determining their curricula and teaching approaches, an investigation of 11 of the most frequently used secondary science textbooks in the U.S. were reviewed to determine the attention given to STS topics. The framework established by the Project Synthesis research team for STS was used to define STS topics. The 11 textbooks were examined in their entirety to determine space devoted to STS. Minimum interrater reliability was established at 0.80; any deviation resulted in further analysis. Comparisons were made of STS coverage by science disciplines and across the 7-12 grade levels. Results revealed that less than 7% of the narrative space is devoted to STS topics, with a range of 11.5% to 0.5%. Further, the coverage of STS topics decreases as grade level increases. A great discrepancy, therefore, exists between goals for science education (an STS emphasis) to actual coverage in the most frequently used textbooks.     

Quantitative Analysis of Representations of Nature of Science in Nordic Upper Secondary School Textbooks Using Framework of Analysis Based on Philosophy of Chemistry

The aim of this study was to assess how the different aspects of nature of science (NOS) were represented in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary school chemistry textbooks. The dimensions of NOS were analyzed from five popular chemistry textbook series. The study provides a quantitative method for analysis of representations of NOS in chemistry textbooks informed by domain-specific research on the philosophy of chemistry and chemical education. The selection of sections analyzed was based on the four themes of scientific literacy: knowledge of science, investigate nature of science, science as a way of thinking, and interaction of science, technology and society. For the second round of analysis the theme of science as a way of thinking was chosen for a closer inspection. The units of analysis in this theme were analyzed using seven domain specific dimensions of NOS: tentative, empirical, model-based, inferential, technological products, instrumentation, and social and societal dimensions. Based on the inter-rater agreement, the procedure and frameworks of analysis presented in this study was a reliable way of assessing the emphasis given to the domain specific aspects of NOS. All textbooks have little emphasis on the theme science as a way of thinking on a whole. In line with the differences of curricula, Swedish textbooks emphasize the tentative dimension of NOS more than Finnish textbooks. To provide teachers with a sufficiently wide variety of examples to discuss the different dimensions of NOS changes to the national core curricula are needed. Although changing the emphasis of the curricula would be the most obvious way to affect the emphasis of the textbooks, other efforts such as pre- and in-service courses for developing teachers understanding of NOS and pedagogic approaches for NOS instruction to their classroom practice might also be needed.     

方宗熙:新中国生物教科书的开拓者

方宗熙是我国著名的海洋生物学家、遗传学家、科普作家,也是新中国生物教科书的奠基者和开拓者之一。他在人民教育出版社成立初期先后担任生物组组长、生物编辑室主任,工作异常勤奋,成绩十分显著,主编了中学生物教科书《植物学》《动物学》《人体解剖生理学》《达尔文主义基础》和小学《自然》课本,还发表了许多论著。这些课本均入选国家中小学教科用书表,既是人教社最早自编的一套中学生物和小学自然教科书,也是新中国“第一套全国通用生物教材”和“第二套全国通用自然教材”。     

A method to quantify major themes of scientific literacy in science textbooks

Science textbooks are frequently used to convey a great deal of the information that students receive in science courses. They influence how science teachers organize the curriculum and how students perceive the scientific enterprise. An overreliance on these teaching aids often results in an overemphasis on terminology and vocabulary, and presents a false impression of the nature of science. As a result of their importance, a method was developed to assess the curricular emphasis in science textbooks. The procedure is explained in a 25-page manual to train researchers to determine the relative emphasis that has been given to (a) science as a body of knowledge, (b) science as a way of investigating, (c) science as a way of thinking, and (d) the interaction among science, technology, and society. Textbooks in the areas of life science, earth science, physical science, biology, and chemistry were used in the analyses. Interrater agreements of at least 80% and kappas of at least 0.73 were achieved in the content analyses among two experienced researchers and one science teacher who were given the training manual to learn the assessment procedure.     

Discursive space(s) in science curriculum materials in Canada,Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand

I examine how science curricula are complicit in maintaining the dominance of knowledge production by major powers, particularly the USA, through their efforts to tell the 'truth' about certain topics, and whether resistant counter-discourses are being mounted, especially in 'peripheral' states such as Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. I focus on one set of discourses within school textbooks, namely those about space science. My reading of selected textbooks indicates that students are presented with a limited and sanitized version of space science, with a heavy emphasis on US space-science achievements. Overall, attempts to counter this dominance occur through the inclusion of information about 'local' space-science achievements. Nevertheless, there is very little attempt to criticize, problematize or contextualize space science historically, socially and economically, with the result that the textbooks reproduce the discourses of space science promoted by organizations such as NASA.     

Temperature in Science Textbooks: Changes and Trends in Cross-National Perspective (1950–2000)

This study explores the way the concept of temperature was presented in lower-secondary science textbooks in France, Poland and England at the end of the 1950s and in the 2000s. I draw on history of science, history of education and book history to analyze different treatments of an apparently-similar scientific concept with regard to national contexts and diachronic change. Thus I include a presentation of the contexts in which the textbooks I study are published, and I analyse textbooks content revealing different approaches to present the notion of temperature. I argue that these results show that textbooks are valuable sources to investigate public representations of science and their shift over time, and I conclude by stressing the parallel of this evolution with change in everyday relationship with science and scientific instruments.     

Polysemy in the Domain-Specific Pedagogical Use of Graphs in Science Textbooks: The Case of an Electrocardiogram

Polysemy in graph-related practices is the phenomenon that a single graph can sustain different meanings assigned to it. Considerable research has been done on polysemy in graph-related practices in school science in which graphs are rather used as scientific tools. However, graphs in science textbooks are also used rather pedagogically to illustrate domain-specific textbook content and less empirical work has been done in this respect. The aim of this study is therefore to better understand polysemy in the domain-specific pedagogical use of graphs in science textbooks. From socio-cultural and cultural-historical perspectives, we perceive polysemy as irreducible to either the meaning-making (semiotic) resources provided by the graph or its readers who assign meaning to it. Departing from this framework, we simultaneously investigated: (a) the meanings 44 pre-university biology students assigned to the Cartesian plane of a graph that is commonly used as a pedagogical tool in Dutch high school biology textbooks (an electrocardiogram); (b) the semiotic resources provided by this graph; and (c) the educational practices of which it is supposedly a part according to the actions constituted by the textbooks that were to be conducted by students. Drawing on this case, we show polysemy in the pedagogical use of graphs in science textbooks. In turn, we show how this polysemy can be explained dialectically as the result of both the meaning-making resources provided by the textbooks and the graph-related practices in which students supposedly engaged by using their textbooks. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

The politics of teaching evolution,science education standards,and Being a creationist

This paper analyzes recent research conclusions regarding biology teacher attitudes toward evolution, and the variable implementation of evolution in the high schools nationwide. Berkman and Plutzer (2010. Evolution, creationism, and the battle to control America's classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press) conclude that due to a large portion of high school biology teachers compromising or downplaying evolution in the curriculum, the placement of evolution specific courses in biology teacher preparation programs will steer evolution deniers away from the field. In this paper, such arguments are situated in a larger historical and philosophical context of science education. By discussing recent sociological insight into the religiosity of education majors and education faculty, new questions are raised about student and teacher ontology, what this means for understanding science, the politics of science teacher education programs, and the epistemological and ethical limits of science education standards to dissolve Creationism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 122–139, 2012     

Measuring Textbook Content Coverage: Efficient Content Analysis with Lesson Sampling

This study addresses measurement issues around a standards-based content analysis of mathematics textbooks’ coverage of standards for use in large-scale monitoring of standards implementation as proposed in a 2013 report by the National Research Council. An earlier study produced an exhaustive content analysis of textbooks using the 2012 Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. This yielded an accurate and reliable portrait of a textbook's coverage of standards. However, such an in-depth analysis is not feasible for large-scale standards-implementation monitoring in which a large number of textbooks may need to be analyzed. To provide such a portrait with sufficient accuracy while also substantially reducing the associated resources needed to produce such a portrait, a simulation study was conducted with the exhaustively coded database to compare different sampling schemes. Results indicated that sampling 1 day from each week and coding the corresponding lessons led to sufficiently accurate representations of the overall content of the textbook. The results provide empirical evidence for large-scale standards-based content analyses of mathematics textbooks for monitoring standards implementation which could be adapted for other subject areas.     

Representations of nature of science in U.S. science standards: A historical account with contemporary implications

This study evaluated the representations of nature of science (NOS) in U.S. state science standards, and examined the changes in these representations from documents advanced in the 1980s through 2016. Drawing from the consensus perspective on NOS and prior studies focusing on the analysis of textual content, documents were inspected for 10 target NOS aspects: the empirical, tentative, inferential, creative, theory-driven, and social NOS, in addition to the myth of “The Scientific Method,” the nature of scientific theories and laws, and the social and cultural embeddedness of science. Ninety-eight state documents from 48 states were analyzed and multiple editions were collected from 34 states. Additionally, relevant materials from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were assessed for their coverage of the same NOS aspects. Collected materials were scored as whole documents, including over 11,000 pages of text in total, on each target aspect, which reflected the treatment (naïve vs. informed) of NOS in text and the manner of presentation (explicit vs. implicit). Overall, surprisingly, state standards documents have improved very little with respect to their NOS coverage over the last 30 years. NOS standards documents remain silent on a majority of key aspects of NOS, and the number of aspects showing explicit, informed representations has held constant. The NGSS performed well compared to many contemporary documents, but they failed to address all target NOS aspects in a desirable manner. Further analysis raised concerns with the degree that states fully adopt and disseminate standards in manner consistent with the NGSS despite stated intentions, which may negatively impact NOS coverage in instructional resources and classroom enactments. To improve NOS representations in standards, recognizing the role these documents play in shaping instructional materials and teaching in the science classroom, exemplars from analyzed materials were highlighted with informed and explicit representations of multiple aspects.     

Bioinformatics in high school biology curricula: a study of state science standards

The proliferation of bioinformatics in modern biology marks a modern revolution in science that promises to influence science education at all levels. This study analyzed secondary school science standards of 49 U.S. states (Iowa has no science framework) and the District of Columbia for content related to bioinformatics. The bioinformatics content of each state's biology standards was analyzed and categorized into nine areas: Human Genome Project/genomics, forensics, evolution, classification, nucleotide variations, medicine, computer use, agriculture/food technology, and science technology and society/socioscientific issues. Findings indicated a generally low representation of bioinformatics-related content, which varied substantially across the different areas, with Human Genome Project/genomics and computer use being the lowest (8%), and evolution being the highest (64%) among states' science frameworks. This essay concludes with recommendations for reworking/rewording existing standards to facilitate the goal of promoting science literacy among secondary school students.     

Biology teachers' attitudes toward and use of Indiana's evolution standards

This study examines the relationship between biology teachers' evolution teaching practices and their regard and use of Indiana state evolution standards. A survey developed by the authors contained five subscales: use of standards; attitude toward standards; attitude toward evolution standards; evolution teaching practices; and demographic information. This survey was administered to 229 Indiana biology teachers. Data were analyzed using the Rasch model to convert Likert rating scale data into ratio data used for parametric analyses. Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between use of standards and attitude toward standards, attitude toward standards and evolution teaching practices, and attitude toward evolution standards and days teaching evolution. These findings suggest practical relationships between standards use, teachers' regard of standards, and evolution teaching practices. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 236–257, 2007     

Banal Race‐thinking: Ties of blood,Canadian history textbooks and ethnic nationalism

This paper examines how the idea of “race” is represented in high school Canadian history textbooks. It looks at textbooks authorized by the Province of Ontario between 1940 and 1960 and those authorized after 2000. It is argued in this paper that even though historical racisms have increasingly made their way into Canadian history textbooks as valid and important topics of study, and despite explicit efforts by those responsible for the production of these textbooks to clarify the meaning and consequences of racism, the idea of “race” has persisted in much the same way as it did centuries ago – as a take‐for‐granted fact of Nature tied to ideas about human type, lineage and heritage. Through problematic use of the term “race” and through a redundant emphasis on seemingly neutral categories such as origin, ethnicity and descent, the textbooks preoccupy themselves with human typology and articulate a sense that blood matters in the constitution and construction of the Canadian nation.     

Status of science education in Illinois elementary schools, 1987

What is the status of science education in Illinois public elementary schools? A research survey of elementary teachers was conducted in 1987 to help answer this question. Among the areas of science teaching assessed were types of instructional programs utilized, preparation for science teaching, science in-service, obstacles to science teaching, and administrative and community support for science education. Results were compared with those gathered in a similar survey conducted ten years earlier and with other state and national surveys. Findings indicate that science instruction at the elementary level remains dependent on textbooks in spite of research that indicates the efficacy of hands-on science. Teachers are frustrated by lack of time, equipment, facilities and the low priority science has in their school districts. Many of the teachers fall short of meeting the minimum standards for science teacher preparation as suggested by the National Science Teachers Association. In spite of recent reform efforts, it is clear that science instruction has not yet become a priority. This report discusses the implications of these findings and makes suggestions for future studies.     

Queering high school biology textbooks

As teachers committed to educating all students, we need to learn more about how instructional materials shape representations of sexuality and gender. Through its insistent deconstruction of the norms that structure practice and belief, queer theory offers perspectives from which science educators can question assumptions embedded in textbooks. This article applies queer theory to analyze eight biology textbooks used in the United States. Specifically, we ask how biology textbooks address sexuality outside the heterosexual norm and if they propagate heteronormative attitudes. The textbooks examined offer deafening silences, antiseptic factoids, socially sanitized concepts, and politically correct binary‐gendered illustrations. In these textbooks, the term homosexuality was used only in the context of AIDS where, along with iv drug users, they were identified as an affected group. The pervasive acceptance of heteronormative behavior privileges students that fit the heterosexual norm, and oppresses through omission and silence those who do not. We offer implications for practice to help science educators broaden their perspectives on the constructs of sexuality and gender to construct new ways of knowing and understanding differences in science classrooms and the natural world. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 617–636, 2004