Comparison between Hong Kong and Singapore textbooks : a relational analysis of electric circuit concepts

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to compare the concept networks established in Hong Kong and Singapore textbooks. Thirteen science textbooks in Hong Kong and Singapore that ranged from primary to senior secondary school levels were studied. In total, 236 thematic units about electric circuits presented in the textbooks were examined. Based on the work of Triantafillou, Spiliotopoulou, and Potari (2016), a coding scheme was developed. The reasoning practices deployed by the textbooks were first analysed using the scheme to facilitate the identification of relations between concepts. Concept networks were then constructed using the key concepts and relations between concepts identified from the textbooks. Lastly, the structural features of the concept networks and the major roles of different concepts in building the content knowledge were analysed through considering the connectivity, clustering capacity and hierarchy of the concepts. The results from this study revealed that (1) Hong Kong textbooks rely largely on experimental evidence to persuade students of new knowledge, while Singapore textbooks put emphasis on explaining the knowledge; (2) the complexity of the concept networks in Hong Kong junior secondary school textbooks sharply increases, whereas Singapore textbooks show a gradual increment across different school levels; (3) the concept networks in Hong Kong textbooks have, in general, similar but slightly better coherence and richness in content than those in Singapore textbooks; and (4) an unsatisfactory treatment of the concepts current and voltage and the ambiguous use of the term electricity were observed in the textbooks. Based on the results obtained, several implications on textbook presentations and curriculum design were established.