Conceptual Demography in Upper Secondary Chemistry and Biology Textbooks’ Descriptions of Protein Synthesis: A Matter of Context?

Abstract

This study investigates how the domain-specific language of molecular life science is mediated by the comparative contexts of chemistry and biology education. We study upper secondary chemistry and biology textbook sections on protein synthesis to reveal the conceptual demography of concepts central to the communication of this subject. The term “conceptual demography” refers to the frequency, distribution, and internal relationships between technical terms mediating a potential conceptual meaning of a phenomenon. Data were collected through a content analysis approach inspired by text summarization and text mining techniques. Chemistry textbooks were found to present protein synthesis using a mechanistic approach, whereas biology textbooks use a conceptual approach. The chemistry texts make no clear distinction between core terms and peripheral terms but use them equally frequently and give equal attention to all relationships, whereas biology textbooks focus on core terms and mention and relate them to each other more frequently than peripheral terms. Moreover, chemistry textbooks typically segment the text, focusing on a couple of technical terms at a time, whereas biology textbooks focus on overarching structures of the protein synthesis. We argue that it might be fruitful for students to learn protein synthesis from both contexts to build a meaningful understanding.

A Review of Research on the Quality and Use of Chemistry Textbooks

“…Even though text occupies a very significant proportion of space on the pages of chemistry textbooks, only one study (1%) directly investigated aspects of the text in general chemistry textbooks . Additionally, two studies (3%) analyzed vocabulary/terms used in secondary chemistry textbooks. , …”

“…Additionally, cohesion levels differed significantly among the five examined general chemistry textbooks. Finally, the two studies that analyzed vocabulary reported that students are exposed to a lot of new terms in chemistry textbooks and might need support distinguishing between various terms. , …”

“…Upon more in-depth screening of these articles, we excluded 4 that did not fit our inclusion criteria. The final sample included 79 studies. − While we intend this review to be comprehensive, we acknowledge the possibility of unintentional omissions. Of note is that none of the articles in this review are written by the authors of this manuscript.…”

“…This review analyzed and summarized 79 studies that examined secondary and postsecondary chemistry textbooks used in various countries. − While we intend for this review to be comprehensive, we acknowledge the possibility of unintentional omissions. Additionally, this review may be limited by the exclusion criteria used to select articles.…”

“…About half of the studies investigated how various topics are presented and sequenced in chemistry textbooks. The studies in this category investigated a wide variety of chemistry topics: bonding, 6,20,47,61,63,72,77 nature of science, 22,28,57,68,69 redox and electrochemistry, 26,30,50 gas laws, 17,59 models, 25,44 kinetics, 12,43 substance and matter, 54,76 energy, 49,76 delocalization and resonance, 3 1 H NMR spectroscopy, 5 protein synthesis, 13 carbonyl chemistry, 16 thermodynamics, 35 acid−base chemistry, 45 physical and chemical change, 60 electrolysis, 64 heat, 71 gene function, 73 Millikan's oil drop experiment, 78 practical work and laboratory procedures, 65 air quality, 46 industrial organic chemistry, 33 and green chemistry. 11 Almost half of these studies a n a l y z e d e x c l u s i v e l y s e c o n d a r y c h e m i s t r y t e x tbooks, 6,12,20,22,26,28,50,54,57,<...…”