La competencia científica en las actividades de aprendizaje incluidas en los libros de texto de Ciencias de la Naturaleza

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that more than 80% of the Spanish teachers use almost exclusively the textbook in the activities developed in the classroom. These data point to the importance of evaluating the quality of existing textbooks, particularly in the way they incorporate basic competencies into the school curriculum. In this paper, the learning activities included in three Science textbook of Spain are analyzed, for the fourth year of primary education, with the aim of identifying whether the scientific competence is present. More specifically, we look for learning activities that explore inquiry methodologies, which are directly linked to scientific work and to the understanding of the Nature of Science. The results reveal a similar pattern in the three editorials, the conceptual dimension being the most worked out, and with only a few activities that promote the development of the methodological and integrate dimensions. No learning activities were found with an inquiry approach, however in two of the three publishers some proposals have been found that include engineering designs, although with an inadequate orientation for a correct development by the students.