Evolution content in school textbooks : data from eight European countries

Panayides, Andreas (author), Sá-Pinto, Xana (author), Mavrikaki, Evangelia (author), Aanen, Duur K. (author), Aboim, Sara (author), Cavadas, Bento Filipe Barreiras Pinto (author), Dvořáková, Radka Marta (author), Eens, Marcel (author), Filova, Eliska (author), Gregorčič, Tanja (author), Kapsala, Nausica (author), Nieuwenhuis, Mathijs (author), Ometto, Lino (author), Papadopoulou, Penelope (author), Pinxten, Rianne (author), Realdon, Giulia (author), Ribeiro, Nuno (author), Coelho da Silva, José Luis (author), Sousa, Bruno L. (author), Torkar, Gregor (author), Korfiatis, Konstantinos (author)

Background Evolution is a unifying theme in biology and its understanding is essential to address sustainability problems. However, many people across the world do not understand evolution. Textbooks are among the most widely used educational resources and the way they depict evolution may greatly impact students’ scientific literacy in evolution. In this paper we investigate which evolution concepts are addressed in European science textbooks, from the 1st to the 9th grade. A content analysis using the "Framework for the Assessment of school Curricula on the presence of Evolutionary concepts", was performed on textbooks from eight European countries: Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. At least two experienced coders per country independently analysed the texts, images and activities, discussed the results and reached a final consensus. Results Our results show that textbooks lack or rarely address concepts considered important for evolution understanding, notably the processes driving evolution and their daily life implications, limiting opportunities for education for sustainability. Conclusions We recommend that science textbooks emphasize evolution and its processes since the first school years. This recommendation is particularly relevant for the analysed textbooks from Cyprus and Belgium, that cover less than 45% of the concepts important to evolution literacy.

• Language: English
• Keywords: textbook analysis, scientific literacy, evolution education, education for sustainability
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 16 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 17, art. 11
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-159523
• UDC: 37.091.6:57
• ISSN on article: 1936-6434
• DOI: 10.1186/s12052-024-00203-2
• COBISS.SI-ID: 201487875

Note

V članku je za projekt "For the Quality of Slovenian Textbooks" naveden tudi slovenski naslov "Za kakovost slovenskih učbenikov".

• Publication date in RUL: 11.07.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Evolution : education and outreach
• Shortened title: Evolution
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1936-6434
• COBISS.SI-ID: 516089625

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: koncepti evolucije, naravoslovni učbeniki, ocenjevanje šolskih učnih načrtov, vsebinska analiza, evolucija, učbeniki