Previous research about the presence of nature of science (NOS) within science textbooks has been found to be lacking in sufficient coverage. However, given the shift in how scholars conceive of NOS, ...the shortcomings may not be present in the textbooks but rather in the NOS frameworks used to analyze textbooks. Whereas traditional NOS has taken a more generalized approach to describing scientific practices, the family resemblance approach (FRA) to NOS recognizes variability in the scientific disciplines as reported by practicing scientists as well as philosophers and historians of science. Instead of suggesting that NOS can be applied equally in educational settings to all scientific disciplines, the FRA accounts for cognitive‐epistemic and social‐instructional conceptual elements which more authentically represent science. This study sought to evaluate textbooks using this more recent NOS conceptualization to explore the potential range of NOS aspects. Using the proposed FRA categories, seven German biology textbooks were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The combination of cognitive‐epistemic and social‐institutional systems of science revealed that the FRA was a suitable mechanism for analyzing textbooks' coverage of NOS. Notably, FRA's distinct attention to modeling (absent from the discipline‐general NOS approach) revealed its presence in textbooks that would have gone unnoticed. Another finding was that the textbooks tended to emphasize the cognitive‐epistemic systems over the social‐institutional. Finally, this study found that even with a broader set of categories and subcategories to the FRA, the application to analyze was reliable.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural relationships among students' expectation, perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention to use ...digital textbooks in middle school, based on Bhattacherjee's (2001) expectation-confirmation model. The subjects of this study were Korean middle school students taking an English class taught by a digital textbook in E middle school, Seoul. Data were collected via a paper-and-pencil-based questionnaire with 17 items; 137 responses were analyzed. The study found that (a) the more expectations of digital textbooks are satisfied, the more likely students are to perceive enjoyment and usefulness of digital textbooks, (b) satisfaction plays a mediating role in linking expectation, perceived enjoyment and usefulness, and continuance intention to use digital textbooks, (c) perceived usefulness and satisfaction have a direct and positive influence on continuance intention to use digital textbooks, and (d) perceived enjoyment has a non-significant influence on continuance intention to use digital textbooks with middle school students. Based on these findings, the implications and recommendations for future research are presented.
•The satisfied expectation on digital textbooks influenced perceived enjoyment and usefulness.•The perception of usefulness on digital textbooks was increased when expectations were met.•Expectation, perceived enjoyment and usefulness influenced satisfaction on digital books.•Perceived usefulness and satisfaction affected continuance intention to use digital textbooks.•Perceived enjoyment did not affect continuance intention to use digital textbooks.
The principal aim of this book is to introduce topology and its many applications viewed within a framework that includes a consideration of compactness, completeness, continuity, filters, function ...spaces, grills, clusters and bunches, hyperspace topologies, initial and final structures, metric spaces, metrization, nets, proximal continuity, proximity spaces, separation axioms, and uniform spaces. This book provides a complete framework for the study of topology with a variety of applications in science and engineering that include camouflage filters, classification, digital image processing, forgery detection, Hausdorff raster spaces, image analysis, microscopy, paleontology, pattern recognition, population dynamics, stem cell biology, topological psychology, and visual merchandising.
Mankin Mak's textbook provides a self-contained course on atmospheric dynamics. The first half is suitable for senior undergraduates, and develops the physical, dynamical and mathematical concepts at ...the fundamental level. The second half of the book is aimed at more advanced students who are already familiar with the basics. The contents have been developed from many years of the author's teaching at the University of Illinois. Discussions are supplemented with schematics, weather maps and statistical plots of the atmospheric general circulation. Students often find the connection between theoretical dynamics and atmospheric observation somewhat tenuous, and this book demonstrates a strong connection between the key dynamics and real observations. This textbook is an invaluable asset for courses in atmospheric dynamics for advanced students and researchers in atmospheric science, ocean science, weather forecasting, environmental science, and applied mathematics. Some background in mathematics, physics and basic atmospheric science is assumed.
Providing a fundamental introduction to all aspects of modern plasma chemistry, this book describes mechanisms and kinetics of chemical processes in plasma, plasma statistics, thermodynamics, fluid ...mechanics and electrodynamics, as well as all major electric discharges applied in plasma chemistry. Fridman considers most of the major applications of plasma chemistry, from electronics to thermal coatings, from treatment of polymers to fuel conversion and hydrogen production and from plasma metallurgy to plasma medicine. It is helpful to engineers, scientists and students interested in plasma physics, plasma chemistry, plasma engineering and combustion, as well as chemical physics, lasers, energy systems and environmental control. The book contains an extensive database on plasma kinetics and thermodynamics and numerical formulas for practical calculations related to specific plasma-chemical processes and applications. Problems and concept questions are provided, helpful in courses related to plasma, lasers, combustion, chemical kinetics, statistics and thermodynamics, and high-temperature and high-energy fluid mechanics.
From the start of a synthetic chemist’s training, experiments are conducted based on recipes from textbooks and manuscripts that achieve clean reaction outcomes, allowing the scientist to develop ...practical skills and some chemical intuition. This procedure is often kept long into a researcher’s career, as new recipes are developed based on similar reaction protocols, and intuition-guided deviations are conducted through learning from failed experiments. However, when attempting to understand chemical systems of interest, it has been shown that model-based, algorithm-based, and miniaturized high-throughput techniques outperform human chemical intuition and achieve reaction optimization in a much more time- and material-efficient manner; this is covered in detail in this paper. As many synthetic chemists are not exposed to these techniques in undergraduate teaching, this leads to a disproportionate number of scientists that wish to optimize their reactions but are unable to use these methodologies or are simply unaware of their existence. This review highlights the basics, and the cutting-edge, of modern chemical reaction optimization as well as its relation to process scale-up and can thereby serve as a reference for inspired scientists for each of these techniques, detailing several of their respective applications.
Within the realm of mathematics education, the examination of textbooks has emerged as a focal point of scholarly investigation. This endeavor necessitates the development of a comprehensive ...instrument capable of facilitating both qualitative and quantitative textbook analysis. To address this need, we draw upon a corpus of seminal studies, and supplement our analysis with local research reports that assess the quality of mathematics textbooks through a qualitative content analysis approach. Content analysis was utilized to examine the documents and identify the themes relevant to the analysis of mathematics textbooks. Our data analysis revealed the identification of six overarching themes for the systematic evaluation of mathematics textbooks: (1) language and communication, (2) content analysis, (3) pedagogical approach, (4) cultural sensitivity and inclusivity, (5) assessment and exercises, and (6) visual aids and presentation. Each of these themes is meticulously expounded upon, shedding light on their significance in shaping the intricacies of mathematics textbook authorship. This proposed analytical framework presents an invaluable resource for enhancing the quality of mathematics textbooks at the school level. The themes elucidated herein offer a structured approach to textbook assessment, ultimately fostering the advancement of mathematical education by improving the instructional materials that are integral to the teaching and learning process.
A dynamic and creative approach to teaching spoken
Arabic in the classroom for the Upper Intermediate level by the
author of Media Arabic
Upper-Intermediate Arabic through Discussion is a
...classroom-tested course that uses an inquiry-based approach to
challenge intermediate learners of Arabic by engaging them in
thought-provoking discussions about topics of general interest.
Each topic is framed in the form of a question, such as "How can we
learn a new language fast?" or" Why are some sports more popular
than others?," to motivate students to immediately start searching
for an answer. Drawing on her long experience as an Arabic
instructor, Nevenka Korica Sullivan has organized the book into
twenty chapters, each one devoted to a single theme. While
exploring each topic, learners are guided to expand their
vocabulary, acquire more complex structures, and discover systemic
relationships between language form, function, and meaning. A rich
assortment of exercises and activities ensures that learners make
palpable progress in advancing their language skills. The course is
designed to create a lively learner-centered classroom where
interaction between participants is both the goal and the means of
language study; it can also be successfully used with a tutor or
for independent study.
