Science Textbooks: Aids or Obstacles to Inquiry Teaching? Science Teachers’ Experiences in Norwegian Secondary Schools

Abstract

Textbooks have several important functions in science education. By interviewing six teachers, this study shows how secondary school science teachers perceive and use textbooks as resources, especially in inquiry teaching. The results show that textbooks aid inquiry teaching by offering teachers easily accessible suggestions for practical and inquiry activities in accordance with the curriculum to be implemented in science lessons in addition to presenting scientific content adapted to students’ level in which they can use to easily link theory to their practical inquiry. However, the use of textbook inquiry activities can restrict the degrees of freedom in implementing inquiries, as textbooks are perceived to rarely include inquiry activities with many degrees of freedom. In addition, some teachers adjust their textbook inquiry activities to have fewer degrees of freedom to meet the challenges they experience, such as time pressure and uncertainty about students achieving curriculum content knowledge goals. These results build important knowledge about textbooks’ role in planning and implementing inquiry teaching in science. They should be of interest to teacher education programme developers and textbook authors who desire to contribute to a more inquiry-oriented practice in school science teaching.