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Copyright of Journal of Elementary Education / Revija za Elementarno Izobraževanje is the property of University of Maribor, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework tailored for modeling the meaning of mathematical concepts in university-level mathematics, addressing their rigorous nature and their relationships with related concepts as well as interpretations in various contexts. Within this framework, we present a model of meaning for the concepts of total differentiability and total derivative that provides a variety of possible interpretations and aspects. We then use the proposed model of meaning as a tool for analyzing three different textbooks for mathematics majors on the topic of multidimensional differentiability. Our paper is an example of a subject matter analysis of a topic in university mathematics carried out in a structured way. The model of meaning for total differentiability presented in this paper could inspire course design and analysis including the design of assignments and assessments for students. Moreover, it could serve as a valuable research tool for further analyses. For example, it could be used as a framework for analyzing courses taught or as a basis for developing a test instrument to assess students' understanding. With our textbook analysis, we begin to examine the landscape of textbooks regarding differentiability concepts in the multidimensional case, shedding light on the diversity of meaning facets that are covered in the textbooks. These results could be useful for guiding instructors and learners in selecting and using textbooks for teaching and learning based on their respective needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how pharmacological and toxicological knowledge evolves. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the presentation of the poison hydrogen cyanide in sixteen German-language pharmacology and toxicology textbooks from 1878 to 2020. The categories of structure, molecular mechanism of action, occurrence, effects, resorption, areas of application, lethal dose, acute symptoms of intoxication, treatment of hydrogen cyanide poisoning, and recommended therapeutic preparations were evaluated. The knowledge on the structure, lethal dosage, and occurrence of hydrogen cyanide has remained constant. In contrast, knowledge on molecular mechanism of action and recommended preparations of the poison has changed dramatically. Until 1944, the binding of hydrogen cyanide to hemoglobin was considered the mechanism of action, whereas from 1951 onwards, the interaction of hydrogen cyanide with the Fe3+ of cytochrome oxidase was described. The number of preparations containing hydrogen cyanide decreased into obsolescence until 1951. The areas of application of hydrogen cyanide also show a change, as from 1919 onwards, mainly industrial areas of application of the poison are described instead of medical ones, and from 1951 onwards, criminalistic areas of application are also mentioned. Thus, pharmacological and toxicological knowledge develops non-linearly, molecular mechanism and uses being the most dynamic areas, whereas the knowledge about hydrogen cyanide's chemical structure, lethal dose, and occurrence remained constant. Older pharmacology and toxicology textbooks were better than newer ones at discussing changes in scientific concepts. Pharmacology and toxicology textbooks also mostly failed to discuss the misuse of hydrogen cyanide (Zyklon B) during the Nazi regime, missing an important opportunity to showcase the ethical responsibility of pharmacology and toxicology. Thus, future pharmacology and toxicology textbooks should improve on discussing the development of pharmacological and toxicological concepts and the ethical responsibility of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Textbooks shape the content and structure of most introductory psychology courses. It is important to compare the content of textbooks to assist educators in making the best textbook choice. Objective: The purpose of this study was to conduct an analysis of five commonly used introductory psychology textbooks and examine the extent of overlap in their content coverage. Method: Two trained readers identified 3878 key terms after performing a page-by-page content analysis. Commonality among texts was assessed by determining how many textbooks included each term. Results: Coverage of psychology topics differed significantly across textbooks with 2766 terms (71%) unique to a single textbook. There were 494 terms (13%), 263 terms (7%), and 201 terms (5%) appearing in two, three, and four books, respectively. Only 154 terms (4%) were common to all five. Conclusion: Given our results and how reliant course instructors are on textbooks, it appears introductory psychology students may not be exposed to similar vocabulary. Teaching Implications: Introductory psychology textbooks may be similar at a chapter and topic level but do not share as much specific content as may be commonly believed. Instructors should take the time to check if the content matches course goals and expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractEducational frameworks emphasize to students the importance of gaining differentiated worldviews and being open-minded toward other cultures. As a primary medium in class, textbooks should accurately represent diversity to help students develop intercultural awareness and critical thinking. This study aims to analyze geography textbooks’ of Hesse (Germany) on their representation of diversity dimensions across different countries and continents using a multidimensional approach to superdiversity. For the analysis, a qualitative content analysis is initially conducted. Then, the representation of the continents is compared using network analysis. Our findings reveal a biased portrayal across all continents, leading to homogenization within the teaching material. This inconsistency contradicts the curricular requirements of Hessian geography and suggests that the textbook approval process is not sufficiently rigorous in ensuring that the standards are met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new findings of corpus linguistics clearly attest to the uniqueness of some elements of the spoken grammar of English and their distinction from those of the written variety. Mixing the two or adopting a hegemonic perspective to the written variety in language education, especially in the field of materials development, is likely to yield an imbalanced or even distorted view of the entirety of the language being learned so that it could color the subsequent teaching and assessment. With this in mind, this investigation has adopted a content analytic procedure and applied the models proposed by Cullen and Kuo's (2007) to the dialogs and Timmis's (2005) to the tasks of the English school textbooks in Iran, namely the Prospect and Vision series to reveal to what extent, if any, the series have availed themselves of the properties of the spoken grammar in their student books,workbooks and teacher guides. The findings revealed that the majority of the characteristics of the spoken grammar, as used in the textbooks, belong to the fixed lexicogrammatical elements of Category II of Cullen and Kuo's framework, and that the instances of Category I, that is, those forms which undergo change as a function of the context in which they occur, are relatively uncommon. Additionally, the realizations of Category III, that is, those structures which are deemed ungrammatical via adoption of a prescriptive outlook but are still commonly found in the spoken English, were non-existent in the series. The analysis of the tasks based on Timmis' (2005) also revealed that only some "global understanding" and very few instances of "language discussion task" were present and focused on in the materials investigated, leaving the two other principles unattended. Suggestions are ultimately made as to how to redress the imbalance found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new findings of corpus linguistics clearly attest to the uniqueness of some elements of the spoken grammar of English and their distinction from those of the written variety. Mixing the two or adopting a hegemonic perspective to the written variety in language education, especially in the field of materials development, is likely to yield an imbalanced or even distorted view of the entirety of the language being learned so that it could color the subsequent teaching and assessment. With this in mind, this investigation has adopted a content analytic procedure and applied the models proposed by Cullen and Kuo’s (2007) to the dialogs and Timmis’s (2005) to the tasks of the English school textbooks in Iran, namely the Prospect and Vision series to reveal to what extent, if any, the series have availed themselves of the properties of the spoken grammar in their student books,workbooks and teacher guides. The findings revealed that the majority of the characteristics of the spoken grammar, as used in the textbooks, belong to the fixed lexicogrammatical elements of Category II of Cullen and Kuo’s framework, and that the instances of Category I, that is, those forms which undergo change as a function of the context in which they occur, are relatively uncommon. Additionally, the realizations of Category III, that is, those structures which are deemed ungrammatical via adoption of a prescriptive outlook but are still commonly found in the spoken English, were non-existent in the series. The analysis of the tasks based on Timmis’ (2005) also revealed that only some “global understanding” and very few instances of “language discussion task” were present and focused on in the materials investigated, leaving the two other principles unattended. Suggestions are ultimately made as to how to redress the imbalance found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies is the property of National Taiwan Normal University, College of International Studies & Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Orbis Scholae is the property of Charles University Prague, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Physics textbooks are a learning resource for students to acquire knowledge and information. The findings of previous studies on physics textbooks analysis have mostly focused on representations of gender, the nature of science, and scientific literacy. This study, therefore, extends the critical content analysis of physics textbooks to examine the levels of laboratory activities as empirical evidence among domination of previous studies in analysing physics textbooks. To investigate the representation of the laboratory activities in Indonesian physics textbooks and teachers' perspectives on the use of the textbooks in facilitating laboratory activities. Content analysis was used to elicit data on laboratory activities and the semi-structured interview was used to reveal teachers' perspectives on the use of the textbooks. The Inquiry Level Index and Laboratory Assessment Inventory were used as the main analytical framework for distinguishing levels of these activities. In addition, thematic analysis was adopted to analyse teachers' perspectives on the use of textbooks in the classroom. A dominant type of laboratory activity was Level One, which presents questions and methods as a guide for conducting laboratory activities, whereby students have to find solutions to problems. Concerning teachers' perspectives, the use of physics textbooks was found to not align with curriculum needs, which emphasise open laboratory activities. The representation of laboratory activities in textbooks encourages students to develop a low level of inquiry. Textbooks do not facilitate students in developing their understanding through hands-on activities. This is supported by the role of teachers who use laboratory activities only to verify concepts learned in the classroom. Consequently, several changes are required to underpin the implementation of open laboratory activities, such as the role of teachers in designing these activities and the assessments used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainties are transparently presented and communicated in the Assessment Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This study examines the extent to which textbooks reflect this discourse, in the sense of the Nature of Science. The aim is to identify the representation of both virtually certain findings and uncertainties on the topic of climate change in textbooks. For this purpose, climate change chapters in lower and upper secondary school geography textbooks were analyzed, using qualitative content analysis with deductive-inductive category formation according to Philipp Mayring. It was discovered that uncertainties are represented predominantly by linguistic means (e. g., subjunctive), while technical terminology (such as that of the IPCC) is hardly used. Similar results can be seen for virtually certain findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal studies (LS) textbooks used in Hong Kong public secondary schools have incurred controversy regarding perceived biased contents; however, what appears uncertain are what techniques the textbooks used to incite hostility towards the mainland of China and encourage students to participate in violent acts in Hong Kong. The present study used Michel Foucault's order of discourse theory, particularly the "division and rejection" framework regarding the power of discourse to analyze five popular LS textbooks. The findings reveal that the textbooks depict a division between the fabricated irrational image of the mainland and the rational image of Hong Kong. Specifically, the textbooks paint Chinese patriotism as irrational while encouraging the student readers to reject their Chinese identity. The textbooks also create a division between altruistic and capable civilians and passive, silent ones, with the morality of the former being connected to violence and radicalism. In this way, the textbooks produce a discourse of hostility towards the mainland and the people in the mainland while encouraging violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of inquiry tasks is one of the features of the latest elementary social studies textbooks, and according to Taiwan's Curriculum Guidelines for Social Studies, at least one inquiry activity for each unit and one thematic inquiry and practice unit for each volume should be designed. This study, based on the perspective of inquiry-based design, explored how inquiry tasks are articulated in elementary social studies textbooks. Qualitative content analysis was adopted to analyze three versions of textbooks developed on the basis of the new Curriculum Guidelines for Social Studies. The findings were as follows: First, the content of the "thematic inquiry and practice unit" emphasized integrative materials and lacked the integration of social issues. Second, the inquiry tasks employed a question-oriented approach, but the inquiry paths and answers were too limited to encourage students' active exploration. Third, the inquiry tasks in the textbooks favored individual inquiry over collaborative inquiry, and peer collaboration was only included in part of the inquiry process. Finally, the inquiry tasks failed to prompt the active participation of students with a preference for structured inquiry forms. This paper also provided several suggestions for the design of inquiry tasks in elementary social studies textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textbook analysis is a vigorous research approach for evaluating the conformity between the content and the purpose of education. Accordingly, the relatively newly-published Iranian ELT textbooks for senior high school, known as the "Vision series" were analyzed for their prominent levels of learning objectives according to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. Activity sections of textbooks were codified according to the Taxonomy's coding scheme, and the inter/intra-rater reliability which were measured and approved. Results revealed that the lower-order categories of cognitive domain are more frequently represented in Vision series of 1 and 2, and chisquare statistics indicate that Vision 3 is significantly different from the other two. The inclusion of higher-order categories in Vision 3 creates hope for increasing students' proficiency and activating students' need to develop higher-order thinking skills which are prerequisites to critical thinking and autonomous learning. Findings also maintain that the cognitive domain and metacognitive knowledge domain were the least perceived in the three textbooks which call for inclusion of more reflective activities and supplementing higher-order cognitive activities or complementary tasks in Visions 1 and 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated relations between the distribution of practice problems in textbooks and students' learning of decimal arithmetic. In Study 1, we analyzed the distributions of decimal arithmetic practice problems that appeared in 3 leading math textbook series in the United States. Similar imbalances in the relative frequencies of decimal arithmetic problems were present across the 3 series: Addition and subtraction more often involved 2 decimals than a whole number and a decimal, but the opposite was true for multiplication and division. We expected children's learning of decimal arithmetic to reflect these distributional biases. In Studies 2, 3, and 4, we tested the prediction that children would have more difficulty solving types of problems that appeared less frequently in textbooks, regardless of the intrinsic complexity of solving the problems. We analyzed students' performance on decimal arithmetic from an experiment conducted in a different lab 35 years ago (Study 2), from a contemporary large-scale web-based learning platform (Study 3), and from a recent controlled experiment conducted in our own lab (Study 4). Despite many differences among the 3 studies, performance in all 3 was in accord with the predictions. These findings suggest that the distributions of practice problems in math textbooks may influence what children do and do not learn. Usefulness of analyzing textbook problem distributions as well as educational implications of the current findings are discussed. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Analysis of 3 leading math textbook series in the United States revealed large imbalances in distributions of decimal arithmetic problems: Addition and subtraction problems more often had 2 decimal operands than a whole number operand and a decimal operand, but the reverse was true for multiplication and division. Children, tested over a wide range of time periods and in a wide range of contexts, consistently showed lower accuracy on types of problems that appeared less frequently in the textbooks. This finding suggests that distributions of practice problems in textbooks may influence children's performance and that more balanced distributions may lead to better learning. The results have the potential to improve math education, because in contrast to most factors influencing children's learning, changes in distributions of practice problems can be implemented relatively easily by textbook companies, teachers, and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies of angle, angle measure, and radian angle measure have primarily focused on documenting students' and teachers' conceptions. Representations of angle measure have the potential to inform and build on these conceptions. To gain insight into the concept of radian angle measure from a curricular perspective, I investigated the representations of radian angle measure in eight widely used U.S. high school mathematics textbooks. The data for this study are the 20 figures and the 8 definitions of radian angle measure in the textbooks. Inductive content analysis was used to identify the frequency of observable characteristics in the representations. Textbook figures of radian angle measure most frequently focus on a one‐radian angle. Textbook figures also demonstrated radian angle measures in terms of π, in standard position, even when the Cartesian‐coordinate plane was not in the figure. The frequently used characteristics of radian representations could inadvertently reinforce a qualitative concept of angle, instead of fostering the quantitative attributes of radian angle measure. Moving forward, analyzing conceptions that are evoked by the frequently used representations of radian angle measure could build a link between evidence from this study and studies of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics textbooks play a very important role in mathematics education and textbook tasks are used by students for practice to a large extent. Since the nature of the tasksmay influence the way students think it is important that the textbooks provide a balance of a variety of tasks. The analyses of the requirements in textbook tasks contain the usual dimensions of content, cognitive demands, question type and contextual features. The aim of this study is to embed a new fifth dimension into the framework: mathematical activities. This addresses the question of what a student should do in a particular textbook task: to represent, to compute, to interpret or to use argumentation. The analysis encompassed more than 22,000 tasks from the most commonly used Croatian mathematics textbooks in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade. The results show that the textbooks do not provide a full range of task types. There is an emphasis on computation, while argumentation and interpretation activities, reflective thinking and open answer tasks are underrepresented. The study revealed that incorporating mathematical activities into the multidimensional framework of textbook tasks may help to better understand the opportunities to learn which are afforded students by using mathematics textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNESCO defines Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a means of addressing present and future worldwide challenges by creating sustainable and resilient societies. ESD content and approaches have been applied throughout the tertiary curriculum, but one area that lags is English as a Foreign Language (EFL), even though environmental themes and topics--such as global warming--are commonly used. Although these topics are useful for raising student awareness of critical issues, lessons dedicated to these topics often fail to engage students beyond the purposes of English-language teaching. This represents a missed opportunity in countries like Japan, where students in higher education have limited exposure to environmental topics. This research examines the role that environmental topics play in EFL textbooks through an analysis of a corpus of more than 55,000 words garnered from EFL textbooks commonly used in Japanese higher education. The research aims to discover themes and patterns found in the corpus by the novel application of text analysis, data mining techniques, and corpus analysis tools. The author proposes a framework to support and improve EFL lessons that integrate environmental content with the ultimate aim of strengthening ESD mainstreaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we will observe how multicultural content is covered in elementary and secondary schools in Korea. For this purpose, a total of 52 textbooks (social studies, ethics and Korean language from third to ninth grade) were analysed using two analysis frames. The first frame is the “multicultural content analysis frame (MCAF)” which analyses the structure and distribution of multicultural content in textbooks. It consists of three categories: (1) identity, (2) diversity and pluralism, and (3) social justice. The second frame is the “multicultural description analysis frame (MDAF)” which shows the perspectives from which the content is described. This frame consists of five categories: (1) balance of material distribution, (2) accuracy and scope of information, (3) distortion and stereotypes, (4) balance in perspectives, and (5) Korean-ethnic centredness. Since this multicultural content has contradictory structure and Korean-ethnicity centred perspectives, we propose several suggestions for restructuring textbooks from a multicultural education perspective and for the improvement of multicultural education in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emergence of the lexical syllabus and the recognition of the key function of phrasal verbs in language acquisition and fluency gave way to the inclusion of these notoriously challenging structures in the ESL/EFL curriculum. Of main pedagogic concern, therefore, is, with the sheer number of phrasal verbs in the English language and the limited volume of course books, whether the selection and presentation of these forms is informed by research findings. Findings from the current corpus-based study revealed that that selection of these forms in the Malaysian ESL textbooks were more intuitively than empirically-based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines patterns of cultural representations embedded in Korean EFL textbooks, using a content analysis to investigate how different cultures are reflected in textbooks and whether or not cultural biases are present. In the revised Korean national English curriculum that has been implemented since 2009, English is viewed as a language of global and cosmopolitan citizenship. The curriculum promotes cultural diversity and attempts to embrace cross-cultural and cross-linguistic differences. However, the analysis of four textbooks, which were developed according to the curriculum, reveals that they favor American English and culture. Furthermore, although the textbooks show various cultural/intercultural interactions, the interactions are primarily limited to a superficial level of discussion, and non-Korean, white, mostly American and male characters play a dominant role in the texts. As a result, this reproduces social inequalities regarding race, nationality, and gender by favoring mainstream white American male representations over others. The analysis is followed by a discussion of the reproduction of dominant knowledge, cultural biases, and inequalities embedded in the texts and suggests that teachers should take a critical approach to intercultural education in order to instill more inclusive and critical worldviews in their students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article concerns textbook analysis regarding the presentation of socialism in four leading high school social studies books, one in each of the following subjects: United States history, world history, United States government, and economics. Findings indicate that students relying on these texts to gain understanding of socialism and contemporary expressions of socialist ideas in modern societies will be invariably shortchanged. In most of the books, students are not encouraged to analyze or evaluate socialism. The potential of the books to help students achieve goals identified by the National Council for the Social Studies, certain content standards established by the National Council on Economics Education, and other standards established by state boards such as the California State Board of Education, is quite limited. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]