An Analysis of Introductory Environmental Science Textbooks’ Approaches to Commonly Held Climate Change Misconceptions

Abstract

A climate literate public is becoming increasingly important as the threats of climate change grow (Johnston 2019). Climate literacy is taught across introductory environmental science courses in higher education institutions in Canada with textbooks being used as a key tool in facilitating climate literacy in these cases (Choi et al. 2010). This study aims to evaluate how these textbooks are approaching their delivery of commonly held climate change misconceptions. A literature review was conducted to determine prevalent misconceptions and key textbook elements that enhance learning while also combatting misconceptions. The climate change and atmospheric science chapters from eight textbooks used among the top 15 research universities in Canada were analyzed to determine the presence or absence of the six most commonly recorded misconceptions and whether or not the misconceptions were presented using the key five textbook elements. A checklist containing the misconceptions and textbook elements was used to identify and further code textbook elements; each time a check mark was given, the key terms and associated content segments were also recorded. The results show that some key textbook elements were heavily underrepresented across all misconceptions and textbooks. Misconceptions were only directly refuted by the textbooks in 6.25% of the time. Some misconceptions were frequently presented without the inclusion of select textbook elements. Only one out of eight textbooks used examples when presenting misconceptions around the greenhouse effect. Two out of eight textbooks used prompting questions and none used case studies or examples when presenting concepts related to misconceptions of water vapour’s role as a greenhouse gas. The results also showed some similarities in the presentation of concepts across all textbooks. The phrases ‘short term’ and ‘long term’ were used across all but one book when presenting the difference between weather and climate. Refuting misconceptions is one of the most effective strategies that can be used to help learners overcome these misunderstandings (Nussbaum et al. 2018). Despite this, the results in the present study showed that this was the most underrepresented key textbook element. The inclusion of this element into future textbooks could lead to more effective comprehension and a reduction in misconceptions held by students (Schroeder and Kucera 2022). Misconceptions regarding water vapour as a greenhouse gas and the greenhouse effect and climate change being a natural phenomenon require better representation in textbooks as the key elements used were lacking. Ultimately, textbooks should be written with common misconceptions in mind to diminish their prominence and better facilitate a climate literate society. Keywords: misconceptions, climate literacy, key textbook elements, climate change, conceptual change