Energy is a crosscutting concept in science, but college students often perceive a mismatch between how their biology and chemistry courses discuss the topic. The challenge of reconciling these disciplinary differences can promote faulty reasoning--for example, biology students often develop the incorrect idea that breaking bonds is exothermic and…

The use of history textbooks in order to instill particular images of the nation and national identity has been widely recognized, with a proliferation of studies focused on the problematic content in textbooks. Yet, history textbooks rely on a range of other media like maps, graphs, illustrated timelines, and photographs, which also play an…

With a focus on related rates problems, the present study reports on quantitative and covariational reasoning opportunities provided by five widely used calculus textbooks in the United States. There are three major results from this study. First, quantitative reasoning opportunities are plentiful, while covariational reasoning opportunities are…

With the "pictorial turn", the picture has gained a new significance as a medium. It is impossible to imagine a digitalized world affected by mass media without pictures. While there are several studies on the impact of pictures in the discourse on climate change in the media, there has been no analysis of the visual representation of…

The integration of environmental education (EE) into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) coursebooks is common. This article aims to bridge gaps in understanding the representation of environmental themes by employing ecolinguistics and EE frameworks for (1) identifying environmental themes within EFL coursebooks for primary school students in…

Botanical literacy is a crucial component of science education, particularly in light of the contemporary socio-ecological challenges. However, the literature reports that, due to the phenomenon known as Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD), average botanical literacy is scant. Multiple factors influence the effectiveness of botanical education,…

Various types of visuals are included in social studies textbooks such as pictures, illustrations, maps, and photographs as they are considered powerful learning aids. Therefore, it is important to investigate how visuals in social studies textbooks are perceived by the students. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to discuss how students…

The study describes how the common representations are coordinated. I analyzed a popular geometry textbook using semiotics and a pragmatic approach to capture the variety of representations into categories and to use descriptive statistics to narrow the focus to the most common representations and coordinations. The major findings are: (1)…

This study analyzed the comprehension strategies and visuals in two science textbook series for grades 6, 7, and 8 as means of better understanding a core element of the ecological component of science literacy. The iScience (Biggs, 2015"abc") and Interactive Science (Buckey, 2015abcdef) textbook series were analyzed for the frequency of…

This study analyzed the comprehension strategies and visuals in two science textbook series for grades 6, 7, and 8 as means of better understanding a core element of the ecological component of science literacy. The iScience [Biggs et al. in iScience (Grade 6), McGraw-Hill, 2015a, iScience (Grade 7), McGraw-Hill, 2015b, iScience (Grade 7),…

In this study, the 8th grade secondary school mathematics textbook approved by the ministry in Turkey was compared with the mathematics textbooks in France and the USA in terms of the use of the multiple representation method in the probability learning domain. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study, and…

Visual representations (and their censorship) are carriers of messages and are powerful tools to invoke discourses. Visuals are not just supplements to written text; rather, these can be read independently as the primary text and are crucial to scientific communication, particularly in life sciences. This paper aims to investigate various textbook…

Science textbooks often include text and diagrams to aid learner understanding. Yet traditional written instructions in textbooks often separate them, which can increase cognitive load and hinder effective learning. This research proposes and tests a novel presentational format for written instruction that incorporates spatial contiguity, numbered…

There is currently a lack of systematic study examining the integration of verbal-visual elements in science textbooks. In particular, few research has investigated how different types of visual representations (e.g. photograph, diagram, table) vary across the major written genres of science (e.g. information report, explanation). Based on the…

There are various textbook sets commonly used in teaching Turkish to foreigners. In the literature, the literary content of these books has been examined by many researchers. However, there have not been enough studies on the visuals, which are as important as the texts in the books. The visuals belonging to the texts in the Gazi University…