STS approach in 10th year Portuguese Chemistry textbooks: an evaluation study

Abstract: An educational approach of science in a STS perspective advocates a teaching process focused on the development of students' transversal competences (for example, critical reasoning, problem solving and the application of scientific and technological knowledge in daily situations). This study is a part of a research which had the main goal to evaluate whether 10th year chemistry textbooks, that had been mostly adopted in Portugal, explore the scientific contents and present learning activities that could be related to a STS approach. The study shows that an integrated view of science (in relation to technology and society) is not evident in the textbooks analyzed, which suggests the need of developing school resources with an STS approach by the teachers.