Studying the Position of the History of Science in the Science Textbook of Fifth Grade, Elementary School

Abstract

This paper aims at specifying the position of the history of science as one of the
components of the nature of science in science textbook of elementary school, fifth grade. To
achieve this goal, we used the content analysis. In this context, the science textbook in
elementary school was analyzed by analysis unit of paragraph. This book includes 11 units in
different subjects such as physical sciences, geology, biology, and health. This data is analyzed
based on the four approaches to the history of science: providing the history of scientific
concepts, providing the scientific methods in the history, the interaction between society and
science, and studying the scientists’ autobiographies. The results show that there is no significant
position for the history of science in the science textbook in elementary school, fifth grade, and
few paragraphs are discussing the nature of science. There isn’t any paragraph about the history
of science in ones on the physical sciences.