Energy Awareness Education Appearing in Natural Sciences Textbooks From Grade 1 to 12

Abstract

At the time of the current global energy crisis energy awareness education in school is increasingly important. Textbooks directly helping and influencing learning play an important role in this, especially in the case of natural sciences. Thus, the aim of this research was to show how science textbooks help to educate energy awareness (EA). Regarding this, 67 Hungarian science textbooks were analysed using a quantitative textbook analysis from grade 1 to 12. When studying the knowledge on EA, the occurrence of the key concepts related to EA included in the National Core Curriculum (2020) was examined according to content, pedagogical and structural dimensions. According to the results, the most common key concepts were renewable energy, and energy saving, while the least common was the concept of energy crisis. The textbooks studied increasingly communicate key concepts in the form of definitions in the main textbook text at the level of information, moving towards the upper grades, and paying less attention to the attitude-forming elements. There are few tasks that require the application of knowledge about EA, especially those that also develop digital competence. In this form, the textbooks studied are less suited to developing an attitude toward EA, which does not help in making the right decisions in relation to EA. Keywords: energy awareness, science textbooks, quantitative assessment