Analysis of the history of science in the chemistry textbook

Abstract

The use of the History of Science as a teaching approach in Chemistry textbooks is recurrent. It is often related to content covered in the first year of high school, as these contents introduce studies on Chemistry. With a qualitative methodological approach of the documentary analysis type, the objective was to investigate how the History of Science is approached in the didactic work “Chemistry”. This collection is among the works approved by the National Textbook Program for the 2018-2020 period. As instruments for data production, the analysis of the didactic guide was established, send to teachers to support the selection of didactic works and four categories of analysis, for analysis of the three volumes that make up the collection. The results show that the History of Science as a teaching approach in textbooks has a higher frequency in the first volume of the collection, while in other volumes this approach appears rarely. In addition, whenever the History of Science is mentioned it is associated with images of the best-known scientists. It is understood that not all contents can be worked from the History of Science. However, it is expected that the teacher, even though transversely include reflections on the importance of such an approach in his classes.