The perspective STSA in school textbooks of sciences: a comparative study between Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

In a world in which science/technology have an increasing impact/ influence, the presence of citizens able to deal with such a development is necessary. The STSE (Science, Technology, Society and Environment) perspective of science teaching values the interconnection of all these concepts and promotes a contextualized scientific education. This allows students to enact their skills in their daily lives. Since this approach has been considered successful when regarding teaching highlighted by scientific education it remains fundamental to include it in the educational process, mainly in textbooks. We hereby present a study focused on the analysis of 6^th grade didactic books in science, one Brazilian and the other Portuguese with the purpose of finding STSE contents and activities. A content analysis was carried out using a previously designed evaluation instrument. The results show STSE approaches (information provided and proposed activities) in both, however there is a higher number of occurrences in the Brazilian textbook.