Past and recent school textbooks of Natural Sciences; will they last forever?

Abstract

n this paper we intend to identify and analyze school text books of Natural Sciences widely used and rec-ommended by teachers for the basic cycle of secondary education in Argentina. The sample consists of42 teachers who work in various provinces of this country. From their opinion, a sample that includes traditional and recent school textbooks was built. In these textbooks, among other aspects, the approach to contents related to the nature of science and the way they deal with reading and writing asks were analyzed. The results show a great teachers’ attachment to traditional textbooks designed for previous educational systems that present short comings in the aspects discussed. This situation would not get students close to new proposals that seek to integrate into the traditional content some aspects related to the nature of science and scientific research and would not consider hints that could improve the processes of reading and writing about disciplinary contents.

Keywords

• Libros de texto
• Ciencias naturales
• Naturaleza de la ciencia
• Lectura
• Escritura.