1992 Volume 32 Issue 4 Pages 241-247
The defects ofthe content ofthe textbooks of biology for Japanese upper secondary school concerning population change were as follows: (a) incompletenessin selecting fundamental concepts, (b) uncleamess ofthe relationship among the concepts. (c) insufficiency ofthe evolutionary thinking, and (d) avoidance of mathematics in the explanation.
The proposed curriculum was constituted by the following concepts : (1) the causes of population change (definitions, factors of population change, reasons of reproduction) : (2) theories of population growth (models ofdiscrete generations with and withoutlimitin environment, innate capacity ofpopulation increase, logistic population growth, carrying capacity) : (3) analyses of population change (life table, fertility table, density dependence, density effect, age structure) : (4) population and evolution (life history strategies, evolution in deme, lifetime reproductive success).
Finally, the significance of adopting simple mathematics in explaining population growth was emphasized, because the logical relationship is more clearly shown by an equation than by verbal and/or graphical explanation.
