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Scientists Criticize Textbooks (fwd)



From B. Paddock...


-------- Forwarded message --------
Newsgroups: clari.tw.science,clari.news.education.misc,clari.tw.top
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 8:05:41 PDT
From: C-ap@clari.net (AP / RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer)
Subject: Scientists Criticize Textbooks


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The most widely used middle school science
textbooks flunked an evaluation by the nation's largest
organization of scientists.
Most of the books cover too many topics and don't do any of them
well, said the report released Tuesday by the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
The analysis said the texts ``include many classroom activities
that are either irrelevant to learning key science ideas or don't
help students relate what they are doing to the underlying ideas.''
George Nelson, director of Project 2061, which evaluated the
books, said: ``It's a credit to science teachers that their
students are learning anything at all.''
Nelson said that despite the scientific accuracy of a book, ``If
it doesn't provide teachers and students with the right kinds of
help in understanding and applying important concepts, then it's
not doing its job.''
The study rated how well textbooks for the middle grades can
help students learn key ideas in earth science, life science and
physical science.
Each text was evaluated by two independent teams of middle
school teachers, curriculum specialists and professors of science
education.
``This study confirms our worst fears about the materials used
to educate our children in the critical middle grades,'' said
Nelson. ``Because textbooks are the backbone of classroom
instruction, we must demand improvement so that our students can
acquire the knowledge and skills they will need for more advanced
learning in high school, college, and the workplace.''
The study also looked at three stand-alone units that are not
part of any textbooks. Developed at Michigan State University and
the Michigan Department of Education through research aimed at how
students learn, the units rated much higher than the textbooks.
``We understand that these negative evaluations will be
disturbing for schools using these texts, but teachers should be
able to use the explanations in the full reports to start looking
for ways to compensate for the text's shortcomings,'' Nelson said.
Full reports on each book evaluated are to be released next year.
Middle school science tests evaluated in the project were
``Glencoe Science,'' ``MacmillanMcGraw-Hill Science,'' ``Middle
School Science and Technology,'' ``Prentice Hall Science,'' ``PRIME
Science,'' ``Science 2000,'' ``Science Insights,'' ``Science
Interactions,'' ``SciencePlus: Technology and Society'' and
``Matter and Molecules.''