Nature of experimental activities in high-school physics textbooks

Abstract

The textbook is the main support material for teachers and students in the Brazilian public schools, being evaluated and distributed by the National Book and Teaching Material Program (PNLD, in Portuguese). The results of this evaluation are published in the PNLD Textbook Guide, and it can help the teacher in choosing the work that will be used according to the pedagogic proposal of each school. Among the approval criteria of this program, there is the experimental activities evaluation. By considering this, through qualitative approach research consisting of document analysis of Textbook Guides, a description of experimental activities of High School Physics textbooks approved in the last PNLD (2009 to 2018) is presented from the reviewer's point of view. For the analysis and the information organization, Content Analysis was used, and the results showed that among the thirty-eight analysed works, only seven have experimental activities described from an investigative perspective. It is believed that the results from this investigation can contribute to better understanding the experimental proposal of approved books in the PNLD and to critically choosing Physic books to be adopted in public High Schools.