The anatomy of junior high school science textbooks: An analysis of textual characteristics and a comparison to media reports of science

Abstract

This study compared junior high school science textbooks to media reports of science, on the basis of four textual characteristics: text type, truth status of statements, metalanguage use, and scientific status of statements and their role in scientific reasoning. The text type of both junior high science textbooks and media reports of science was found to be overwhelmingly expository. There was no argumentation in junior high science textbooks, a finding similar for some of the media reports of science, but vastly different for others, which had considerable argumentation. Almost all statements in the junior high science textbooks were presented as being true. In media reports of science, by contrast, only two thirds of the statements were presented as true. The junior high science textbooks reflected a range of metalanguage use largely limited to observational words, words that describe the process of doing research, and relational words, such as ‘cause.’ The frequency of metalanguage use was only one third that found in media reports of science. The majority of both junior high texts and media reports of science was written as statements of fact or conclusion. Implications of these comparisons for the goal of lifelong science learning and scientific literacy are examined.