Premium
Evolution and the textbook structure of biology
Author(s) -
Moody David E.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-237x(199607)80:4<395::aid-sce2>3.0.co;2-8
Subject(s) - exposition (narrative) , theme (computing) , subject matter , subject (documents) , mathematics education , epistemology , curriculum , sociology , cognitive science , psychology , computer science , philosophy , pedagogy , literature , library science , art , operating system
Due to the influence of a nonscientific segment of public opinion, the exposition of evolutionary theory in secondary‐level biology textbooks in the United States has been adversely affected for many years. Previous studies have measured the quantity of space devoted to evolution in such textbooks over the course of several decades. But evolution represents not merely one topic among many in the biology curriculum; rather, it is a unifying theme, a central feature of the structure of the discipline. Accordingly, the present study sought to go beyond the sheer volume of textbook space devoted to evolution and to ascertain how the topic functioned in the overall structure of the subject matter. Procedures were devised to assess and graphically to display such a structure, and these were employed to investigate the role of evolution in selected, secondary‐level biology texts. The results indicated that there has occurred a marked increase in the role played by evolution in the generation of textbooks published during the 1990s. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.