The school manual of natural sciences: educational: modification or transformation?

Abstract

Support students to develop multiple literacies that are future mobilized on society involve providing them with pedagogical-didactic resources promoters of the development of various competencies (DGE, 2017). In this context, the school textbooks has been undergoing several changes, with more and more the combination of paper support with technological resources. This article includes results from a study that intends to identify the characteristics of 5th year Natural Sciences school textbooks, and the consequent tendencies in terms of possibilities of transformation (Ross, 2011). The data were collected by analyzing the subject “The importance of water for living beings”, in six manuals edited by three Portuguese publishers. The results point to a variety of audiovisual resources, but they do not transform the manual in terms of interactivity and innovation. The conclusions highlight the need for further studies focused on the issue of pedagogical quality.