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.     

Integration und Suche in digitalen Bibliotheken: Ein logikbasierter Ansatz

Zusammenfassung.   In diesem Beitrag wird eine „digitale Bibliothek” definiert als informationelle Umgebung, in der in integrierter Form verteilte Informationsquellen zug?nglich sind. Die Suche ist normalerweise ein interaktiver Proze?, in dem verfügbare Informationen in unterschiedlichen Formaten und in unterschiedlichen Kontexten benutzt werden. Ein wichtiges Forschungsthema im Bereich digitaler Bibliotheken ist daher der Entwurf anwendungsspezifischer Methoden für den Zugang zu heterogenen Wissensquellen, die sich bzgl. Thema, Format, Verfügbarkeit, Qualit?t und vieler anderer Eigenschaften stark unterscheiden k?nnen. Um dieser Anforderung gerecht zu werden, müssen die eingesetzten Information-Retrieval-Systeme eine sehr pr?zise Suche erm?glichen. Dabei reicht es nicht aus, lediglich Dokumente und Daten nachzuweisen, vielmehr müssen die gefundenen Informationen im Kontext des Informationsbedarfs des Benutzers eingebunden sein. Für diese Aufgabe schlagen wir Retrieval-Methoden vor, die auf abduktiver Logik basieren. Eingegangen am 19. Januar 1998 / Angenommen am 28. Juli 1998     

Students’ intuitive explanations of the causes of homologies and adaptations

This paper reports data from a study aiming to explore secondary students’ preconceptions and explanations about evolutionary processes. Students may exhibit both alternative and scientifically acceptable conceptions and bring different ones into play in response to different problem contexts. Hence, the examination of their explanations before instruction within different problem contexts is expected to highlight the concepts that instruction should put more emphasis on. To achieve this, an open-ended questionnaire in conjunction with semi-structured interviews was used to allow students to express their own views on issues related to evolution. Students’ explanations highlighted their lack of knowledge of important evolutionary concepts such as common descent and natural selection. In addition, many students explained the origin of traits as the result of evolution through need via purposeful change or as carefully designed adaptations. Rather than evolutionary, final causes formed the basis for the majority of students’ explanations. In many cases students provided different explanations for the same process to tasks with different content. It seems that the structure and the content of the task may have an effect on the explanations that students provide. Implications for evolution education are discussed and a minimal explanatory framework for evolution is suggested.