Analysis of the approach of paleontology in biology textbooks

Abstract

The textbook is currently one of the main instruments in the process of education and learning. Analyses of the Biology content in these books are essential in order to show problems contained in these publications and allow a more informed choice of books for the teaching of specific contents. In this work, an analysis of the Paleontology content in Biology textbooks was carried out, aiming to evaluate the reability of the presentation of paleontological topics in secondary school books and to provide crucial information for the choice of better texts for use in biology classes regarding the subject of Paleontology. Five Biology textbooks currently adopted in Brazilian secondary schools were chosen for the analysis. Among the textbooks analyzed, four presented a satisfactory approach to paleontological themes, including detailed descriptions of the main topics and reasonable presentations of key concepts. However, pervasive conceptual errors were found. Moreover, we found that new concepts and approaches currently adopted by the scientific community have been scarcely incorporated in these publications. Therefore, we highlight the need to update the books analyzed based on more recent paleontological textbooks, as well as a better articulation between paleontological and correlated biological concepts. In addition, we suggest an improvement in the explanations of complex issues, such as "fossil dating" and "fossilization processes".