A Qualitative Method to Determine How Textbooks Portray Scientific Methodology

Abstract

One key aspect of scientific literacy is to have a clear understanding of how scientists work. Understanding how scientists work, or scientific methodology, is an essential part of scientific literacy and the public understanding of science in general. Research indicates that a large majority of Americans do not understand how scientists work. Some argue that science textbooks are one source of this misunderstanding. Although it is impossible to attribute the public’s inaccurate views of scientific methodology to only textbooks, textbooks still serve as a resource for the standard science classroom. Several studies have looked at how science textbooks represent the nature of science and, more specifically, scientific methodology. However, the majority of this research has utilized quantitative methods for their analyses. In other words, much of this research tends to focus on whether, not how, textbooks present scientific methodology. To address this gap in the literature, this study developed a qualitative method to evaluate how textbooks present scientific methodology. In this chapter, I describe the methods used to develop an instrument to look at the quality of a textbook’s presentation of scientific methodology.