The Evaluative Study of E-textbook in Nature and Living Science and Technology Fields in Primary School

• Main Authors: Wen-Hsuan Peng, 彭文萱
• Other Authors: Chao-Ti Hsiung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/97627583398939712765

博士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 自然科學教育學系 === 102 === As the new digital era is approaching, it is imperative to seek changes in the present teaching forms, which has given rise to the digitalization of learning resources. In response, textbook publishers have launched e-textbooks in succession, which emphasize synchronous and interactive teaching design, and integrate such functions as editing, retrieval and storage, to encourage teachers to adopt them in teaching. This study explores how e-textbooks are used as teaching media in the fields of nature and living technology, and suggestions are also provided for establishing the high-quality scientific e-textbook evaluation indicators to be used as references for developing e-textbooks in Taiwan and evaluating the existing ones. This study design is divided into three stages. In stage one, it selected 236 metascience teachers as the survey respondents using the Questionnaire on Using E-textbooks in the Fields of Nature and Living Technology Fields in Primary Schools based on the Technology Acceptance Model theoretical foundation. After which, among the said respondents, twenty-four teachers were invited for an in-depth interview, and the classroom behaviors of four teachers were also observed, so as to learn how teachers use e-textbooks in their teaching. The study shows that when using e-textbooks in teaching, most teachers (63 percent) use them directly, primarily focusing on applying their basic functions, then multi-media playing, and lastly accessing Internet resources. Those teachers’ “Attitude towards Using Them” and “Behavioral Intentions” are influenced by “Perceived Usefulness” and “Perceived Ease of Use”. In view of this, teachers expect that the future development of e-textbooks will not only focus on enhancing the teaching evaluation function, but also on developing the humanized and diversified features in their design. In stage two, the teachers’ suggestions and feedbacks were combined together with the literature analysis to draft the indicators for high-quality scientific e-textbooks, which then go through the Delphi technique to collect opinions from experts and scholars before establishing the “Indicators for High-quality Scientific E-textbooks”. To comply with the three principal standards in the fields of nature and living technology fields, namely, “teaching material”, “digital technology” and “scientific nature”, the final evaluation indicators for high-quality scientific e-textbooks were decided on as containing three standards, eight dimensions, twenty-three sub-dimensions and fifty-one indicators after three consecutive rounds of Delphi technique questionnaire surveys. In stage three, the contents of the e-textbooks published by three textbook publishers were analyzed based on the “Evaluation Indicators for High-quality Scientific E-textbooks”, to assess their quality. It is found that in respect of the standards for textbooks, the three editions all comply with the textbook contents approved by the national authorities and conform to the indicators. As for the digital standards, while technically they comply with the indicators, there is still room for improvement in the application of digital technology and the teaching purposes. Aside from this, the three books all fail to demonstrate a satisfactory performance in their expression of the scientific nature, especially in conveying the two sub-dimensions, namely, scientific methods and scientific evidences.