Skills developed through geography textbooks in Poland, England, France and Germany (Saxony) Cover Image

Umiejętności kształcone za pomocą podręczników do geografii w Polsce, Anglii, Francji i Niemczech (Saksonii)
Skills developed through geography textbooks in Poland, England, France and Germany (Saxony)

Author(s): Arkadiusz Głowacz
Subject(s): Geography, Regional studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: developed skills;learning;geography textbook
Summary/Abstract: The aim of the work is to determine the similarities and differences in the scope of skills developed through geography textbooks in selected European countries. In the analysis textbooks from Poland, England, France and Germany (Saxony) for ISCED 2 level have been examined. Questions accompanying standard textbook content constituted the main research material. In the author’s opinion the instructions influence the activities undertaken by students. Thus they contain the information concerning the type and scope of the developed skills. A bunch of methods have been applied, among which the most important was content analysis derived from sociology. As a result a set of question categories have been created. The fundamental criterion of the categories delimitation was the character of activities performed by students. Once the list of categories was complete, all the instructions form the textbooks were matched into the categories. This enabled a semi-qualitative comparisons between countries. The researchled to the formulation of several crucial conclusions. The most general one states that the largest scope and variety of skills could potentially be developed through the English and German textbooks.