A study of Analyzing the Historical Content of Secondary Science and Technology Textbooks

• Main Author: 潘菁瑩
• Other Authors: 巫俊明 博士
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/66275914098794313823

碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 數理研究所(自然組) === 98 === The purpose of this research was to analyze the historical content of secondary science and technology (SST) textbooks and secondary science textbooks issued by National Institute for Compilation and Translation (NICT), and compare the difference in historical content in current primary and secondary science and technology textbooks. The study samples were SST textbooks and NICT secondary science textbooks. The main tool utilized was a checklist developed by Leite (2002) for analyzing the historical content of science textbooks. The results were: (1) among the three textbooks (SST textbooks, NICT secondary science textbooks, and Primary Science and Technology [PST] textbooks), the SST textbooks incorporates the greatest amount of historical information; (2) most of the historical information is in a little box independent of the text for all the three textbooks; (3) all the three textbooks present historical content with various materials and in very similar fashion, and of those, most are secondary sources and texts by the textbook author(s); (4) for the three textbooks, the historical content are mainly based on scientific contexts with lower proportions relating to religion or politics; (5) the proportion of NICT textbooks which give fundamental role to the historical content is higher than PST and SST textbooks. The SST textbooks have half fundamental and half complementary historical content whereas the proportion of historical content in PST textbooks varies depending on the editions. Compared to SST textbooks, NICT and PST textbooks have more historical content, but most are supplementary materials that are voluntary for students as well as having very few arranged learning activities dealing with history of science; (6) the internal consistency of the three textbooks is “heterogeneous”. Furthermore, all the three textbooks include references to “history of science books” and “science books with historical information”; (7) most of the historical information in SST textbooks is over-simplified and the proportion describing real scientific evolution is not high. In addition, most of the historical information in SST textbooks were given “complementary” role, with few extended learning activities, thus both of the SST and PST textbooks are insufficient to achieve the course objective of “allowing students to understand the nature of science and experience the methods and spirit of scientific inquiry”. Finally, the implications of the results and the suggestions for future research will be discussed.