Types and Instructional Qualities of Visuals in Czech and German Geography Textbooks: Comparative analysis
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Visuals represent a structural component of school textbooks, which serves as a tool for didactical transformation of educational content and has a great potential to support pupils' understanding of the subject matter. A content analysis of school textbooks regarding the visuals and their instructional qualities thus may provide valuable findings both for educational theory and practice. However, application of the method in educational research shows peculiarities (regarding a regional point of view) which affect a predictive value of the research findings. The aim of the contribution is to provide comparison of research approaches, through which the issue of visuals in textbooks and their instructional qualities is carried out in the Czech Republic and Germany. In this manner, attention is paid especially to the theoretical background and methodology. The core of the contribution is represented by the results of a comparative analysis of five Czech lower secondary human geography textbooks in which visuals were analysed - regarding the type, abstractness, relatedness to the expository text and caption aptness. Results of the Czech textbooks analysis are contemplated in comparison to the results of a consequential content analysis of German lower secondary textbooks for human geography. As a research instrument a system of categories, developed and verified by the author, was used. The results suggest significant differences between the analysed textbooks, which relate especially to the frequency of various types of visuals. It has been also revealed that recommendations of educational and cognitive-psychological research are not always sufficiently reflected in Czech school textbooks. |
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