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Critical Analysis of Science Textbooks pp 173–198Cite as

Educational Approach to Environmental Complexity in Life Sciences School Manuals: An Analysis Across Countries

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Abstract

The BIOHEAD-Citizen project was aimed to deepen the understanding of how different aspects of citizenship can be promoted through biology, health and environmental education. Teachers’ conceptions, defined as constructs emerging from the interaction of knowledge, values and social practices (Clément, 2006), and the conceptions implicit in the messages conveyed by science school manuals were the targets of the investigations. This chapter is aimed at presenting an overview of the main findings concerning environmental education (EE) that resulted from the analyses of life sciences manuals carried out in the countries participating in the European project “Biology, Health and Environmental Education for better citizenship”.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This study was accomplished within the European research project “Biology, Health and Environmental Education for Better Citizenship” (BIOHEAD-Citizen FP6, STREP CIT2-CT2004-506015), coordinated by Graça Carvalho (Portugal), Pierre Clément (France) and Franz Bogner (Germany) involving 19 countries: 13 European countries (Cyprus, Estonia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Romania), five African countries (Algeria, Morocco, Mozambique, Tunisia and Senegal) and one from the Middle East (Lebanon).

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all our colleagues, in particular Alaya Alaya (Tunisia), Boujemaa Agorram (Morocco), Guillemette Berthou and Camille Clément (France), Graça Carvalho and Rosa Branca Tracana (University of Minho, Braga, Portugal) and Attila Vargaa (Hungaria) who sent us their papers and comments, enriching the data from their filled-up grids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, Via Palestro, Roma, 00185, Italia

    Silvia Caravita & Adriana Valente

Authors
  1. Silvia Caravita
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  2. Adriana Valente
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvia Caravita .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University, Murray Street 78, Perth, WA 6000, Australia

    Myint Swe Khine

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Caravita, S., Valente, A. (2013). Educational Approach to Environmental Complexity in Life Sciences School Manuals: An Analysis Across Countries. In: Khine, M. (eds) Critical Analysis of Science Textbooks. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4168-3_9

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