E-mail: jyhannn
chungbuk.ac.kr;
Chemical Education Journal (CEJ),
Vol. 9, No. 2/Registration No. 9-11/Received January 19, 2006.
URL = http://www.juen.ac.jp/scien/cssj/cejrnlE.html
E-mail: jyhannnchungbuk.ac.kr;
The function of inscription should be analyzed on the basis of its relationship with text and caption. Four kinds of functions were reported: decorative, illustrative, explanatory and complementary (Pozzer, & Roth, 2003). These functions will influence reader's interpretation of such inscriptions. Korean chemistry texts have many questions posed and (experimental) activities described, both of them include various kinds of inscriptions. Analyses of chemical inscriptions in Korean science textbooks revealed that the categories of functions need to be refined with more subcategories: the illustrative function includes subcategories of example in question and procedure and apparatus in activity; the complimentary function includes subcategories of essential in question and material and result in activity. In addition, new kind of function was found: the worksheet function. Cross-national researchers need to pay attention to specific cultural characteristics when comparing textbooks across countries.
Korean science textbooks are all in full-color nowadays. With no doubt, the (colorful) textbooks will catch attention of students (Pozzer-Ardenghi & Roth, 2004). Colors are used not only in every figures or photographs but also in some text (words). Some people, whose textbooks were in black-and-white in the middle school, might say the science leaning would be interesting with such colorful figures. One may delude oneself that he/she is reading a "science magazine" when he/she is reading a Korean textbook.
However the colorful figures will not help students' learning
in itself. On the contrary, one might say that the colorful figures
will distract students from reading the text or even from learning
science. The problem is how the colorful figures are used in harmony
with the text. That is, we should ask, "what are the functions
of figures in Korean science textbook?" Not surprisingly,
recently, science education researchers have paid their attention
on the use of figures or inscriptions in school science (e.g., Roth, Tobin, & Shaw, 1997).
Inscriptions are all forms of figures (visual representations)
other than text used in the textbook. Four kinds of functions
were identified: decorative, illustrative, explanatory and complementary
(Pozzer, & Roth, 2003; Roth, Pozzer-Ardenghi,
& Han, 2005). The function of any inscription depends
on its relationship with text and caption. These functions will
influence reader's interpretation of such inscriptions. The previous
research is extended onto the inscriptions of Korean science textbooks,
aiming at better understanding of the function and structure of
scientific inscriptions of different culture and different subject
matters.
The inscriptions found in Korean science textbooks for middle school students were analyzed. Grade-seven science textbooks were selected. Grade-seven science includes four science disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. Nine kinds of textbooks are available, which is published according to the seventh National Education Curriculum of Korea. Analyses were focused on the chemistry parts. The contents of chemistry-related chapters are (a) the three states of matter, (b) the movement of molecules, and (c) the change of state and energy.
To get the quality and credibility of qualitative research (Guba & Lincoln, 1989),
all steps and results of analysis were recorded to construct an
audit trail.
General descriptions of the chemical inscriptions are available in the previous research (Han & Roth, 2006). For the classification of the functions of inscriptions, four categories have been developed in recent research: decorative, illustrative, explanatory, and complementary (Pozzer & Roth, 2003). However, there were considerable differences between the present and previous studies in terms of grade-levels (high-school vs. grade seven), content (biology vs. chemistry), and the textual forms. For example, in Korean textbooks, beside the main text, there are many questions posed and (experimental) activities described. In addition, the captions of inscriptions are not always used so that it is impossible to distinguish "decorative" inscriptions from others based on the simple absence of the caption (Pozzer & Roth, 2003). As the result, the four categories were found not to be sufficient in analyzing the inscription in Korean science textbook. New (sub-) categories of inscriptions were required when they are used within question and activities.
In questions, inscriptions sometimes are used as an example of scientific phenomena (things) that are related to the contents of the questions, but that are not necessary in solving the problem (e.g., the photograph of bicycle in Question 3 in Figure 1). In other cases, inscriptions within a question are the essential part of the question, providing materials to work with to solve the problem (e.g., the drawings of pistons in Question 2 in Figure 1).
In activities, inscriptions are used as (a) materials to work with, for example, data to be processed; (b) representing the procedure of activities; (c) representing the apparatus for activities; and (d) providing the result of the activities. In addition, some inscriptions in questions or in activities provide blanks to be filled by students with words or drawings (e.g., empty table and graph, or empty space for drawing); these inscriptions were classified as worksheets. Some textbooks provide students with summarizing inscription at the end of a chapter where the contents of the chapter are summarized.
Some examples of classification are presented here. The two inscriptions in Figure 2 can be thought as the examples of illustrative inscriptions that show the procedure of the experiment, "The change of rubber balloon and plastic bottle by hot water." The main text, the "procedure" in Figure 2, describes the steps of the experimental activity with words. The two photographs show specific moments during the experiment. With more attention to the 'moment,' one can say the left photograph shows the moment after the steps 1 and 2, and the right shows the result of step 3. Then, the right photograph should be classified into an inscription showing the result of the activity.
Figure 3 follows Figure 2 in the textbook pages. The main text explains the previous experimental activity in a particulate viewpoint. The "Figure 5-12" in Figure 3 provides a similar explanation of the experimental activity with visual image. Therefore, it can be classified to an inscription with the explanatory function.
In Figure 4 one can
find new kind of function of inscription: worksheet function.
Students are asked to draw acetone molecules on the right circle
with white cross-section of glove. The empty space in the inscription
should be filled by students in the process of learning.
The other inscriptions in Figure
4 can be classified as one showing the procedure of
the activity (left photograph) and one showing the result
of the activity (right photograph).
During repetitive analysis sessions, it was found that the new categories can be merged into the first four categories. The example inscriptions in question, the apparatus and procedure inscriptions in activity have illustrative function, because they present the object or phenomenon without giving much explanation. The essential inscriptions in question, the material and result inscriptions in activity, and summary inscriptions have complementary function, because they provide new information, which are not available anywhere else. The worksheet inscriptions, however, cannot be merged with any other category. Therefore, they are considered as a new category.
Table 1 highlights the different situation in Korean textbooks, including the subcategories newly found. For example, in the illustrative function, the 'KS' textbook has 9.9% of inscriptions in the main text, 14.4% of inscriptions that show the examples inside questions, 14.4% of inscriptions that represent the procedures of activity, and 1.1% of inscriptions that show the apparatus of activity.
Table 1. Functions of inscriptions across textbooks from different publishers. The letter "Q" refers to "question" in the textbook, and "A" to "activity."
| Function of inscriptions | Textbooks (Publishers) |
Total |
||||||||
|
KS |
JH |
KK |
KJ |
DH |
BL |
DS |
DD |
DL |
||
| Decorative |
14.4% |
6.2% |
0.8% |
2.9% |
2.0% |
9.8% |
3.7% |
7.6% |
10.4% |
6.7% |
| Illustrative | ||||||||||
|
|
9.9% |
24.0% |
27.1% |
15.5% |
16.6% |
12.1% |
19.1% |
12.7% |
17.0% |
16.9% |
|
|
14.4% |
3.1% |
5.3% |
4.9% |
7.3% |
0.8% |
8.8% |
1.7% |
3.7% |
6.0% |
|
|
14.4% |
17.8% |
22.6% |
26.2% |
32.5% |
27.3% |
27.2% |
36.4% |
20.0% |
24.5% |
|
|
1.1% |
1.6% |
2.3% |
1.0% |
1.3% |
0.0% |
1.5% |
0.8% |
3.0% |
1.4% |
|
Sub total |
39.8% |
49.5% |
57.1% |
47.6% |
57.6% |
40.2% |
56.6% |
51.7% |
43.7% |
48.8% |
| Explanatory |
10.5% |
16.3% |
9.8% |
35.0% |
6.0% |
15.9% |
13.2% |
6.8% |
13.3% |
13.4% |
| Complimentary | ||||||||||
|
|
2.2% |
1.6% |
10.5% |
1.0% |
2.0% |
2.3% |
2.2% |
0.8% |
6.7% |
3.3% |
|
|
11.6% |
18.6% |
8.3% |
7.8% |
7.3% |
7.6% |
10.3% |
10.2% |
6.7% |
9.9% |
|
|
13.3% |
2.3% |
6.8% |
1.9% |
15.2% |
12.9% |
5.9% |
11.9% |
14.1% |
9.8% |
|
|
0.6% |
1.6% |
0.0% |
1.0% |
0.0% |
1.5% |
0.0% |
0.8% |
2.2% |
0.8% |
|
|
0.6% |
0.0% |
2.3% |
2.9% |
7.3% |
7.6% |
0.0% |
0.8% |
0.0% |
2.4% |
|
Sub total |
28.2% |
24.0% |
27.8% |
14.6% |
31.8% |
31.8% |
18.4% |
24.6% |
29.6% |
26.1% |
| Worksheet |
7.2% |
7.0% |
4.5% |
0.0% |
2.6% |
2.3% |
8.1% |
9.3% |
3.0% |
5.0% |
|
|
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
100.0% |
The Korean textbooks emphasize the students' activity with questions and experiments. Inscriptions within questions (example and essential) amount to 15.8% of all inscriptions and those within experimental activities (material, procedure, apparatus, and result) amount to 36.5%, totaling more than half (52.3%) of all inscriptions in the textbooks. The Korean seventh-grade textbooks therefore seem to place more emphasis on student's own work than on providing explanations or descriptions in main texts. This might be because the textbooks were written under the seventh National Curriculum of Korea. All textbooks in Korea should pass the "national inspection" in order to be published and used as the official textbook. The seventh National Curriculum of Korea emphasized students' participation in the inquiry by questions and activities.
In Korea, students buy their textbook for their own, so they can
write anything onto the textbook. Where students do not own the
textbook, they are not allowed to write something on it usually.
In a western textbook (Science Plus), no inscription was found
that have empty space to be filled by the learner. Although the
inscriptions with this worksheet function are not used
many times (that is, 5% of all inscriptions in Korean science
textbook), these critical cases can show a part of cultural characteristic
of Korean education. Cross-national researchers need to pay attention
to some specific cultural characteristics (e.g., the National
Curriculum or the ownership of textbook) when comparing textbooks
across countries. More research should be performed on the comparison
of textbooks.
The four categories of functions in the previous study were refined with more subcategories. The analysis of the function of inscriptions reveals that one-fourth of inscriptions are used in illustrating the procedure of activities. Although the type and the function of inscriptions vary in a great extent from textbook to textbook, all textbooks allot much of their space on inscriptions. In addition, new kind of function was found: the worksheet function. Cross-national researchers need to consider some specific cultural characteristics when analyzing textbooks across countries.
New questions emerge from this work. For example, would the different
functions of inscriptions lead to the different reading of them?
What will be the frequencies of functions of inscriptions in the
other discipline, such as physics, biology, and earth science,
in Korean science textbooks? New studies where students are asked
to read inscriptions of different functions are required also.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Han, J, & Roth, W.-M. (2006). Chemical inscriptions in Korean
textbooks: Semiotics of macro- and microworld. Science Education,
90(2), 173-201.
Pozzer, L. L., & Roth, W.-M. (2003). Prevalence, function,
and structure of photographs in high school biology textbooks.
Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(10), 1089-1114.
Pozzer-Ardenghi, L., & Roth, W.-M. (2004). Students' interpretation
of photographs in high school biology textbooks. Paper presented
at the annual meting of the National Association for Research
in Science Teaching, Vancouver, BC (April 1-4).
Roth, W.-M., Pozzer-Ardenghi, L., & Han, J. (2005). Critical
graphicacy: Understanding visual representation practices in school
science. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Roth, W.-M., Tobin, K., & Shaw, K. (1997). Cascades of inscriptions
and the re-presentation of nature: How numbers, tables, graphs,
and money come to re-present a rolling ball. International Journal
of Science Education, 19(9), 1075-1091.
CEJVol.9. No.. Contents