title: How Biology textbooks of two different socio-cultural contexts may contribute to students' scientific literacy
Creators: name: Calado, Florbela
Publisher: name: University of Bayreuth
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Textbook analysis
subject: scientific literacy
subject: science
subject: technology
subject: society
subject: environment
subject: STSE issues
subject: misconceptions
subject: sociocultural context
subject: 370

description: A main goal of science teaching is to provide the basis for students to become scientifically literate citizens. In the context of daily classroom practice, textbooks are potentially powerful tools to support the achievement of this goal, though their adaptation to the most recent epistemological paradigms is often delayed and they may even convey inadequate views of science and technology.  An international comparative study of textbooks therefore investigated the messages conveyed and sought to identify sociocultural influences.  Thus, four sub-studies were completed:   The first sub-study (A) analysed the scientific literacy concept (SL), with the identification of the requirements to reach scientifically literacy. Within the broad spectrum of this concept, the understanding of science and technology was subdivided into three frameworks: (i) Nature of Science (NoS), (ii) Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NoSI) and (iii) Relationships between Science, Technology Society and Environment (STSE issues). The potential of textbooks to provide SL was elaborated, as were misconceptions that can represent obstacles to the acquisition of a fair image of science.       In the second sub-study (B), a set of criteria for supporting both a qualitative and a quantitative science textbook analysis was extracted in order to: (i) determine how textbooks approach STSE issues – students’ understanding of STSE issues is considered a cornerstone of SL – and (ii) identify the potential presence of decontextualized and socially neutral views of science (DSNVS), a known relevant misconception. Additionally, the suitability of the criteria was proven, by comparing the content relating to genetics of two Bavarian Biology textbooks for the 11th grade. In this context, the necessity of the addition of the dimension “T” (for technology) was recognised, in order to elucidate the interplay between science and technology (therefore, the misconception was renamed decontextualized and socially neutral views of science and technology: DSNVST).  In the third sub-study (C), four Portuguese textbooks, two for the 9th and two for the 12th grade (corresponding to Bavarian grade 11), were compared, both horizontally (i.e., inside a school grade) and vertically (between school grades). The analysis focussed on the potential influence of the sociocultural context, on the selection of STSE content, on the discourse used, as well as on the concepts and potential misconceptions about science and technology displayed by the textbooks.  In the fourth sub-study (D), two 9th and two 11th grade Bavarian Biology textbooks were compared with two 9th and two 12th grade Portuguese ones. Some clear differences between both nationalities appeared when the sociocultural context of each country was characterized. Factors determining the differences displayed by the textbooks, both in terms of the approach to STSE issues, as well as of the indicators of the misconception DSNVST were also identified.