Den dolda kunskapen : En studie av läroböckers källmaterialuppgifters kunskapsförmedling och didaktiska relevans

Sammanfattning: The main aim of this thesis is to determine which type of knowledge is most prevalent in activities that are based on historical sources in two Swedish textbooks published for History 1b, aimed for upper secondary school students. This was achieved with the use of Ammert and Sharp’s (2016) matrix called “Knowledge types in textbook activities”, which categorizes the type of knowledge generated through textbook activities into four categories: Statement, Explanation, Reflection/analysis, and Emancipatory. The results of this study show that statement questions are the most common questions provided in both textbooks’ source-activities, while emancipatory questions is only shown once. Furthermore, by studying the source-activity sections’ function in relation to the textbook’s main text it could be concluded that textbooks whose source-activity sections’ function is to problematise the content of the main text need to include more explanatory, reflecting/analyzing and emancipatory than textbooks whose source-activity sections’ function is to both create and problematise new knowledge that is not related to the main text. This is due to the latter’s need of statement activities for the pupils to absorb and understand the new knowledge that is presented, while the same is achieved in the former’s relation to the main text. Finally, this study shows the advantage a teacher has in using this matrix when purchasing new textbooks and planning the course content. By using this method the teacher can both improve their selection of textbooks and create activities that compliment the knowledge generated through the textbook activities, which leads to the teacher’s job becoming more efficient and effective.