The elaboration of concepts in three biology textbooks: Facilitating student learning

Abstract

As the levels of scientific literacy and science achievement have become issues of concern, the necessity of investigating possible causes becomes more urgent. Since textbooks have been shown to have a tremendous impact on curriculum, this is one variable of science instruction that needs further investigation. The purpose of this article is to describe how three biology books present the content related to photosynthesis through the construct of elaboration. The textbooks were selected for their differences in target audiences, as defined by student abilities. Results are discussed in terms of quantity of elaboration, relevance of ideas used to elaborate major concepts, relationship of the nature of elaboration to intended readers, and the general relationship between how texts present information and student learning.

The influence of concept mapping on achievement, self-regulation, and self-efficacy in students of English as a second language

“…The term "concept" is used in many ways in educational and psychological literature. Some definitions focus on common attributes of objects or events which result in their belonging to the same category, and the labeling o f that category with a word (Frayer, Fredrick & Klausmeier, 1969;Lloyd, 1990). Other discussions focus on the network of relationships among concepts (Anderson, 1980;Novak & Gowin, 1984).…”

Los mapas conceptuales como instrumento para analizar las ideas de los estudiantes de Maestro de Educación Primaria sobre qué enseñar de nutrición humana en Educación Primaria

“…27 Núm. 3 (2016) 1247-1269 reflexionar sobre su estructura cognitiva y el proceso de producción del conocimiento (Novak y Gowin, 1988), analizar la estructura los libros de texto (Lloyd, 1990), explicitar la planificación docente, seleccionar contenidos de enseñanza y evaluar los conocimientos de los alumnos (McClure, Sonak, y Suen, 1999;Nesbit y Adesope, 2006;Assaraf y Orion, 2010;Lopez et al, 2014) entre otras aplicaciones. Hay que destacar que Núñez y Banet (1997) utilizaron los mapas conceptuales específicamente en la formación de maestros y concretamente se centraron en el tema de la nutrición humana.…”

Concept maps and language: a Turkish experience

“…For instance, a key-word search of 'concept map' in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database resulted in 649 hits including 376 journal articles for years 1980-2001. In science education, concept maps have been mostly used in the study of biology (Pearson and Hughes 1986, Lloyd 1990, Okebukola 1990, Schmid and Telaro 1990, Briscoe and LaMaster 1991, chemistry (Cullen 1990, Zoller 1990, Wilson 1994, 1996, Markow and Lonning 1998, physics (Pankratius 1990, Roth andRoychoudhury 1993), and earth science (Ault 1985).…”