Abstract
Chemistry textbooks include many photographs, diagrams, tables, figures, graphs, and formulae. Science education researchers call these visual representations. Mainly in Europe and America, studies of chemistry textbooks have developed ways of using visual representations to aid students’ understanding of chemistry. The central theme of these studies is analysis of or suggestions for pure chemistry, such as models or electronic formulae for particle conception or chemical structures. However, little attention has been paid to photographs and diagrams relevant to industrial chemistry. To emphasize the direct connections between the educational contents of chemistry textbooks and students’ daily lives and society, photographs or diagrams of industrial chemistry may be useful.
This study clarifies changes in teaching materials for the ceramic industry that were chosen as exemplars, focusing on the intentions of the textbook writers. The results are as follows:
(1) The intentions of the textbooks writers are to explain to students the actual state of the Japanese ceramic industry.
(2) Rotary kilns, glass products, potteries, ceramics, and fine ceramics are mentioned frequently. Their frequency of occurrence differs by period of publication.
(3) Technical experts are shown in photographs or diagrams in textbooks published in the 1950s.
(4) Objects in photographs of ceramic industry shift from the industrial process to the functionalities of industrial products.
