Science education for citizenship : do textbook lab activities help teachers to put it into practice?

One of the most outstanding aims of compulsory science education is to develop students‘ scientific literacy so that they can act as informed, active and responsible citizens. Thus, compulsory science education should lead students to acquire some awareness of the powers and limitations of science as well as to develop some reasoning competences that are relevant for daily lives. Lab activities are teaching resources that can be used in science classes to develop those competences. This paper content analyzes labs activities included in school science textbooks and discusses how they can promote or impair science learning for citizenship