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Analysis of school texts
In education, the second of importance after teacher's
own personality is often textbooks and learning environments. I
have maid research in this field (e.g. Åhlberg 1991, Åhlberg
& Saraste 1994), also referred to in Johnsen 2001:
http://www-bib.hive.no/tekster/pedtekst/kaleidoscope/chapter6.html
http://www-bib.hive.no/tekster/pedtekst/kaleidoscope/reference.html
History
In 1989 I visited Stockholm and became acquainted
to Professor Staffan Selander. Because we agreed that texts are
extremely important in schools, I joined into his informal research
group (e.g. Julkunen, Selander, Åhlberg 1991). Later on I
was invited to UNESCO supported research group HUMAN RIGHTS IN HISTORY
AND SOCIAL STUDIES TEXTBOOKS directed by Professor K.-Peter Fritzsche.
I had earlier made research on textbook analysis, educational objectives
and educational values, and I was happy to accept the invitation.
I had about ten university students with me and we systematically
analyzed all common Finnish textbooks used in that time. The final
report article was Åhlberg, M. & Saraste, M. (1994).
I have developed three practical and theoretically
sound new quality tools (Improved
Concept Mapping, Improved
Vee Heuristics and ARRA or Analysis of Reasoning,
Rhetorics and Argumentation ) to promote R&D of school texts.
References:
Åhlberg, M. 1991. Concept mapping, concept
matrices, link tables and argumentation analysis as techniques for
educational research on textbooks and educational discourse and
as tools for teachers and their pupils in their everyday work. In
Julkunen, M.-L., Selander, S. & Åhlberg, M. 1991. Research
on texts at school. University of Joensuu. Research Reports of the
Faculty of Education N:o 37, 89 - 154.
Åhlberg, M. & Saraste, M. 1994. Human rights
in Finnish history and social studies textbooks. Internationale
Schulbuchforschung 16(2), 117 - 128.
Julkunen, M.-L., Selander, S. & Åhlberg,
M. 1991. Research on texts at school. University of Joensuu. Research
Reports of the faculty of Education N:o 37.
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