Evaluation of a Biology Textbook Unit: Cultivating Literacies and Multimodality in Science Education

Abstract

This study examines the evaluation of a thematic unit from the first year middle school Biology textbook, aiming to foster literacies, multiliteracies, and multimodality in Science Education. Ten pre-service  teachers enrolled in the Pedagogical and Teaching Proficiency Certificate program at the University of Crete developed teaching proposals, which were analyzed using structural and inductive content analysis.

The findings highlight the need to align curriculum design with the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies (ML), incorporating multimodality and students' sociocultural backgrounds to promote creative and participatory teaching in Science. The study underscores the importance of fostering reflection, critical analysis, and creative application in teaching approaches, while also revealing misconceptions related to multimodality and ML.

It proposes the redesign of instructional planning to include activities that integrate experiential learning, critical analysis, and the creative application of knowledge representations.