Review of Middle School Physical Science Texts

John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu

Purpose
The purpose of this grant was to review and critique the physical science in Middle School (grades 6, 7, and 8, although some schools called Junior High designate grades 7, 8, and 9) science textbooks with regard to the scientific accuracy, adherence to an accurate portrayal of the scientific approach, and the appropriateness and pedagogic effectiveness of the material presented for the particular grade level.We also noted such things as readability, attractiveness, quality of illustrations, and whether material such as laboratory activities, suggested home activities, exercises to test understanding, and resource suggestions where considered appropriate.

We want this report to be read so we have left in some of the humor, suggestions for improvement, references to available and often inexpensive tested materials, a variety of print styles, some references to aid teacher enhancement, some website addresses, and other reports of a similar nature.Early on we noted that listing all the errors would make this report much too long (over 500 pages) so we decided to set up a website dealing with errors in texts relevant to the Middle Schools. This website will be maintained after the grant ends as a service to teachers, potential authors, and publishers. We also noticed that publishers, when presented with lists of errors, suggest that their new printing or edition has taken care of those errors. Subsequent looks at these “new” books showed some corrections and often more errors. Teachers, of course, do not have access to the many printings and newer additions as they are often dealing with books from the same publishers that are five to ten years old. We can expect the same to happen with the dissemination of this report. The website should help.

Procedure

A letter was written to all the relevant publishers as determined by lists garnered from school districts that were considering or had recently considered adopting science textbooks for Middle School grades.In some instances three letters were sent to publishers at different addresses. The letter explained the project, asked for a company liaison with whom we could communicate during the project, and asked for copies of their texts at the Middle School level. No publisher responded. Several letters came back 'Undeliverable as addressed, forwarding order expired' and permutations on that theme. It appears that these addresses were temporary while decisions were being made and once a decision was made they left town. Telephone calls resulted in only two publishers willing to talk: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and South-Western Educational Publishing. The former publisher sent a complete set of texts and the latter sent a sample (1 out of 14 slim volumes.) Neither volunteered a liaison.

The reviewers, for the most part, were quite familiar with local school districts and publishers and were able to locate not only the latest texts, but also texts seven and over ten years old that were still being used in school districts. Recognizing that some Middle School teachers may have used these same books in earlier editions we decided to include them in our survey. Each major market text was reviewed by at least two reviewers and no two reviewers reviewed the same two books. A few other books used within smaller markets were also included to determine if there were distinguishing characteristics that might indicate a trend toward newer approaches that utilized findings from physics educational research. In addition a few books being used by teachers that were at a slightly higher level as resource material were looked at in a more casual way.

The reviewers all had physics and teaching backgrounds that varied from Middle School to graduate school. All had been involved in some way with the teachers and/or the curriculum at the Middle School level for many years. Many had presented papers at national and section meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and had served on various committees of that organization including The Committee on Pre-High School Physics. In addition, over 20 individuals, prompted by several talks by co-principal investigator (JLH), volunteered their experiences with texts, authors, and publishers. Although most were oral, some were written.



Dayana Montelongo - Jimena Damiano