2026 Volume 18 Pages 83-98
In recent years, an anthropogenic mass extinction, known as the "Sixth Mass Extinction," has become a serious concern among scientists and naturalists, and is considered one of the major challenges in global biodiversity conservation. Therefore, it is recommended that upper secondary biology courses include learning about the threat of the anthropogenic mass extinction in relation to biodiversity conservation. Since the topic of the anthropogenic mass extinction has similarities to the past five mass extinction events, it is desirable to study the current threat of mass extinction in conjunction with those previous events. However, within the framework of the current Japan’s Upper Secondary School National Curriculum Standard (USS-NCS), current species extinctions are covered in Basic Biology. Past mass extinctions are not covered in biology courses, but rather in earth science courses. The present study aims to investigate how current threat of mass extinction is addressed and explained in relation to past mass extinctions in ten Basic Biology, five Advanced Biology, five Basic Earth Science and one Advanced Earth Science textbooks currently used in Japan. While all ten Basic Biology textbooks refer to anthropogenic disturbances to ecosystems that could be causes of current species extinctions, only two of them briefly address the current threat of mass extinction and only one of them explains it in relation to past mass extinctions. On the other hand, despite not being mentioned in the USS-NCS and its Guidelines, all five Advanced Biology textbooks cover ongoing species extinctions, and three of the five also describe past mass extinctions, but they do not relate current species extinctions to past mass extinctions. Five Basic Earth Science textbooks and the one Advanced Earth Science textbook all cover past mass extinctions. In particular, detailed explanations are provided regarding the mass extinctions that occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary and the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. However, these Earth Science textbooks do not address ongoing species extinctions at all. Currently, while approximately 80% of Japanese upper secondary students study Basic Biology, just over 20% study Basic Earth Science, around 15% study Advanced Biology, and less than a few percent study Advanced Earth Science. This means that, conservatively speaking, more than half of upper secondary students in Japan are unable to have the opportunity to learn about the ongoing species extinction in connection with the past five mass extinction events through science textbooks. Consequently, it would be desirable to incorporate more information on current species extinctions and past mass extinctions in Basic Biology classes to make students aware that the current species extinctions will possibly be on the same scale as the past five mass extinctions.
