What Makes Source of Scientific Information Good? Reflection on Primary and Junior High School Textbooks and their use by Teachers Presenting Particular Teaching Style through Example of Amphibians and Reptiles

Abstract

Textbooks are one of the most important teaching aids in education. They often serve as the main or the only source of information for students and teachers. The aim of this study was to analyze the sources of students' scientific knowledge-teachers and textbooks, with focus on information about amphibians and reptiles. Authors have conducted an analysis of the content of twelve nature and biology textbooks, with the focus on: a core biological idea, the presence of surveys and summaries, appealing graphics and factual errors. The teachers participated in in-depth interviews, and were analyzed for the reflective insight considering e.g. presence of substantial mistakes or shaping students' attitudes. Authors proposed new framework for describing teaching styles based on the dominant characteristics of their teaching process, the teachers were classified as-Didactical, Pedagogical or Ethical teacher. None of the analyzed books were flawless. The most common errors concerned the movement apparatus and the taxonomy. Authors have found out statistically significant correlation between teachers with wider knowledge, and their declaration of more diverse and suitable methods during the lessons. Teachers who do not declare such activities were more probable to put less focus on shaping students attitudes and to make more errors.

The Effectiveness of Digital Science Scrapbook on Students’ Science Visual Literacy

“…Learning materials have to compete for attention in a visual environment. As a result, all learning resources, from traditional textbooks to the latest learning technologies, contain many pictorial representations that vary significantly from realistic pictures and photos to very abstract diagrams and graphs (Chyleńska & Rybska, 2019). The emphasis on image-based learning is reflected in the widespread use of technical drawings by researchers and technology experts in various fields.…”

What Can We Do for Amphibians and Reptiles at Schools? Between Personal Conceptions, Conceptual Change and Students’ Pro-Environmental Attitudes

“…At the same time, the control group more often correctly classified salamander as an amphibian when compared to post-intervention students, despite overall worse results with classifying other animals. This might be explained by results from textbook analysis where salamanders were found to be widely represented as amphibians because of their attractive appearance, in great disproportion to newts—another representative of Caudata amphibians [27]. Also, this conception is consistent with the results of intervention, where students correctly classified in post-test salamanders as amphibians, but by guessing and not by reflective analysis.…”

“…After analysis of the sources of students’ scientific knowledge [27] and students’ conceptions, a list of common elements in the concepts of “amphibian” and “reptile,” together with alternative conceptions, was made and common elements of those concepts were chosen—a list of them is presented in the results.…”

“…In our previous work, we have highlighted several wrong or misleading statements in textbooks [26]. Furthermore, teachers were found to be prone to making similar inaccuracies [27]. Those mistakes make alternative conceptions even harder to change, as a specific incorrect idea is supported by a source of scientific knowledge.…”

How about the Attitudes towards Nature? Analysis of the Nature and Biology Primary School Education Curricula in Poland

“…Teachers declared that it is difficult to escape the teaching tradition, and the researchers evaluating the program reached very similar conclusions [77]. Similar challenges in teacher education and in the introduction of new teaching styles are also observed in Portugal, France, Great Britain, Taiwan, and Poland [78,79]. The main problem is that the style of the teacher and their way of conducting classes is usually similar to how they were taught at school.…”