Exploration of attention to the category of industry in Iran's secondary high school chemistry textbooks: findings and improvement strategies

The present research investigated the content of secondary chemistry textbooks in Iran regarding their attention to industies. The study was an applied-descriptive and content analysis type. The statistical population included 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade chemistry textbooks and the technical and vocational chemistry textbook published in 2021-2022. This research encompassed all the content of these books, including text, images, tables, questions, and activities. And a full-count sampling method was used. Data analysis was done using the descriptive statistics method. The process reliability was verified by experts. The results showed that secondary high school chemistry textbooks had similarities and differences concerning their attention to industrial activities. In all books, paying attention to the secondary industrial sectors (manufacturing industries) was higher than the other sectors. Except for the 11th-grade chemistry book, where the frequency of the primary industrial sectors was slightly higher than that of the tertiary industrial sector, in other books, tertiary industrial sectors were in second place. The 11th-grade chemistry book paid the most attention to the industry category, differing from other books. The other three books had almost equal attention to the industry category. 62.0 percent of the coded items were in the text, and book images were in second place, with 36.2 percent. Textbook activities accounted for 1.8 percent of the coded items, and no industry-related items were coded in the textbooks' tables.