ANALYSING THE PRESENCE OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES IN SPANISH PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION TEXT BOOKS

Spanish laws establish a set of general objectives for Primary and Secondary Education, related to learning outcomes such as the observation, appreciation and knowledge of the natural environment, the understanding of scientific methods, team work or communication skills (Ley Orgánica de Calidad de la Educación, 10/2002, del 23 de diciembre).

In this sense, various authors have suggested that Atmospheric Science contents can be a very effective vehicle towards the achievement of the abovementioned goals. Benito et al (2003) analysed the official contents of Spanish Education and concluded that there is abundant presence of Atmospheric Science related topics. Even though those contents could be appropriate so as to generate enough environmental knowledge and awareness, some obstacles such as the lack of specific training in teachers or the detection of conceptual mistakes in text books could be causing not so positive results (Yagüe et al, 2003).

This paper presents a general analysis of Spanish text books which, despite the growing amount of teaching resources, are still a key element to formal Spanish Education. The books produced by the ten main publishing companies have been examined. Concepts, activities and teaching methods have been looked into.

As concerns contents, the following aspects have been assessed: content extent, scientific accuracy, graphical representations and experimental activities.

As concerns students' competence acquisition, activities are analysed in order to determine to what extent the following capacities and skills are promoted: initiative, creativity, teamwork, scientific reasoning, information search and handling, communication, problem solving and computing skills.

The study finalises with a series of proposals for the improvement of both the text books and the use teachers make of them, aiming at a better teaching of Atmospheric Sciences and a more effective accomplishment of the general education objectives.