Analysis of Plant Species in Elementary School Textbooks in South Korea

Abstract

Background and objective This study was conducted to find out the status of plant utilization in the current textbooks by analyzing the plants by grade and subject in the national textbooks for all elementary school grades in the 2015 revised curriculum in Korea. Methods The data collected was analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel to obtain the frequency and ratio of collected plant data and SPSS for Windows 26.0 to determine learning content areas by grade and the R program was used to visualize the learning content areas. Results A total of 232 species of plants were presented 1,047 times in the national textbooks. Based on an analysis of the plants presented by grade, the species that continued to increase in the lower grades tended to decrease in the fifth and sixth grades, the upper grades of elementary school. As for the number and frequency of plant species by subject, Korean Language had the highest number and frequency of plant species. The types of presentation of plants in textbooks were mainly text, followed by illustrations and photos of plants, which were largely used in first grade textbooks. In addition, as for the area of learning contents in which plants are used, in the lower grades, plants were used in the linguistic domain, and in the upper grades, in the botanical and environmental domains of the natural sciences. Herbaceous plants were presented more than woody plants, and according to an analysis of the plants based on the classification of crops, horticultural crops were presented the most, followed by food crops. Out of horticultural crops, flowering plants were found the most diversity with 63 species, but the plants that appeared most frequently were fruit trees that are commonly encountered in real life. Conclusion As a result of this study, various plant species were included in elementary school textbooks, but most of them were horticultural crops encountered in real life depending on their use. Nevertheless, plant species with high frequency have continued a similar trend of frequency from the previous curriculums. Therefore, in the next curriculum, plant learning materials should be reflected according to social changes and students’ preference for plants.