First images in primary school textbooks as didactical obstacles in the construction of science concepts: the example of digestion

Abstract

School textbooks have been defined as printed instruments created with two main goals: to help teachers to prepare and implement theirs teaching activities and to help pupils to construct their learning (Gérard & Roegiers 1998). In our previous studies we found that primary school pupils (Carvalho, Silva & Clément 2003; Carvalho et al. 2004) as well as pre-service and in-service primary school teachers (Carvalho, Dantas & Clément 2004) show difficulties in three main concepts of the digestion process – (i) sequence of the digestive tube representation, (ii) absence of blood absorption, and (iii) lack of relationship between digestive, circulatory and urinary systems – suggesting didactical obstacles, such as the use of inadequate textbooks. In order to find out whether there might be some association between these three digestion misconceptions and textbook digestion approaches, we analysed this topic in 10 primary school textbooks.