A study of Analyzing the Historical Content of ElementaryScience and Technology Textbooks

• Main Author: 呂紹海
• Other Authors: 巫俊明
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/52434573875269975878

碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 應用科學系碩士班 === 95 === The purpose of this study was to analyze the historical content of elementary science and technology textbooks through the content-analysis method. The study involves both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The ruler was used to measure the area of historical information, and the checklist developed by Leite (2002) was used to count the numbers corresponding to the frequency of the items in the textbook. The results were as follows: (1) the area of historical information in science and technology textbooks is apparently insufficient; (2) most of the historical contents included in the textbooks analyzed are short biographies of scientist; moreover, they seldom present the dynamic nature of science; (3) the scientific or technological contexts are used in all the textbooks while the social and political context is never used; (4) the textbooks analyzed tend to give fundamental or complementary role to the historical content in the teaching of science, and include very few activies on the history of science; (5) pictures of scientists, pictures from machines, lab equipment, and texts by the textbook author(s) are mainly the materials used by most textbook authors to present the historical information; (6) all the textbooks analyzed include historical references in some of the chapters (i.e. the internal consistency of the textbook can be seen as heterogeneous); moreover, all the four textbooks include only references to science books that contain some historical information and website information; (7) the scientists’ childhood, personality, characteristic, attitude toward working, and the scientific method presented in all the textbooks analyzed are mainly the typical stereotypes about scientists; (8) observation is theory-laden, invention element in scientists’ investigation, and the interaction between science, society, and culture are seldom presented in the historical information of textbooks analyzed; (9) most scientists mentioned in the historical information of textbooks analyzed are Western, scientists from Taiwan or China, and female scientists are relatively less mentioned. Finally the implications of the results will be discussed.