Students' prior knowledge as a starting point for learning in nature and society textbooks

Abstract

Contemporary student-centered and constructivist-based instruction requires a shift in focus from curricular content to students' developmental and individual characteristics, while the unique worldview that a student brings to school constitutes the foundation for constructing new concepts within the school context. Methodologically sound reliance on students' prior knowledge (including not only school-acquired knowledge, but also experiential knowledge spontaneously developed through everyday activities) is an important factor in the success of school learning and the construction of students' scientific conceptual system. In contrast, inadequate acknowledgement of such knowledge may lead to misconceptions, inaccurate understanding, a sense of boredom, or the illusion of mastery created by frequent repetition of material in class. The study examines the manner and effectiveness in which textbook material builds upon students' prior knowledge in the construction of new concepts, while also identifying the key characteristics of that knowledge. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis of textbooks for the subject Science and Social Studies for the second, third, and fourth grades. The findings indicate a clear tendency in textbook design to build upon students' prior knowledge and acknowledge experiential knowledge in the construction of scientific concepts. However, several challenges were identified, including superficial reliance on prior knowledge, remaining at the level of experiential knowledge without advancing toward new generalizations, a lack of adequate examples, an overload of unfamiliar words and concepts, and insufficient or inadequate treatment of students' topic-specific preconceptions.