Secondary School Textbooks Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC-THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL TASKS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER KNOWLEDGE IN SPECIFIC SUBJECTS

In this article, a lot of work has been done on a national scale in the field of creating a new generation of textbooks for general secondary schools and educational-methodical complexes corresponding to it. Today, based on the requirements of the competency approach, it is required that the textbooks be compatible with the improved educational programs and express the democratic models that update the educational content and are directed to the student's personality. Because, inthe new models of the content of education, the social order set by the state and society for the educational process will be expressed. In the actual educational context of general secondary education, students' knowledge, skills, qualifications, competencies checked and evaluated mainly with the help of test tasks.

The International Red Cross in contemporary Polish history textbooks: An overview

The main aim of the article is to present how the issues pertaining to the creation and activities of the International Red Cross and the figure of its originator and founder, Henry Dunant, are presented in Polish history textbooks. History lessons at school are a suitable platform to introduce issues related to the concept of humanitarianism. Lessons that mention the establishment and operations of the International Red Cross and its national branches make a valuable contribution to raising awareness of humanitarianism and human rights. It is worth looking at how these issues are treated in school textbooks, which are one of the main sources of students' knowledge of history. Primary and secondary school textbooks currently available on the publishing market and used by active teachers were analysed. Textual content and iconography were analysed, as well as the tasks proposed for classroom use. In order to answer the research questions, a critical textual analysis of the content of twenty-one textbooks was carried out. Textbooks published between 2017 and 2023, which are on the official list of textbooks approved for use in schools, were the subject of analysis. The article also reveals the presence of the Polish Red Cross on the pages of these textbooks.

Comparative Study of AI Textbooks for Primary and Secondary Schools

With the development of information technology, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a new focal point of international competition. AI education in primary and secondary schools is gradually becoming an important component of education in the intelligent era in China. Textbooks are a crucial medium for courses, and AI textbooks for primary and secondary schools are the core teaching materials for AI courses. This study examines 18 AI textbooks for primary and secondary schools, based on relevant curriculum standards such as the AI Curriculum Development Standards for Primary and Secondary Schools in China (Trial). Using content analysis and quantitative curriculum difficulty models, the study compares and analyzes the textbooks from five dimensions: teaching arrangement logic, textbook content, textbook usage conditions, textbook evaluation, and textbook difficulty. The study concludes that the textbooks have systematic teaching arrangement logic, though some lack learning objectives; the content is contemporary, but the knowledge system is not comprehensive; the usage conditions are diverse, but some schools lack the necessary implementation environment; and the difficulty is moderate, though there is a gap compared to the curriculum standards.

Mikä aiheuttaa ilmastonmuutoksen?

This article discusses the transformation of climate change science from scientific knowledge to Finnish upper secondary school geography curricula and textbooks from 1985 to 2023. Scientific knowledge transforms into teachable knowledge through the transformation process at the societal, institutional, and classroom levels. In our analysis, we apply the idea of powerful knowledge and use three levels of geographical powerful knowledge, including geographical knowledge, critical and conceptual knowledge, and propensity to imagine alternative futures. The research material consists of five framework curricula from 1985 to 2019 and a total of thirteen upper secondary school geography textbooks that are based on the curricula. Our findings suggest that climate science knowledge has transformed slowly into societal curricula. However, in textbooks, scientific knowledge has transformed more rapidly. According to our results, the transformation may not necessarily occur linearly, first at the societal level and finally in classrooms.

Development of a Program for Calculating Typhoon Wind Speed and Data Visualization Based on Satellite RGB Images for Secondary-School Textbooks

Development of a Program for Calculating Typhoon Wind Speed and Data Visualization Based on Satellite RGB Images for Secondary-School Textbooks

Investigating Teachers’ Attitudes towards the Incorporation of Global Education within the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Context “Ticket to English” textbook as a case study

This study examines the investigation of the integration of global education within the Moroccan English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, focusing on the attitudes and perceptions of EFL teachers toward the inclusion of global issues and values in secondary public school textbooks. Utilizing a quantitative research methodology, the study employs surveys and questionnaires to gather insights from a carefully selected participant pool. The findings reveal a spectrum of perspectives among teachers, with some emphasizing that integrating global values enhances learners' global awareness and fosters global citizenship. In contrast, others express concerns that such inclusions may aim to assimilate learners into a homogeneous global culture, potentially suppressing local and national identities. Notably, the study underscores the perception that global education is viewed by some as ideologically driven rather than educationally motivated, prompting critical reflections on the underlying principles guiding these integrations and their alignment with broader educational goals. This article contributes valuable insights for curriculum development and pedagogical considerations in the context of global education in Morocco's EFL classrooms.

Assessment features for complexity of educational texts for schoolchildren

It is extremely important to choose an appropriate material for the students learning a foreign language. Hence the issues of studying the complexity of academic texts, their readability and their compliance with the level of language proficiency is of outmost importance. At this point, one can note the inevitable interconnection between linguistics and teaching methods. An educational text is a special type of secondary text that has a number of important functions, among which, first of all, there are informative, cognitive and cultural-logical ones. This type of text both contains new information and has an educational and developmental effect on students.The difficulty of text as well as its readability and complexity are crucial for text understanding. The evaluation of academic texts difficulty is closely connected with consideration of other characteristics. However, there are no widely accepted definitions of such concepts as “difficulty”, “complexity” and “readability” in contemporary linguistics. They are unreasonably used as synonymic notions. That is why the purpose of this article is to more clearly distinguish between these characteristics of the text. The features of complexity assessment of educational texts are revealed on the basis of their key characteristics.The study of educational texts’ complexity was conducted by using secondary school textbooks on physics. The text analysis was performed with the help of the automated analyzer Rulingva. This study demonstrates the capabilities of this program and presents the results of the analysis, which suggest that the use of Rulingva analyzer could be beneficial not only for linguists, but also for educators, measurement and control materials developers and those preparing for state exams in various academic disciplines.

Silencing the Indigenous Perspective in the Textbook Accounts of Norwegian Migration to America

The historiography of Norwegian migration to North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries had, until recently, largely ignored its impact on indigenous people. Taking as a point of departure the presentations of migration to America in Norwegian lower and upper secondary school textbooks in social studies and history, this article demonstrates that the displacement of Native Americans is mostly absent in these presentations, and almost none of the textbooks discuss it in terms of settler colonialism. Such a narrative sustains the perception of North America as a sparsely inhabited continent with enough space for everyone and ultimately justifies Europeans’ right to claim possession of the land. Given that the consequences of settler colonialism continue to persist to the present day, I argue that ignoring the fact that Norwegian migrants were also settlers reproduces historical power relations and oppressive epistemologies. Aligned with the view that history education based on a single master narrative hinders critical thinking, this article contends that there is a need to decolonize the teaching of Norwegian migration to America by incorporating the perspective of Native Americans.

Didactic transposition and the knowledge to be taught: towards an archeorganisation for concave/convex functions

This study is framed within the anthropological theory of the didactic. The first part is a comparative study of the mathematical organisation of concave/convex functions on the one hand at university, and on the other hand in secondary education. Data for this analysis are from a university textbook on calculus and a secondary school textbook. The analytic results show how the mathematics (to be) taught at secondary level consists of a largely demathematised logos block. The corresponding institutional fragmentation of knowledge reveals a missing praxeological organisation from which the organisations of knowledge we consider in this paper could be derived by transposition. Responding to this insight, in the second part of the paper, we have outlined what we call an archeorganisation for concave/convex functions, a framework that teacher education institutions could refer to when trying to satisfy the specific constraints they are subjected to (notably because of its publics), without for that matter isolating themselves epistemically from other academic institutions. Formulating an archeorganisation represents a meta-curricular study, with the objective of transforming the institutional conditions and constraints that guide mathematics educators and curriculum designers in their deliberations about the concept of concave/convex functions.

On Joule’s paddle wheel experiment in textbooks

Authors of university and secondary school textbooks have resorted to Joule’s famous paddle wheel experiment when introducing the topic ‘energy’. The explanations provided are misleading. In this study, Joule’s original article was used to address this problem.

Comparative pedagogies in mother tongue education: Türkiye and Indonesia

This study examines mother tongue education pedagogical discourses in Türkiye and Indonesia to address understudied language instruction policy dynamics and their practical implications in diverse educational settings. The study examined mother tongue education and its complex effects on cultural identity and educational outcomes in light of global and local linguistic landscapes. This study examined Turkish and Indonesian pedagogical discourses and classroom interactions in selected samples. Comparative written discourse analysis was performed on selected texts from Turkish and Indonesian 7th-grade secondary school textbooks. Classroom interaction was examined using in-class observations of 7th-grade secondary school students from both countries. The study used Teun van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis method for written discourse analysis and Flander's Interaction Analysis matrix for intra-class interaction patterns. The study compares written and oral secondary school pedagogical discourses in both countries using selected examples to determine their similarities and differences. This allows two large and powerful educational systems to benefit from each other. The study finds significant differences in mother tongue education program implementation and outcomes by comparing policy documents, teacher narratives, and classroom practices, highlighting the complex relationship between language policy, instructional methodology, and educational equity. The findings emphasize the need for context-sensitive language education policies that respect linguistic diversity and promote inclusive education. This research enhances mother tongue education research and provides actionable insights for educators, curriculum designers, and policymakers in Türkiye and Indonesia to promote reforms that consider learners' sociocultural and linguistic realities.

Allah, God, YHWH, Gott*: Language-Aware Perspectives on References to God in Religious and Worldview Education. A Comparative Study of Finnish and German School Textbooks

Abstract Language awareness is part of religious and worldview education. In this study, we understand religious and worldview education as language-sensitive and argue that it is necessary to investigate the perspectives on religious language in language-aware school pedagogy. In our view, religious language can be an identity marker which navigates and reflects one’s position. We analysed the language used in Finnish and German secondary school textbooks for the Lutheran religion, the Roman Catholic religion and for Islam as well as for the subject culture, worldview and ethics (Finland) and practical philosophy (Germany). Using discourse analysis, we examined the representations of God in the textbooks’ chapters about Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which are characterized as monotheistic religions. According to the findings in this study, representations of God in the textbooks refer to the self-understanding of the studied religion in RE. This study also shows that the use of the name of God in textbooks illustrates similarities and differences in Abrahamic religions. We argue that inter-worldview learning in the context of religious and worldview education enables participation, dialogue and encounter, and that language awareness is part of inter-worldview learning.

The Tragic Life of Kong Yiji from the Perspective of a Little Fellow at the Salty Hotel

Kong Yiji, an article included in secondary school textbooks, is one of the representative works of China's modern literary giant Mr Lu Xun, and one of the classic short stories in the history of modern Chinese literature in the 20th century. Mr Lu Xun's unique perspective is from the point of view of a teenage child -- hotel mate, with a twelve-year-old "little fellow" who has not yet experienced the world of youth as a narrative perspective, using a child to describe the facts to ensure that the "Kong Yiji" image of justice, objectivity and truthfulness. The use of a child to describe the facts can ensure the fairness, objectivity and truthfulness of the image of "Kong Yiji". Through what "I" heard and saw, the ups and downs of feelings cleverly conceived, vividly and imaginatively portrayed Kong Yiji, a traditional bookworm who was cruelly abandoned at the bottom of the society by the traditional feudal rites and rituals, with no food, no clothes, no food, and ultimately helplessly engulfed by the reality of the powerful forces of darkness. In the article "Kong Yiji", the background of the Xianheng Hotel is always used as the perspective of the humble shopkeeper, who is both a bystander and a participant as well as a spectator and a besieger, and Lu Xun has seen the picture of Kong Yiji's life in the Xianheng Hotel several times through the viewpoint of the shopkeeper and heard the legend of Kong Yiji to unfold the story. The story unfolds through the images of Kong Yiji's life as he visits the Xianheng Hotel several times from the perspective of "I", the shopkeeper, and the legends he hears about him. Through the words and deeds of Kong Yiji and other people in the shop, the story reflects the social status quo at that time, reproducing the dilemma of the poor intellectuals in the society and the living environment of the people at the bottom of the society, so as to criticise the feudal system of the feudal society and the feudal education system, which is a thought-provoking story.

Dictionary Use Training in Secondary School EFL Textbooks in Taiwan

As a rare study on English language textbook design for dictionary use training, this research examines four series of secondary school textbooks available on the Taiwan market. The content analysis method was adopted in finding out (1) how effectively the existing secondary English textbooks can help learners develop the necessary dictionary skills based on the guidelines from the government; and (2) how the existing textbooks could be improved to better meet learn­ers' needs for dictionary skills training. The results show that none of the surveyed series follow the Curriculum Guidelines of the Ministry of Education (2018) regarding dictionary use training, although they all claim to have designed the book based on the government-set curriculum. Sug­gestions are made regarding how the present textbook designs could incorporate dictionary skills, with recommended resources. The study reveals the conspicuous neglect of dictionary use skills training in secondary school textbooks, and calls for similar review to be made in other countries to fully appreciate the (un)availability of dictionary use training in secondary schools. The study should provide useful information to relevant government authorities, dictionary compilers, text­book writers, and English language teachers and researchers alike for improving the situation. Keywords: dictionary use training, Taiwan, secondary school EFL text­book, content analysis

Grammar of modern Azerbaijani literary language (investigation of grammar in secondary school textbooks)

Grammar of modern Azerbaijani literary language (investigation of grammar in secondary school textbooks)

ГЕОАҚПАРАТТЫҚ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯЛАР ГЕОКЕҢІСТІКТІК ОЙЛАУ ДАҒДЫЛАРЫН ДАМЫТУ ҚҰРАЛЫ РЕТІНДЕ

The use of geospatial technologies is becoming increasingly important in geography education, enabling activities such as spatial data retrieval, sampling, organised storage and transfer of necessary information. However, this process is very slow due to many obstacles that hinder the implementation of geospatial technologies in secondary education. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyse the current status of geospatial technologies in teaching geography in schools in Kazakhstan and to as-sess the potential of these technologies to develop students’ geospatial skills. The state of application of geospatial technologies in secondary education in Kazakhstan was determined by a survey. The survey involved 208 geography teachers from 17 regions and 3 large cities of Kazakhstan. The survey results showed that 96.2% of respondents use geospatial technologies (geographic information systems – GIS, software, mapping services, geoportals, mobile GIS applications). The most common are mobile GIS applications (69.5%) and mapping services (21.4%). It was also found that 24.1% of respondents use ArcGis and 20.7% use QGIS for GIS-based data design. Although the content of typical secondary school programmes and textbooks reflects the problem of practical application of GIS technologies, it was found that teachers face a number of obstacles in using them. Therefore, teachers would benefit from using not only GIS but also geospatial technologies in general when teaching school geography. In the future, geospatial technologies will help students to develop geospatial thinking skills due to their multifunctional capabilities.

Representations of Numerical Sequences in Mexican Secondary School Textbooks

Representations of Numerical Sequences in Mexican Secondary School Textbooks

Developing good person and citizen through civic and ethical education in Ethiopia: A content analysis of secondary school textbooks

There is broad consensus that citizenship or civic education plays an important role in preparing democratic, tolerant and socially active citizens, although the role of civic education in achieving this goal in divided societies is far from straightforward. There is also the interdependent goal of developing a good person and a good citizen. In order for this to be successful, the content and pedagogy integrated into the formal curriculum (core curriculum framework and textbooks) play an indispensable role. This article examines how the characteristics of a good person and a good citizen are presented as learners' distinctive personal development in the Ethiopian civics textbooks (grades 9 to 12) and to what extent the learning activities in textbooks enable learners to explore alternative qualities of a good person and good citizens. The study mainly used quantitative content analysis method. All pages of the textbooks were used as units of analysis. The results show that the textbooks presented the characteristics of a good person and a good citizen as distinct dimensions of students' personal development. However, almost two third of the contents emphasize social self-identity (good citizens), while a fifth of the contents deal with autonomous self-identity (good person). The results also reveal that there are open-ended and future-oriented learning activities that can help students discover alternative characteristics of a good person and a good citizen. Most studies on Ethiopian secondary school and university students question the extent to which students develop and demonstrate desired goals of civic and ethnical education. The effectiveness of civic and ethical education in divided countries where the goals of the formal curriculum are not reinforced by macro-social political conditions and other factors of socialization are discussed.

Comparison of different types of reasoning & proof present in solved tasks from geometry in Slovak and Czech mathematics textbooks for lower secondary school

This article presents a comparative study of two series of mathematics textbooks for lower secondary schools from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The analysis focuses on the presence of reasoning and proving (R&P) solved tasks in geometry. Different ways of reasoning are analysed as well. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics methods. Results show similarities in the ways of reasoning present in both textbook series. Nevertheless, there are very different numbers of solved tasks and solved tasks focusing on R&P. This might be caused by different approaches textbook authors took with involving pupils in tasks with instructions. Although the deductive way of reasoning prevails in both countries, other ways are also present. The majority of solved R&P tasks also provide insight and explanation of geometrical statements.

Language Proficiency and Sonorant Devoicing in English Plosive-Sonorant Clusters

This article explores the timing of phonetic voicing in plosive-sonorant clusters in English. VOT was measured in two groups of Czech learners with different proficiency levels and a native English control group. The hypothesis was that cross-language differences in the implementation of the voicing contrast would be reflected in lower devoicing by the non-native speakers, modulated by proficiency. 24 participants read a text with plosive-sonorant clusters (such as in plan or troops). The study found that less proficient speakers exhibited smaller degrees of devoicing compared to more proficient speakers, who however did not differ from the native controls. In line with the absence of devoicing in Czech secondary-school textbooks, the results provide insight into the interplay between language proficiency and pronunciation details in L2 acquisition. The research was supported by the European Regional Development Fund-Project ‘Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions of the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World’ (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000734). The study was created within the Charles University programme ‘Cooperatio’, scientific field Linguistics.