Representation of nature of science in science textbooks of the last 20 years

Abstract

The objective of the current research is to examine the way in which the nature of science dimensions are represented in the secondary school science textbooks of grades 5 through 8 in the last twenty years. It is also within the scope of the research to investigate how these dimensions in the textbooks changed during the twenty years. The document analysis method was used in order to qualitatively gather data for the research. The data sources in the study consist of a total of 62 science textbooks which were approved for the school curriculum by the Ministry of National Education. Among the examined textbooks, only the textbooks published in 2020 were created by private publishing houses, and all other textbooks were developed by the Ministry of National Education publishing houses. Textbooks were examined in terms of ten sub-dimensions, such as “tentative”, “empirical”, “creative”, “theory-driven”, “inferential”, “scientific theories”, “myth of the scientific method”, “social and cultural embeddedness of science”, “scientific laws”, and “social dimensions of science”, within the scope of the nature of science. The examination of the textbooks in terms of the representation of the specified sub-dimensions was conducted utilizing the detailed rubric established by Abd-El-Khalick, Waters, and Le (2008). In light of 2 the examination of the science textbooks, "creative", "tentative", and "inferential" sub-dimensions were mostly represented, followed by "empirical", "theory-driven", and "social and cultural embeddedness of science". The sub-dimensions of "scientific theories", "scientific laws", “myth of the scientific method”, and "social dimensions of science" are either very limited or not represented. However, in general, it has been concluded that all science books published in the last 20 years in each grade inadequately represented the nature of science sub-dimensions.