Science Textbooks: Aids or Obstacles to Inquiry Teaching? Science Teachers’ Experiences in Norwegian Secondary Schools
Permanent link
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/34957Date
2024-02-16Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Textbooks have several important functions in science education. By interviewing six
teachers, this study shows how secondary school science teachers perceive and use
textbooks as resources, especially in inquiry teaching. The results show that textbooks
aid inquiry teaching by offering teachers easily accessible suggestions for practical and
inquiry activities in accordance with the curriculum to be implemented in science lessons
in addition to presenting scientific content adapted to students’ level in which they can
use to easily link theory to their practical inquiry. However, the use of textbook inquiry
activities can restrict the degrees of freedom in implementing inquiries, as textbooks are
perceived to rarely include inquiry activities with many degrees of freedom. In addition,
some teachers adjust their textbook inquiry activities to have fewer degrees of freedom to
meet the challenges they experience, such as time pressure and uncertainty about students
achieving curriculum content knowledge goals. These results build important knowledge
about textbooks’ role in planning and implementing inquiry teaching in science. They
should be of interest to teacher education programme developers and textbook authors who
desire to contribute to a more inquiry-oriented practice in school science teaching.
Publisher
Springer NatureCitation
Isaksen I, Ødegaard M, Utsi TA. Science Textbooks: Aids or Obstacles to Inquiry Teaching? Science Teachers’ Experiences in Norwegian Secondary Schools. Science & Education. 2024Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Copyright 2024 The Author(s)