An analysis of grade 9 natural sciences textbooks for the nature of science

M.Ed. (Education)This study is an analysis of Grade 9 Natural Sciences textbooks for their representation of the nature of science. The textbooks analysed are CAPS compliant and approved by the Department of Basic Education. Like any other modern education system in a democratic dispensation, the South African education system has undergone several curricular changes post- independence (1994). These changes have been due to, but not limited by, factors pertaining to political and economic reforms. Curricular revisions have spanned a period of almost 20 years, commencing with Curriculum 2005 (C2005) to the current revised Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). Science curriculum documents subscribe to the tenets of the nature of science (Lederman, 2007). Bell (2008) suggests that science is best defined by its characteristics, otherwise known as the tenets of NOS. Eleven key aspects of NOS that are intricately related to the basic tenets of science derived by Lederman (2007) form the analytical framework used in this study. The aspects are: Empirical; Inferential; Creative; Theory-driven; Tentative; Myth of the scientific method; Scientific theories; Scientific laws; Social dimensions of science; Social and cultural embeddedness of science and Science vs. pseudoscience. These aspects further formed a detailed scoring rubric to record the extent to which NOS is represented in the units of analysis, which comprise complete paragraphs, activities, worked examples, figures with captions, tables with captions, charts with captions, and marginal comments of the sampled topics ..