Published in volume 3 number 1, 27 March 2010
Biology school textbooks and their role for students’ success in learning sciences
Abstract: What is the quality
of the Romanian biology textbooks? The article gives answers to this question
by watching the evolution of a textbook and by suggesting an exercise for
analyzing and assessing the alternative biology textbooks. The opportunity of
this analysis has been offered to students, future teachers of biology, around
the time when they will directly use the textbooks for preparing and teaching
the lessons. The main objective of this coordinated exercise of exploring the
quality of the alternative biology textbooks is the development of the
students’ abilities to critically analyze the textbooks which they will use in
the near future and for which they will have to express alternative options. The interests of the
authors are also focused on the role of the textbooks in the learning process, on the analysis of their
contribution to the students’ progress in the scientific knowledge but also to
their personal development. The textbook, as a source of the basic knowledge
of biology as a school subject, but
also as a collector of methodological ideas, is a „territory” that is
insufficiently explored by students in the initial teaching preparation.
Key words: Biology, school
textbooks, evaluation
Received 25 February 2010, accepted 20 March 2010
Pages 1-10.
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