Lower-secondary School Chemistry Textbooks: The Use and Selected Structural components' Analysis

Textbooks are a tool which serves several purposes in education. Except for students, textbooks are also being used by teachers who, thanks to a complex selection and transformation of the subject-matter, represent the most concrete shape of intended curriculum. For this reason, textbooks can influence education significantly. However, this field has not been addressed yet within lower-secondary school chemistry education research. The goal of this thesis was therefore to map the field of Czech lower-secondary school chemistry textbooks. In order to put the topic into a context, first, a systematic literature review on science education textbook research was performed. Also, textbooks' publishing after 1989 in the context of national lower-secondary school curricular changes was mapped. Textbooks' potential influence is conditioned by their elaboration as well as their use. For this reason, a questionnaire survey was performed on a random sample of 378 chemistry teachers from 370 lower-secondary schools. This sample enables generalization for the entire lower-secondary schools and chemistry teachers' population in Czechia. The research showed: which textbooks are being used, the way they were selected at schools, teachers' evaluation, and purpose of their use with a special attention to particular..