Human element in the illustrations of the physics textbooks a basis for identification

1
Human element in the illustrations of the physics
textbooks - a basis for identification

• Vjera Lopac,
• Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology,
  University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Andjelka Tonejc and Planinka Pecina,
• Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia

2
.

• An important element in the textbook is the
  illustration. It makes the textbook content
  livelier and more interesting, but also offers to
  the student an opportunity for identification. We
  wish to investigate the following points
• How many pictures in the physics textbooks
  contain the human figures?
• Can the persons in the illustrations be
  recognized as masculine or feminine, or is this
  impossible to distinguish?

3

• What is the relation between the numbers of
  illustrations containing the feminine, masculine
  and indistinguishable figures?
• Are the portraits of physicists included in the
  textbook? How relate the numbers of men and women
  in these pictures?
• Do these numbers vary in dependence on the
  subject treated in the textbook or specific
  chapter?
• Is there any indication of the reaction of
  students to these properties of the physics
  textbook illustrations?

4
Present characteristics

• Photographs and drawings show people in some
  activity (sport, work), or performing an
  experiment, or observing some physical
  phenomenon. The student is encouraged to identify
  with the person shown. However, it is sometimes
  difficult to discern the gender, what makes the
  identification difficult.
• Sometimes the human figure is drawn as a kind of
  shadow, with no indication of the gender or any
  other personal characteristics. No identification
  here is possible, the human element is
  deliberately reduced.

5
.
Only parts of the human figure (face, head,
hands, eye) are visible, and also here the gender
is indiscernible.

• Human activities are often shown within the
  traditional role assignment, but this is not so
  conspicuous in physics as is in some other fields
  of science2, because of the generally very
  small number of female figures in textbooks.
• A dose of irony or deliberate caricature,
  sometimes present in the illustration, can be
  offensive.

6

• It was for us a shocking discovery how little
  illustrations in the sections on electricity and
  magnetism contain human figures. Practically all
  of them are unattractive schematic diagrams.
• The textbooks should depict the everyday
  situations with electricity and magnetism,
  including both men and women.

7

• It has been suggested1 that girls show less
  ability in the field of electricity. But it is
  obvious from our investigation that nothing has
  ever been done to make these subjects more
  attractive for girls. Authors have forgotten that
  for girls this subject is totally new, since in
  most families the solving of practical problems
  with electricity is usually left to fathers and
  sons.

• Therefore, efforts should be made to make
  parents and families avare of these problems, to
  explain to them the need for girls to be involved
  in technical activities.Their early influence is
  probably even more important than the influence
  of the school and textbooks.

8
Another issue are the portraits of physicists.
They add to the human dimension of the textbook
and stress the fact that physics, although
highly technical and specialized,
is at the same time an important and
unavoidable part of the general culture and
education.
Physics Today
A. Volta and Napoleon I
But most of famous physicists were men! This
should be discussed in the physics class to
stress the fact that in the past centuries women
have not been allowed into higher education.
9
In the following, we analyze statistically the
illustrations containing human figures in several
physics textbooks, denoted shortly as Beiser3,
Giancoli4, Kuliic5, Paar6, Halliday7 and
Serway8. References 1 T.R.Brown,
T.F.Slater and J.P.Adams Gender Differences with
Batteries and Bulbs, Phys. Teacher 36, 526
(1998) 2 E.Potter and S.Rosser Factor in
Life Sciences textbooks that may deter girls
interest in science, J.Res.Sci.Teach. 29,
669(1992) 3 A.Beiser Modern Technical Physics,
The Benjamin/Cummings Publ. Comp. 1978 4
D.C.Giancoli Physics - Principles with
applications, Prentice Hall 1998 5 .
Jakopovic, P.Kuliic and V.Lopac Fizika 1,2,3,4
(for profe-ssional high schools, in Croatian),
kolska knjiga, Zagreb 1995 6 V.Paar Fizika
7,8 (for elementary schools, in Croatian,
textbook and exercise book), kolska knjiga,
Zagreb 1999 7 Halliday, Resnick and Krane
Modern University Physics, 1993 8 R.A.Serway
and J.S.Faughn College Physics, Saunders College
Publ. 1999.
10
Illustrations in the textbooks containing HUMAN
FIGURES by GENDER

• In the illustrations containing human
• figures, the number
• of women is between
• 5 and 29. Surprisingly, there are many
  illustrations
• where the gender can not be distinguished
• (between
• 6 and 70).

11
Illustrations in the textbooks containing
PORTRAITS of physicists by GENDER
In the books which contain the potraits of
physicists, the number of portraits of women
ranges between 0 and 10.
12
Illustrations in the textbooks containing HUMAN
FIGURES by SUBJECT
In the field of electricity, light and modern
physics, the number of Illustrations containing
the human figures varies between 5 and 33
of all illustrations with human figures.
13
Figures in the textbooks containing PORTRAITS of
physicists by SUBJECT

• The portraits
• in chapters on
• electromagnetism,
• light and modern
• physics,
• however,
• vary from
• 30 to 100
• of all portraits.

14
An example of the reactionof pupils to the
ilustrations which lack humanity
In the textbook Pocela fizike (Principles of
physics) by O. Kucera, published in Zagreb in
1912, there is an illustration containing a human
profile of indiscernible gender.

• Someone, probably a pupil of that period, added
  in pencil - the rest of the human figure, and
  now it can be recognized as a lady with the
  dress and hair-styling of the early 20th century
  . Here we see the need for humanization and
  identification explicitly expressed, and the
  authors and publishers of textbooks have the
  responsibility to answer this need.

15
Conclusions

• We conclude from our investigation that in the
  physics texbooks there are generally too few
  illustrations which represent human persons in
  different activities connected with physics. We
  propose that the future textbooks should contain
  more illustrations showing persons with which the
  students will be able to identify and which will
  increase their interest for learning and
  understanding physics.
• It is necessary that in the future textbooks the
  number of pictures representing women be
  increased, and that the content of these pictures
  reflects the realistic situation of our time,
  where many women work as scientists and
  engineers, but also experience the laws of
  physics in the everyday home and outdoor life,
  nothing less than men. The number of portraits
  of women physicists should also be increased as
  much as possible, presenting also those women who
  are working in physics today. That would help the
  girls to feel the physics as an interesting
  subject and as an acceptable future career.