New Perspectives in Science Education

Textbooks’ analysis is a general area of interest in understanding educational trends [1]. This paper deals with informatics textbooks, where the term “informatics” includes both computer science and ICT [2], considering their transversal and interdisciplinary aspects [3]. Given the pervasiveness of informatics and its impact on school systems [4], it is particularly important to study the structure of its textbooks. While the presence of informatics is assessed within the education materials of other subjects, in the literature it is quite difficult to find examples of analysis of the same computer science or ICT manuals. In this paper, a carefully selected sample of informatics textbooks used in Italy and in the International Baccalaureate Organisation secondary schools is analysed in order to assess the degree of interdisciplinary openness, with particular attention to ethical, historical, philosophical and cultural issues in a broad sense [4]. The analysis was carried out by manual text mining and evaluation of graphic elements, considering quantitative and qualitative factors such as: diffusion in schools (through sales data from consultation of appropriate databases), teachers' opinion, years of persistence on the market, types of schools in which they are adopted, main topics covered. Compared to international schools’ ones, Italian textbooks are generally more attractive from a graphic point of view, but flattened on procedural contents, paying little attention to the historical-epistemological roots of informatics as well as to interdisciplinary aspects. This indicates a poor permeability of schools and publishing houses to educational research in the field, and the need for comprehensive teacher training.