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The Biology Textbook as a Source of Ideas about Scientific Knowledge and Experimental Activity

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Teaching and Learning in the Science Laboratory

Part of the book series: Science & Technology Education Library ((CTISE,volume 16))

Abstract

References, indications and proposals that can be seen as experimental activities supporting the presentation of biology topics in Italian secondary school textbooks and aspects of communication aspects that can affect the image of scientific knowledge are the focus of this study. From lower secondary school to the threshold of the university a poor and decreasing demand for participation in a concrete, direct orexperimental approach to natural objects and events has been noted. The prominence of assertions and definitions, the presentation of a certain number of unrealisable and “wrong” experiments, and experimental evidence restricted to the subject matter of Ethology (a young discipline, not yet sufficiently stated epistemologically) reinforce the image of scientific knowledge asa well-established and unquestionable set of information, which perhaps has never had (and does not need) any empirical support.

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Bandiera, M. (2002). The Biology Textbook as a Source of Ideas about Scientific Knowledge and Experimental Activity. In: Psillos, D., Niedderer, H. (eds) Teaching and Learning in the Science Laboratory. Science & Technology Education Library, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48196-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48196-0_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-1018-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-306-48196-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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