Scientific model and corpuscular kinetic model in textbooks. Ontological analysis

Abstract

While models play a fundamental role in the development of science and science education, textbooks -as curricular materials used in the classroom- play a crucial role in the teaching and learning process of these contents. This paper proposes to use the ontological constituents which define a scientific model, as well as its essential functions, to find out how textbooks contribute to the teaching of scientific models, as elements of the scientific activity; and to that of the corpuscular kinetic model as a school scientific model. For this purpose, Physics and Chemistry textbooks for the 2nd year of the Compulsory Secondary Education are analysed. The analysis shows little attention to the scientific model as a core element of scientific activity, a lack of consideration of some ontological constituents when introducing the corpuscular kinetic model and a lack of activities that promote prediction as an essential function of the model.