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Research on the Nature of Science in China’s Current High School Physics Textbooks

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Abstract

In this study, high school physics textbooks published by People’s Education Press (PEP) and Educational Science Publishing House (ESP) (a total of 6 books) in China were analyzed via a self-developed scale measuring nature of science (NOS) including three first-level indicators of scientific knowledge, scientific process, and scientific enterprise and 12 secondary indicators, and the content level, presenting position, and representation form are adopted to analyze the NOS of textbooks. First of all, the contents of the three first-level indicators are more presented in the main text, generally expressed in the form of conceptual laws and text examples. There are obvious differences between PEP and ESP textbooks in the three dimensions of scientific knowledge, scientific process, and scientific enterprise. Secondly, there are many contents of observation and inference, theories and laws, and scientific culture in the two editions of textbooks, while there are very few contents of scientific ethics. There are obvious differences between the two editions in terms of empirical basis, diversity of scientific methods, scientific spirit, and theories and laws. Third, results of longitudinal comparison showed that the growth of grades, the relevance of NOS in PEP with a gradual downward trend, while the ESP with an “inverted U” curve. The results of horizontal comparison showed that NOS in PEP of grade 10 is better than the ESP, while it is the opposite in grade 12. The content of NOS in the two editions of grade 11 textbooks is equivalent. At the same time, there are differences in the content level, presenting position and representation form between the two editions in different grades.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the reviewers and editors for their in-depth and detailed amendments to promote our in-depth study, the support of 2018 Overseas Visiting Training Program for Outstanding Young Backbone Talents in Anhui Province Universities of China (gxgwfx2018064), National Natural Science Foundation of China (72074031) and Major Project of the “Fourteenth Five-Year Plan” of the Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education in China (22JJD880007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education and Psycology, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Lijun Wei

  2. Kunshan No.1 Middle School, Kunshan, 215399, China

    Bilin Gao

  3. Institute of International and Comparative Education, Bei**g Normal University, Bei**g, 100875, China

    **gying Wang

  4. Faculty of Education, Bei**g Normal University, Bei**g, 100875, China

    Chunming Jiang, Xufan Zhang & **aomei **

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  1. Lijun Wei
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  6. **aomei **
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Correspondence to **gying Wang.

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Wei, L., Gao, B., Wang, J. et al. Research on the Nature of Science in China’s Current High School Physics Textbooks. Sci & Educ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-023-00443-6

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