Topic and inquiry analysis of the evolutionary content in secondary school biology textbooks of the People's Republic of China, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The presentations of evolutionary theory in 13 prominent, secondary school biology textbooks--3 Chinese, 8 American and 2 Soviet--were examined using the methods of content analysis. Eighty evolutionary topics (79 specific and 1 miscellaneous) were meticulously delineated. The amount of text devoted to each of these themes was assessed for each of the 13 books. Such word counts were enumerated for the main narrative, as well as for eight supplemental components (illustrations, marginal information, appendixes, etc.). The evolutionary content in the main narrative was also evaluated in terms of style of presentation, by computing the degree to which elements of scientific inquiry are present. Tables and histograms are used to present, for each textbook, data on the distribution of evolutionary content according to topic and according to textbook component; the proportion of main narrative with evolutionary content; the location of the evolutionary content within the main narrative; and assessments of scientific inquiry. The topic and inquiry analyses revealed numerous, pronounced and systematic differences between the biology textbooks of the three school systems, as well as between the biology textbooks within each of those systems. The textbooks of the People's Republic of China (PRC) fail to introduce a considerable number of topics which are prominent in the other two systems. The sparsity of evolutionary text outside the main narrative of USSR and PRC textbooks contrasts with the extensive evolutionary discussions in the more prevalent supplemental components of USA textbooks. The evolutionary text of USA editions was dispersed throughout and presented surprisingly early. Among the revealing individual topics: "place of labor in human evolution" (of immense importance in Marxist systems but absent from USA textbooks); "punctuated equilibria" (unexpectedly ignored by USSR and PRC textbooks); "evolution and religion" (prominent in Soviet and Chinese textbooks, where the general criticism of belief in God contrasts with the neutrality exhibited in the lone USA textbook discussing this topic); "law of recapitulation" (Haeckel's biogenetic law surprisingly supported in a Soviet textbook); and "artificial selection" (dominant in Soviet textbooks, occupying one-sixth of words on evolution). The extensive quantitative data is supplemented with additional observations on the evolutionary presentations.