| Abstract: | Abstract Elementary and middle school science texts were analyzed for the presence of evolutionary protoconcepts, which are defined as topics that prepare students to study evolution in later years. Elementary and middle school texts were content-analyzed for protoconcepts in both life science and earth science. Seventeen concepts considered important for student understanding of evolution were gleaned from the misconception literature and used to review the life science texts. Concepts used to analyze other texts were chosen by exploring all texts used in the analysis for any topics that might qualify as evolutionary protoconcepts, thus generating grounded theory. Coverage of evolutionary protoconcepts varies considerably among published textbooks. We recommend using this analysis when considering textbooks for adoption and for supplementing texts currently in use. We also recommended this type of analysis of textbooks for inclusion of other topics of interest to science education research. |
