Investigating The Integration Of STSE Education Content In Compulsory High School Physics Textbooks

The educational philosophy of STSE(Science,Technology,Society,and Environment)always aims to improve students’ scientific literacy as the ultimate goal.The curriculum standards published in 2017 explicitly included the STSE educational philosophy in the interpretation of the core competencies of physics,and how to better integrate STSE education with textbooks has become a current research hotspot.Against this background,this study conducts text research on the content of STSE education in the current six editions of compulsory high school physics textbooks from the two aspects of different analysis dimensions and content themes of STSE education,in order to understand the integration and characteristics of STSE education philosophy in compulsory high school physics textbooks in our country and to provide reference for further improvement of textbooks,and help teachers understand the textbooks and improve teaching methods.First,this study is based on the characteristics of the physics discipline,the study of the "Curriculum Standards",and combined with expert consultation,revised the "STSE Content Analysis Checklist for Science Textbooks" established by the Calado team,and ultimately obtained the "STSE Education Content Textbook Analysis Framework"(including 5 dimensions,16 elements)of this study.Then,the compulsory series of the current six editions of high school physics textbooks were selected as the research objects,and the content analysis method and comparative research method were used to study the integration of STSE education content in the textbooks from the two aspects of analysis dimensions and content themes.Study One: Research on the integration of STSE education content in different dimensions in compulsory high school physics textbooks.This is mainly based on the analysis of specific content in the textbooks from the 5 dimensions in the "STSE Education Content Textbook Analysis Framework",and a horizontal comparison of the integration of STSE education content in various versions of textbooks.Some of the conclusions are as follows:In general,the STSE education content in the six editions of the textbooks is reflected in all 5 dimensions,demonstrating completeness.Specifically,all versions of the textbooks show the following commonalities in different dimensions: they focus on the introduction of scientific and technological events themselves,with only a small number of important events involving social scenarios;they attach great importance to the application of digital experimental instruments and technical means in physics experiments;they contain a wealth of practical application materials,emphasizing the role of science and technology in solving practical problems;the impacts of technological development involve multiple aspects,and all versions pay more attention to cultivating students’ environmental awareness;the frequency of ethical concepts and value judgments of science and technology in textbooks is generally low,especially with technology ethics being the most notable.Study Two: Research on the integration of STSE education content in the content themes of compulsory high school physics textbooks.This is mainly based on the division of secondary themes in the curriculum standards and the preface,a total of 10 content themes,and a study on the overall distribution of content themes in the six editions of compulsory textbooks and their correlation with the curriculum standards.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Overall distribution: The STSE education content in the six editions of textbooks is reflected in all 10 content themes,but the distribution is uneven.Overall,the content theme "Curvilinear Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation" appears the most frequently,with a total of 324 times;the content theme "Mechanical Energy and Its Conservation Law" appears the least,with only 38 times.Among them,the textbooks of the Education Science version,Guangdong Education version,and Shandong Science version appear most frequently in the content theme "Curvilinear Motion and the Law of Universal Gravitation";the People’s Education version is "Preliminary Electromagnetic Field and Electromagnetic Waves";the Shanghai Science and Technology version is "Circuit and Its Application";the Shanghai Science Education version is "Energy and Sustainable Development".(2)Correlation degree with Curriculum Standards: Generally speaking,the correlation degree between the six editions of textbooks and Curriculum Standards is high,above 85%.Among them,the Guangdong education edition fully covered the 21 indicators in the Curriculum Standards,with the highest correlation degree(100%);There are certain indicators not mentioned in the other five editions,and 20 indicators are covered in the Education edition and Shanghai Education edition(the correlation degree is about 95.2%).Shanghai Science and Technology edition and Luke edition cover 19 indicators(correlation degree of about 90.5%);The human education version has the lowest completion,covering 18 indicators(about 85.7% correlation).Finally,based on the integration of STSE education contents in different content themes and dimensions of textbooks,this study puts forward suggestions from two perspectives of textbook compilation and teacher teaching.Through the above research,we hope to provide useful reference for textbook writers and front-line physics teachers,so as to further promote the cultivation of students’ core physics literacy.