A Comparative Analysis on the Middle School Environmental Textbooks

중학교 "환경" 교과서 비교.분석 연구

This study analyzed and compared the number of students activities, contents scope, and organizing system of the three textbooks(A, B, and C) which had been developed and published for the 'Environment'subject in the 7th National Curriculum. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; There were differences in the size, the total number of pages and the quality of print between two groups of 'Environment'textbooks of the 6th and the 7th national curriculum. New textbooks were found bigger than the previous ones by 125%. The total number of pages increased by the average of 16.4%. A and C textbooks were composed of three parts, seven chapters, and 17 sections, whereas B textbook consisted of ten chapters and 23 sections. All of the three textbooks appeared to put an emphasis on the chapters of 'environment protection'and 'environmental problems of the Earth ' A comparative analysis on the number of data included in the three textbooks showed that almost half of data took a form of picture, averaging 48% of the total. A had 297 pictures, and 234 pictures for B, 194 pictures for C, respectively. In terms of the number of students'activities, C was found to include the largest number of activities that is 91, comparing to text A of 85, text B of 78. The number of students'activities in every content is found'environment awaiting protection', tile 'environmental problems of the earth'and'things to be done for the protection of environment'much more than any other parts. It should be noted that this study focused ell only a set of quantitative measures so that teachers are recommended to consider detailed contents that each textbook contains as well as environmental conditions of the school region.