An Analysis of the Changes in the Representation of Scientific Methods in Laboratory Work in Chinese Senior High School Chemistry Textbooks

The diversity of scientific methods has received widespread recognition in recent years. The purpose of this review is to analyze the changes in the representation of laboratory work in Chinese senior high school chemistry textbooks in the past 30 years from the perspective of the diversity of scientific methods. This study was based on Brandon's Matrix, employing the theoretical framework that consists of four types of scientific methods. The analysis target was established as laboratory work from 16 textbooks of four versions. The results revealed that a similar distribution of scientific methods existed in four versions of chemistry textbooks. Nonmanipulative parameter measurement (NPM) accounted for a higher proportion in each version, while the percentage of manipulative hypothesis testing (MHT) was relatively low, suggesting that laboratory work of chemistry textbooks was inclined to be nonexperimental. More importantly, with the deepening of the curriculum reform, the proportion gap between the four types of scientific methods in textbooks has been narrowed and they are distributed with more balance, demonstrating that the representation of scientific methods in laboratory work of Chinese chemistry textbooks showed a trend toward the diversity of scientific methods. Furthermore, the suggestion has been provided that more hypothesis-testing activities should be involved in the laboratory work of chemistry textbooks.