Oral Language and the Black Dialect Speaker

In this study, the authors investigate the impact of authoring hypermedia on English as a second language sixth- and seventh-grade students' academic English vocabulary and underlying-concept development. Analysis of data showed that students participating in hypermedia projects, as opposed to traditional science or social science curriculum, were better able to acquire content-specific concept terms. Interview data revealed that students found projects worthwhile because they allowed students to personalize their learning and accomplishments.     

Factors in life science textbooks that may deter girls' interest in science

In order to examine factors that may deter girls' interest in science, five seventh-grade life science textbooks were analyzed for sexism in language, images, and curricular content, and for features of activities that have been found to be useful for motivating girls. Although overt sexism was not apparent, subtle forms of sexism in the selection of language, images, and curricular content were found. Activities had some features useful to girls, but other features were seldom included. Teachers may wish to use differences that were found among texts as one basis for text selection.     

Social issues in high school biology textbooks: 1963– 1983

Twenty-two high school biology textbooks published between 1963 and 1983 were analyzed for their treatment of social issues. Textbooks were selected from among those used most frequently by teachers and/or having the highest sales. The textbooks were read in random order and the amount of space, to the nearest tenth of a page, devoted to each social issue was expressed as a percentage of total length of text. The results showed that attention to social issues decreased between 1963 and 1983 in the textbooks studied. The implications of these results for biology education in the 1980s are discussed.     

Motivation and strategy use in science: Individual differences and classroom effects

This study examines individual and classroom-level differences in motivation and strategy usage in sixth- and seventh-grade middle school science. Results suggest that students who experience academic difficulties differ from both high achieving and special education students on measures of self-efficacy, goal orientation, expectancy, value, and self-concept of ability in science, with students who experience academic difficulties occasionally demonstrating less adaptive patterns of motivation and cognition than special education students in science. We used hierarchical linear modeling to examine between-classroom differences in learning-focused goal orientation. Findings indicate that students who have science teachers that use ability-focused instructional practices (e.g., pointing out the best students as an example to others) are less learning focused, and exhibit a diminished relation between self-concept of ability and being learning focused in science. Implications for science education reform are discussed.     

A quantitative analysis of high school chemistry textbooks for scientific literacy themes and expository learning aids

The purpose of this study was to examine the content of seven high school chemistry textbooks for curriculum balance and emphasis on the following aspects of scientific literacy: (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. In addition, the number of textbook pages, vocabulary terms, pictures, questions, and problems at the end of the chapter were determined. The textbook is an important teaching aid in high school chemistry courses, which conveys some of the information that students receive and influences how students perceive this subject. The majority of chemistry textbooks we analyzed stress science as a body of knowledge, place some emphasis on science as a way of investigating, have practically eliminated science as a way of thinking, and devote very little text to the interaction among science, technology, and society. Furthermore, these are voluminous books that range in length from 466 to 729 pages, with as many as 60 questions per chapter.     

A pedagogical analysis of science textbooks: How can we proceed?

This paper discusses some of the available frameworks for the pedagogical analysis of school science textbooks. First, it distinguishes between (a) studies which focus on elements of textbooks, such as the content, vocabulary, illustrations used, and the teaching methods promoted; and (b) those which consider the principles that organize the content and the form of presentation. In attempting to consider the sorts of principles that may be used in the studies categorised under (b), two crucial issues are discussed. The first issue refers to the relationship between scientific knowledge and school knowledge, which, as the relevant literature suggests, might not be conceived merely as a simplified “casting” of the scientific structure, but rather should be understood as a complex social process. The second issue explicitly addresses the nature of the pedagogic relationship and the place of the pedagogic text within it. Recent views about the nature of knowledge, it is argued, would suggest a reconceptualisation of the teaching activity, and indicate a model according to which the three elements of the teaching situation-the content, the pupil and the teacher—are seen as being (re)constituted in their articulation within and through the text(book). Thus, for example, what is to be a competent pupil in this approach is a function of the text. On the basis of these considerations, three approaches to the analysis of science textbooks are discussed: the socio-cognitive, the sociolinguistic and the socio-epistemic. The relative merits of the third approach are considered, and some examples are used from Greek science textbooks.     

外察与内省:数字教材与资源评价标准研究

为应对全球教育信息化、数字化、网络互联和媒体融合的挑战,众多国家不断加大研制和改进数字教材与资源质量评价标准的力度。外察西方主要国家数字教材与资源评价标准体系特点及变化,内省我国数字教材资源发展现状,可以从内容、教学、技术设计、评价、提供深度学习机会、获取性及实用性、安全七个维度构建我国数字教材与资源评价标准,从补充管理办法、健全体制机制、加强队伍建设三个层面提出加强我国数字教材与资源建设和管理的对策建议。     

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.     

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.     

小学科学课程资源的开发与利用

小学科学课程资源的开发与利用是目前我国小学科学课程改革特别关注的热点问题之一。通过对小学科学课程资源的开发模式、小学科学教师资源的培育、小学科学教材资源的开发与利用、小学科学实验室资源的建设、小学科学课堂生成资源的有效利用和小学科学校园文化的营造等方面在理论与实践上对此问题进行了较深入的研究,建立起符合新课标、适应新教材、切合学生特点和时代特点的小学科学课程支持系统,以促进小学科学新课程的顺利实施和稳步推进。     

The effects of group composition on achievement,interaction, and learning efficiency during computer-based cooperative instruction

This study investigated the effects of cooperative group composition, student ability, and learning accountability on achievement, interaction, and instructional efficiency during computer-based instruction. A total of 125 sixth- and seventh-grade students were randomly assigned to heterogeneous or homogeneous dyads. Groups were designated as having either group or individual account-ability for mastery of lesson content. Cooperative dyads completed a tutorial on a novel symbolic mathematics topic, featuring basic symbol learning and application of the symbols. Indicators of ongoing cooperation were collected during instruction. Five days later, students completed a posttest. Low-ability students interacted more and completed the instruction more efficiently in heterogeneous than in homogeneous groups. High-ability students completed the instruction more efficiently in homogeneous than in heterogeneous groups. Cooperation was significantly related to achievement for heterogeneous ability groups, but not for either homogeneous high- or low-ability students.     

The Portrayal of Industrial Melanism in American College General Biology Textbooks

The phenomenon of industrial melanism (IM) became widely acknowledged as a well-documented example of natural selection largely as a result of H.B.D. Kettlewell’s pioneering research on the subject in the early 1950s. It was quickly picked up by American biology textbooks starting in the early 1960s and became ubiquitous throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. While recent research on the phenomenon broadly supports Kettlewell’s explanation of IM in the peppered moth, which in turn has strengthened this example of natural selection, textbook IM entries have actually declined in recent years in favor of other examples. In a previous paper, we drew attention to the pivotal role visual aspects played in the introduction of IM into (and its subsequent removal from) textbook accounts. The present article continues this investigation by analyzing textual passages on industrial melanism within a stratified random sample of textbooks from the 1960s to the 2000s. The fact that this example of natural selection was included by multiple publishers independently, in a short period of time, makes it uniquely qualified for a textbook study of this kind. The purpose of the present project was to determine whether these textbooks contain what has come to be known as the standard peppered moth story. Three complete series were also inspected for change across time. Our analysis focused on (1) the amount of text devoted to industrial melanism; (2) what specific science content elements were present; and (3) what, if any, nature of science (NOS) aspects were included. The study documents an increase in the amount of text devoted to industrial melanism over the decades. In spite of this increase, only modest changes in science content and NOS aspects were found.     

Internet Resources for Middle School Science: Golden Opportunity or “Silicon Snake Oil”?

This study examines the experiences of six teachers at three schools in learning about and beginning to implement or enhance project-based learning in their middle school science classrooms using a variety of resources available through the Internet. Data were gathered over a one-year period ending in March, 1996. As a result of their experience, teachers became aware of the possibilities and the problems created by both the nearly unlimited quantity of information available on the Internet and the limited quality and relevance of much of that information. Positive and negative experiences described by teachers and the variety of issues and concerns which they reflect are compared and contrasted, including: unreliability of network connections; potential availability to students of inappropriate resources; consistency of classroom organization structures necessary to facilitate Internet access with normally preferred teaching methods; the dependence of the efficiency and motivational value of project-based units on students' appreciation of the nature and power of the technology; conflict between curriculum space devoted to teaching about technology and that devoted to substantively using the technology to teach about science and related subjects; the on call convenience of the Internet; the up-to-date nature of much of the scientific information available on the Internet; Internet-based information (versus textbook information) as authoritative yet not impersonal.     

Seeking evidence for “curricular relevancy” within undergraduate,liberal arts chemistry textbooks

Interviews with representatives of nine municipal agencies involved in air‐quality education were analyzed for concepts and skills perceived as important for citizens in addressing air‐quality concerns. Interviewees focused mainly on general air quality‐related understandings (60.2%), although cognitive skills (22.0%) and specific concepts (17.8%) were also mentioned. The major categories of desired air‐quality understandings identified in interviews included sources, impact, detection, and transport of air pollutants. Identified cognitive skills focused on information‐gathering and ‐evaluating abilities, enabling informed air‐quality decision making. Eight Learning Goal Sets generated from interview data and validated via peer and member checks helped guide a content analysis of six undergraduate liberal arts chemistry textbooks. Overall, sampled chemistry textbooks supported the previously identified air‐quality concepts and skills. However, few textbooks directly confronted interviewee‐reported, air quality‐related misconceptions and inabilities. Instructional and research implications of these validated air‐quality learning goals and subsequent textbook analyses are discussed. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 174–196, 2008.     

Do middle school life science textbooks provide a balance of scientific literacy themes?

Four themes of scientific literacy have been synthesized to analyze science textbooks for this purpose: (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 (STS). The intercoder agreement between two researchers who coded the units of analysis for the four themes was high. The life science textbooks examined in this study seem to stress two aspects of scientific literacy—science as a body of knowledge and science as a way of investigating. These textbooks devote practically no text to science as a way of thinking. Very little text is devoted to the interaction of science, technology, and society. There was at least one chapter in each textbook that addressed the nature of science and its relationship to life science. Most of the analyzed textbooks present the stereotypical steps of the scientific method and do not provide a balance of scientific literacy themes.     

论日本历史教科书问题及其危害性

198 2年以来 ,日本右翼势力不断挑起历史教科书问题 ,妄图通过歪曲历史 ,美化侵略战争 ,宣扬“皇国史观” ,以达到“排除自虐史观教科书”的目的 ,为侵略战争翻案 ,为强人上台 ,实质上是为军国主义复活铺路。     

A critique of water scarcity discourses in educational policy and textbooks in Jordan

This article investigates the representation of water scarcity in Jordanian textbooks to understand its role on improving education on environmental sustainability. People's understanding of an issue guides their actions toward finding and implementing appropriate solutions to what they perceive as a problem. Discourses are key in constructing people's understanding of issues, in this case, water scarcity. This article shows the role of textbooks and of the educational system in constructing a discourse of water scarcity that frames the issue as due to nature, to neighboring countries, and to refugees. It then demonstrates how this framing opens and drives toward supply-side solutions and discusses to what extent the representations of water scarcity strive to achieve a better education on environmental sustainability.     

Putting textbooks to work: empowering religious education teachers

In 2002 a paper entitled Writing Church‐sponsored Religious Education Textbooks by Engebretson was published in the British Journal of Religious Education. This paper reported on and analysed some aspects of the development, by the Catholic Archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, of a series of religious education textbooks to be used in all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. The paper contextualised the series, entitled To Know, Worship and Love, in the field of literature on textbooks in the classroom. It discussed some local issues that had led to the decision to produce religious education textbooks, explained and justified the choice of content for the middle secondary books, and discussed the presentation of the books. In the final section of the paper, it was indicated that future papers would report on the evaluation of the series and its implementation, as a three‐stage research project was completed. The first stage of the research project collected responses from teachers and Religious Education Co‐ordinators (RECs) to the Years 7 and 9 books, that is those books written for students of 12 and 14 years respectively. This paper discusses a significant finding that emerged from this stage of the research, that is the relationship between textbook use and level of qualifications and experience in the teaching of religious education. This major finding is of interest in relation to a range of educational issues in religious education, including the role and use of resources, the mandation of resources by Church hierarchies, creativity and flexibility in teaching religious education, teacher confidence and experience and the important issue of content knowledge. Further papers will explore evaluations of the Years 8 and 10 books, and overall issues that have emerged from this Archdiocesan curriculum project.