Increasing Science Learning of Commercial High School Students Through the Use of ¡®Science Textbook for the Next Generation¡¯

Abstract

The students in a technical high school have lower academic ability than those in a normal high school. The admission to the technical high school is determined from the achievement in middle school, not from the students' aptitude. Therefore those students in a technical high school do not like science and have low interest to science. They also show negative attitude to practice science in their life. Thus their the science achievements become lower and, in turn, their learning motivations become lower. This negative chain-like factor is the basic reason why the science education in a technical high school cannot be performed well. Meanwhile, in the 7th National Curriculum, the science for grade 10 is the obligatory subject regardless of the students' high school. Many research showed that it is not appropriate to teach the same science contents to all the 10th graders. For the students in a technical high school, new teaching-learning program or new textbook is needed to be used in science education. In this study we applied 'science textbook for the next generation' in a commercial high school science lesson, in a hope to increase students' science learning.