Opportunities for Learning: Analysis of Czech Lower-Secondary Chemistry Textbook Tasks

Abstract

Tasks in Czech lower-secondary chemistry textbooks were analysed to describe their position in textbook chapters, required response type, overall task nature, as well as cognitive requirements. The results showed older textbooks contain task banks at the end of chapters suggest a transmissive teaching paradigm, whereas newer textbooks containing tasks within the chapters. As far as the nature of the tasks is concerned, a strong stereotypical genre was found in the chemistry textbooks. Most of the textbook tasks require open-ended answers and target: factual and conceptual knowledge remembering or procedure application. The authors therefore suggest several changes to the tasks, including their position in chapters, cognitive difficulty as well as the required response type in order to meet chemistry education goals.