EXAMINATION OF CHEMICAL REPRESENTATIONS IN TURKISH HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS

In many high school chemistry courses, chemistry textbooks often lead teachers when they decide what chemical concepts they teach and the order of teaching these concepts (Justi & Gilbert, 2002; Drechsler & Schmidt, 2005). Relying on textbooks’ influence on teaching, textbooks are written assuming that most students (Chiang-Soong & Yager, 1993) and teachers can comprehend them. On the contrary, researchers have shown that use of vague language in textbooks can cause student misconceptions in chemistry (e.g., for electrochemistry see Sanger & Greenbowe, 1999; for chemical equilibrium see Pedrosa & Dias, 2000; for chemical bonding see Bergqvist, Drechsler, De Jong, & Rundgren, 2013). In addition to language used, how the information is presented is of crucial importance in students’ learning. When information is presented with text only, students have difficulties in remembering (Mayer, 2002) and comprehending the material (Carney & Levin, 2002). Chemistry as a discipline of science is both abstract and multi-representational (i.e., macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic) in nature (Johnstone, 2000a, 2000b; Talanquer, 2011; Taber, 2013). However, multirepresentational nature of chemistry compensates the limitations of its abstract nature. Research evidences have clearly indicated that using multiple representations when presenting information increases conceptual understanding (Ainsworth, 2006), comprehension, and remembering (Carney & Levin, 2002). Representations also have become ‘‘. one of the most pervasive and visible elements of the modern-day science textbook’’ (Lee, 2010, p. 1099) and chemistry textbooks (Gkitzia, Salta, & Tzougraki, 2011). More importantly, well-designed textbooks in terms of visuals are beneficial for students to understand the difficult concepts as well as to avoid misconceptions (Khine, 2013). However, representations have potential to create confusion (Stern & Roseman, 2004) and might limit students’ learning when excessively used (Woodward, 1993). Therefore, representations should be used in caution. Bearing these issues in mind, the aim of this research was to investigate the types and characteristics of representations (i.e., interpretation of surface features, relation to the text, the properties of captions, and degree of correlation between representations) in high school chemistry textbooks (i.e., from 9th to 12th) in Turkey. Abstract. The aim of this research was to examine the chemical representations that are present in Turkish high school chemistry textbooks. Content analysis was the method of analysis. Four chemistry textbooks, which were commonly used in Turkey, for each grade (i.e., from 9th to 12th), were selected. When evaluating the representations, a rubric including five main criteria was used: (1) type of representation, (2) interpretation of representations’ surface features, (3) representations’ relatedness to text, (4) properties of representations’ caption, and (5) degree of correlation between subordinates comprising a multiple representation. The results of the research revealed that the chemical representations used in the textbooks are mainly macroscopic, symbolic, and hybrid. Majority of the representations had explicit surface features and appropriate captions. Moreover, they were completely related to the text. Most of the multiple representations had sufficient links between their subordinates. Recommendations for textbook writers and future research are provided.