Textbooks are an important element in teaching management in higher education because of their assumed ability to disseminate key theories and debates in a seemingly objective fashion. However, a number of studies have questioned not only the scientific character of the textbook but also of management theory itself. More recent studies suggest…

Various sequences for teaching genetics have been proposed. Three seventh-grade biology textbooks in Taiwan share similar key knowledge assemblages but have different knowledge arrangements. To investigate the influence of knowledge arrangements on student understanding of genetics, we compared students' reading comprehension of the three texts…

This article examines the current debate on the politics of history education reforms and the new history textbooks for secondary schools in the Russian Federation. Recent reforms in history education, standards and prescribed history textbooks by the Ministry of Education and Science demonstrate a pronounced ideological shift in the national…

According to the national survey of science education, science educators in the USA currently face many challenges such as lack of qualified secondary Earth and Space Science (ESS) teachers. Less qualified teachers may have difficulty teaching ESS because of a lack of conceptual understanding, which leads to diminished confidence in content…

The usual science course is not meant to be a history course and the usual science book is not meant to be a history book. However, most science books do include some historical information. Unfortunately, the history part is usually so brief that it is far from interesting and often so oversimplified that it is totally wrong. Introductory physics…

In the most general sense children's rights can be defined as benefits which are protected by legal rules so that the child can grow up in a healthy, normal way and in freedom and dignity with the aspects of physical, cognitive, sensual, social and moral. The most important document regulating children's rights is the "Convention on the…

Although bioaccumulation-related concepts are important scientific knowledge, a study on whether high school textbooks include appropriate explanations has not been conducted. The present study investigated science and biology textbooks from Korea, Japan, and the U.S., focusing on how bioaccumulation-related concepts were defined, what types of…

While previous scholarship suggests that "American government textbooks are more alike than they are different," an examination of the market's most frequently adopted texts suggests that this consistency does not extend much further than the subjects of major chapters. We explore the degree to which four major introductory American…

Adaptation is one of the central concepts in evolutionary theory, which nonetheless has been given different definitions. Some scholars support a historical definition of adaptation, considering it as a trait that is the outcome of natural selection, whereas others support an ahistorical definition, considering it as a trait that contributes to…

Studying coursebooks and instructional materials in terms of their cultural, social and value-based qualities has been a significant aspect of research in language education since what is inherent in coursebooks directly affects users' perspective. In this research study, contents of English language coursebooks used in Turkish senior primary…

The Common Core State Standards are driving the profession toward more cross-disciplinary teaching. The standards themselves address the what of curriculum rather than the how, but they do offer text exemplars for different grade levels. While some find the exemplars too difficult, others see them as worthwhile texts that, with a teacher's…

A major source of difficulties in promoting students' understanding of genetics lies in the presentation of gene concepts and models in an inconsistent and largely ahistorical manner, merely amalgamated in hybrid views, as if they constituted linear developments, instead of being built for different purposes and employed in specific contexts. In…

Many low income, minority schools in California are within 100 points of closing the achievement gap, a prize worth working for no matter how inconvenient, uncomfortable, or risky. In this article, the author describes a better way to motivate educators to try new things that will accelerate student learning and close the achievement gap. The…

The nature and extent of reasoning and proof in the written (i.e., intended) curriculum of 20 contemporary high school mathematics textbooks were explored. Both the narrative and exercise sets in lessons dealing with the topics of exponents, logarithms, and polynomials were examined. The extent of proof-related reasoning varied by topic and…

Evaporation and boiling are both terms applied to the change of a liquid to the vapour/gaseous state. This article argues that it is the formation of bubbles of vapour within the liquid that most clearly differentiates boiling from evaporation although only a minority of chemistry textbooks seems to mention bubble formation in this context. The…