A Comparative Study Of Scientific Inquiry In High School Physics Textbook

Scientific inquiry is an organic part of physics teaching,which plays an important role in improving students’ scientific quality and promoting knowledge internalization.As the carrier of knowledge and the basis of teaching,the scientific inquiry activities in the teaching materials are compiled under the guidance of the new curriculum standard and with full consideration of the law of students’ cognitive development.It is an important content to cultivate students’ core literacy of physics,which is in line with the educational concept of the new era.This study conducts a comparative analysis of the electromagnetic part of the high school physics textbooks of the People’s Education Edition and the Guangdong Education Edition in 2019,and explores the similarities and differences in scientific inquiry activities in the two textbooks.On the basis of the relevant researches on the scientific inquiry in textbooks,this paper builds a text analysis framework for scientific inquiry activities in high school physics textbooks.It compares and analyzes the scientific inquiry activities of the electromagnetic part of the two versions of textbook from four aspects: the presentation form of scientific inquiry activities,the classification of scientific inquiry activities,the opening level of scientific inquiry activities and the scientific process skills.Besides,the scientific inquiry activities in the electromagnetic part of the high school physics classroom were investigated to understand the development of scientific inquiry in actual teaching.Based on the above analysis,the research conclusions are as follows.Firstly,the number of scientific inquiry activities in the Guangdong Education Edition is far more than that in the People’s Education Edition,which aims to create conditions for students to carry out scientific inquiry activities as far as possible.The People’s Education Edition pays more attention to the logic between knowledge,reflecting the concept that “Scientific inquiry activities serve the construction of new knowledge”.The presentation forms of scientific inquiry activities in the two editions of textbooks are similar,both of which are mainly schematic diagrams.The People ’s Education Edition focuses on the use of representational illustrations,while the Guangdong Education Edition focuses on the use of explanatory illustrations.Secondly,the scientific inquiry activities of the two editions of textbook are mainly experimental.The investigation activities have not received enough attention in the People’s Education Edition.Both editions pay attention to the exploration of physical knowledge and the exploration of applied physical knowledge.The Guangdong Education Edition pays more attention to the implementation of STSE’s educational philosophy through inquiry than the People’s Education Edition.Thirdly,the scientific inquiry activities of the two editions are mainly at level 2 and most of them set inquiry ideas and schemes.Fourthly,the distribution of scientific process skills in the two editions is uneven.The average frequency of basic scientific process skills in the two editions is higher than that of comprehensive scientific process skills.Fifthly,in the actual process of scientific inquiry is teacher-led.The level of openness is low,and students are less likely to conduct independent inquiry.Finally,combined with the results of text analysis and questionnaire survey,some targeted suggestions are provided for teachers to carry out scientific inquiry activities.