Analysis of the Contents on Elementary School Science Textbooks in Japan : The Case of “Human Birth” in 5th Grade

平成10年改訂の学習指導要領で課題選択制とされた「人の誕生」と「魚の誕生」が，平成20年改訂の学習指導要領から必修になった。改訂に伴い，新旧教科書の内容にどのような変化が見られたかを，「人の誕生」に焦点を当てて調査・分析した。その結果，以下のことが明らかになった。小単元のページ数は全出版社で増えていた。卵の成長を示す「図・写真の数」は増える傾向が見られなかったが，図や写真を大きく表示することで，視覚的によりわかりやすく工夫したものと考えられる。｢人の誕生｣は，保健の学習内容と重なる部分が大きい。両者の学習内容の分析を行い，学習をより充実したものにすることが今後の課題となると考えられる。In the course of study revised in 1998, there was a choice of either the unit of “human birth” or “animal birth” in elementary school 5th grade of Science in Japan. After that, the unit “animal and human birth” became a compulsory unit in the course of study revised in 2008. In this study, we focused on “human birth”and analyzed what kind of change was seen in the contents of the old and the new textbooks of about 5 publishing companies with revision. The results of the study are as follows: The pages of this unit increased at all publishing companies. The number of photographs displaying the growth of the egg did not increase. The unit was devised more clearly visually, by displaying figures and photographs. “Human birth” has many parts overlapping with the learning contents of Health. These results indicate that it is necessary to analyze the learning contents of Science and Health, and should be improved further