Sex/gender is an interesting phenomenon in biological and social sciences. It is characterised by constant redefinitions and conflicts as knowledge increases and social norms change. To understand the change in sex/gender representations in biology education, we analysed Finnish secondary school human biology textbooks from the 1990s until the…

Many evolutionary anthropologists view cooperation as core to the evolutionary success of our species. Concurrently, many sustainability scientists view cooperation as core to the future sustainable development of our species. When it comes to biology education, however, it is unclear how or if students are being engaged in these scientific…

Knowledge about plant nutrition and photosynthesis is key to the scientific literacy of citizens. However, numerous studies have shown the existence of about 50 alternative ideas related to this content. In this work, carried out based on a reflection-action process, two studies based on the ideas of our 12-18 year old students are presented, as…

Despite doing well in biology at high school, some students struggle with the same subject at university level. This can have implications for epistemological access--access to knowledge that allows students to remain at university. Therefore, it is important to identify factors that may be causing this problem. We propose that one such factor may…

Student knowledge about plants is typically less than student knowledge about animals. Textbooks are a commonly-used curriculum material in elementary grades and contain embedded cultural ideologies that may impact instruction. This study analyzed two nationally-syndicated elementary science textbook series to explore their presentation of plant…

In this paper, the authors analyse the conceptual contents related to plant nutrition in the widely-used school texts of six Spanish publishers. An analysis dossier was elaborated based on the epistemological and pedagogical study of this subject. The publishers deal with the issue of plant nutrition at three different levels (multicellular,…

The presentation of genetic diseases in French secondary school biology textbooks is analysed to determine the major conceptions taught in the field of human genetics. References to genetic diseases, and the processes by which they are explained (monogeny, polygeny, chromosomal anomaly and environmental influence) are studied in recent French…

Schools have been identified as one of the appropriate settings for addiction prevention since this is the place where pupils may come into contact with drugs for the first time and experiment with them, with the possibility of becoming addicted. To be effective, school-based drug education must be firmly based on knowledge of oneself and…

The indigenous community of San Juan Nuevo Parangaricutiro in Mexico has been engaged in a successful Community Forest Enterprise employing sustainable management practices since 1981. These environmental practices do not seem to be reflected in the educational programmes developed at school. In this study, the environmental knowledge and interest…

A method of analyzing the content of biology/curricula, courses, and texts on the basis of the relative emphasis on different levels of biological organization, is discussed. It is suggested that this method may have led to unwarranted contrasts between traditional and modern curricula. A simple modification is proposed. (Author/BB)

Explains the basics of chromatography which is used to demonstrate the separation of plant photosynthetic pigments. Reports the results of an evaluative study that explored textbook errors in explaining how chromatography works. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/YDS)

Aspects of textbooks' readability are discussed and some recommendations are made. The results of applying three readability tests to 13 current textbooks are presented. (Author/BB)

Reviews the conventional interpretation of the etiology of Down syndrome, summarizing recent data that do not support this interpretation. Also surveys the way in which clinical, cytogenic, and statistical findings related to the syndrome are presented in 27 major genetics textbooks published since 1975. (Author/JN)

This survey of 11 recently published biology textbooks includes an analysis of content, certain general characteristics, readability, and use of questions. Differences between these and earlier textbooks are noted. The reading difficulty of the new books is found to be less than for those covered in a previous survey. (Author/JN)