Conveying the vision of science: Meta -lessons on inquiry found in a content analysis of two high school biology textbooks

This descriptive study examined two high school biology textbooks for differences in opportunities for student inquiry as reported by Romey's Index of Student Involvement. The National Research Council's National Science Education Standards emphasizes the importance of students becoming "independent inquirers about the natural world." The systematic examination of student textbooks is an significant aspect in monitoring the state of science education in contemporary classrooms.;Over 81% of text sampled in PRENTICE HALL Biology was categorized as fact, definition, or author's conclusion while 7% qualified as engaging students in inquiry. Biology: A Community Context had a more balanced distribution with 42% of sentences being categorized as fact, definition, or author's conclusion and 28% qualifying as engaging students in inquiry. Chi-square (chi2) statistics for the categories of non-inquiry/inquiry were significant, indicating that the two textbooks differ significantly as to their emphases on opportunities for inquiry.;The investigation also compared two different sample sizes: the literature-recommended sample of 5% of text and a smaller 250-sentence sample. The frequency distribution across the 10 categories of non-inquiry/inquiry was very similar for the two sample sizes. PRENTICE HALL Biology fell below the recommended Index of Student Involvement range in both sampling techniques, while Biology: A Community Context fell in the recommended range for the Index of Student Involvement in both sampling techniques. This seems to indicate that the smaller sample size could be used appropriately to compare potential student textbooks by textbook adoption committees and curriculum planners. Biology textbooks that are judged to have relatively high amounts of inquiry are recommended for those who want to implement the national standards.