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QUALITIES OF SCIENCE TEXT BOOKVOGEL'S CHECK LIST AND FOG INDEX

TEXT BOOK

According to bacon Paul, a text book is a

book for class room use carefully prepared by
experts in the field and equipped with usual
teaching device.

SCIENCE TEXT BOOK

Science text book plays a pivotal role in
educating the children. It helps in giving a
correct understanding of the principles and
concepts of science in developing certain
skills and attitudes, in systematic and speedy
revision.

OBJECTIVES OF A GOOD SCIENCE

TEXT BOOK

To facilitate the learners to understand exactly

the various concepts and fundamental principles
of science in a simple and scientific way.
To develop scientific attitude, scientific skills and
a wide variety of the applications of the scientific
knowledge among the students.
To have proper understanding at home of what
has been done in the laboratory and during
demonstration lesson in the class.

To help to encourage the students for class

room discussions and there by arrive at a
definite conclusions.
To provide a plan of work to teacher in a
desirable arrangement.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD SCIENCE

TEXT BOOK

The author.

Mechanical features.

The subject matter.

The author
1.Experience of the author
2.Knowledge of the author

Mechanical features of the text book

1. The print and paper used and binding of the text book
be attractive.it should be hard and durable.

should

2.The printing should be clear, legible and appropriately spaced.

3.The book should be well-illustrated with diagrams ,sketches
pictures.
3.The size of the print, the language and experiments discussed
should suit the age of the child and standard of the child.

and

Subject matter

1.The text book should cover the entire syllabus prescribed, without
leaving a single bit of information.
2.The content should be arranged sequentially and
based on the psychological principle.

systematically

3.The book should follow the aims of science teaching.

4.It should serve as a guide for demonstration and individual
experiments.
5.Scientific terminology must be given in English with in brackets.
6.Only standard terminology in regional language should be used.
7.Each chapter should begin with an introduction and end with a
summary.

8.Each chapter should contain assignment at the end of

conforming to the following;

the chapter

*Application to life situations.

*New type of self assessment test.
*Suggestions and experimental work of project.
*Suggestions for further study.
*Numerical examples where desirable.
9.Headings and sub headings should be given in bold type
wherever needed.
10.Table of content and glossary of term should be given in

the book.

11.Use of simple and understandable language is recommended.

12.Try to correlate the subject matter with other

subjects or with real life wherever possible in an
appropriate manner.
13.The style of book, the get up , etc. should be of
good standard.
14.Individual differences should be taken into
consideration while preparing a text book.
15.The text book should give suggestions for improving
scientific apparatus.

EVALUATION OF A SCIENCE TEXT

BOOK
After selecting a book ,it is desirable to
evaluate it in order to assess how well it
qualifies as a good text book. The quality of
science text book can be evaluated using,

Vogels criteria.

Fog index.

VOGELS CRITERIA

Vogel's spot check evaluation scale is a very

comprehensive and elaborative tool for evaluating a text
book.
It contain ten major categories and each major category
has certain items.
Each item has the two points and partial score for each
sub category is written against the space provided.
The major criteria grouped under ten major headings are;
1.Qualification of the author.
2.Organization of the subject matter.

3.content.
4.Presentation of material.
5.accuracy.
6.readability.
7.Adaptability
8.Teaching aids.
9.illustrations.
10.apperance.

VOGELS SPOT CHECK EVALUATION SCALE

Textbook

Author

Publisher
Copyright

year......
Score (total)

Qualification of Author
1. The author has taught the subject about which he is writing.
2. The author hold advanced degrees in related fields.
3. The author has received assistance from specialists in preparing his
manuscript.
4. The authors point of view, theory or philosophy is in harmony with
that of the institution.
Partial Score:

Organisation
1. There is a central theme which correlates the whole text book.

2. The textbook is organized into units which are based on student

interest and possibility of use in everyday life.
3. The organization makes use of topics already taught in my school.

4. Questions and/or problems at the end of chapter are graded

explicitly in difficulty order.
Partial Score:

CONTENT
1. The text book contains all the topics necessary for my
course.
2. Material from one part of the Text book is cross
referenced with similar material in other part of the
book.
3. The historical development of science is given some
place.
4. Topics dealing with latest advances of science such as
atomic energy are included
5. The social significance of science is stressed.
Partial Score

Presentation of the material

1. The inductive approach is used wherever possible in

introducing a new topic.
2. The problem solving aspect of science method stressed.
3. The authors style is informal and interesting.
4. Unfamiliar scientific terms are set in italics or bold face.
5. Important principles are set in italics or bold face.
Partial Score:

Accuracy
1. All items are on the pages indicated in the index.

2. The items looked up are scientifically correct.

3. Teleological expressions are avoided.
4. Personification is avoided.
5. No ambiguity
Partial Score:

Readability
1. The average no of words per sentence is below 21
2. Sixty percent of the sentence is simple or compound.

3. There are at least four personal references per 100

words.
4. There is at least one application for each abstract
principle.
5. There are not more than 42 affixes per100 words.
Partial Score:

Adaptability

1. The text book is satisfactory for low, average and brilliant

students.
2. Students with rural and city backgrounds will find the text
useful.
3. The text book is arranged so that certain sections can
readily be omitted.
4. The authors treat controversial subjects impartially.
5. In general the text fits a particular community need.
Partial Score:

Teaching aids
1. Summaries, questions and problems at the end of each
chapter are adequate.
2. References for teachers and students are annotated.
3. Appendix material is pertinent and useful.
4. The teachers manual is more than an answer book.
5. An annotated up-to-date film list is provided.
Partial Score:

Illustrations
1.The illustrations are relatively modern.
2. The photographic reproductions are large and clear.
3. The line cuts are well drawn and adequately labelled.
4. The figures are tried into the textual material by
direct reference.
5. The legends under the illustration are useful learning
devices.
Partial Score:

Appearance
1. The appearance of the cover is attractive.
2. The size and shape of the text book would not be a handicap to
students
3. The placement of the illustrations is pleasing
.
4. The design of most pages is open, rather than crowded.
5. The size of the type makes for easy reading.
Partial Score:

Final Score:

GUNNING FOG INDEX READABILITY

FORMULA

The gunning fog index readability formula or

simply called FOG index ,is attributed to American
text book publisher ,Robert gunning.
In 1952 he published a book ,the technique of clear
writing and created an easy-to-use FOG index.
Main advantage of FOG index is that, we can
choose books that will be more comfortable for
students to read and understand.

Step 1: Take a sample passage of at least 100-words

and count the number of exact words and sentences.
Step 2: Divide the total number of words in the sample
by the number of sentences to arrive at the Average
Sentence Length (ASL).
Step 3: Count the number of words of three or more
syllables that are NOT (i) proper nouns, (ii)
combinations of easy words or hyphenated words, or
(iii) two-syllable verbs made into three with -es and -ed
endings.

Step 4: Divide this number by the number or words in

the sample passage. For example, 25 long words
divided by 100 words gives you 25 Percent Hard Words
(PHW).
Step 5: Add the ASL from Step 2 and the PHW from
Step 4.
Step 6: Multiply the result by 0.4.

The mathematical formula is:

Grade Level = 0.4 (ASL + PHW) where

ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., number of words

divided by the number of sentences)

PHW = Percentage of Hard Words

The ideal score for readability with the Fog index is

7 or 8. Anything above 12 is too hard for most people
to read. For instance, The Bible, Shakespeare and
Mark Twain have Fog Indexes of around 6. The
leading magazines, like Time, Newsweek, and the
Wall Street Journal average around 11.

CONCLUSION
The text books are important tool in the hand
of teacher.it helps students to how and what
they learn to achieve some definite goals. When
we make a text book ,we should give
importance to its content ,organization,
literary style , mechanical make-up and
author.

QUESTIONS
1.What is the importance of physical science text
book?
2.Give the characteristics of a good physical science
text book?
3.Discuss in detail Vogel's check list for evaluating
physical science text book?

REFERENCES
1.Modern science teaching-R.C. Sharma.
2.Teaching of science by Dr.Mariyamma Mathew.
3.Method of teaching physical science by
Dr.S.Rajashekar.
4.Teaching of science by Dr.R.S.Srivastava and
Amita Bhatnagar.

Thank you