CHANGING CONCEPTIONS of MAJOR TOPICS in COLLEGE GENERAL CHEMISTRY TEXTBOOKS RALPH E. DUNBAR North Dakota Agric$tural College, Fargo, North Dakota
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NOYES,WILLIAMA., "College textbook of chemistry," Henry HE present study is essentially a continuation of a previous investigation' and was designed to Holt and Co., New York City, 1919. McCoy, HERBERT N., ANn ETHELM. TERRY,7ntroduction ascertain the changing conceptions, if any, of to general chemistry," McGraw-Hill Book Co.. Inc., New York major topics in college general chemistry textbooks City, 1920. NoRRIs, JAMESF., "A textbook of inorganic chemistry for from 1913 to 1937, inclusive. I n the present study a tabulation has been made of twenty-five college general colleges," McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York City, 1921. LOWRY,T. MARTIN,"Inorganic chemistry;' The MamiUan chemistry textbooks, so selected that the copyright Co., Limited, London, 1922. date for one only occurs during each of the past twentyNEWTH,G. S.. "A textbook of inorganic chemistry," Longfive years, 1913 t o 1937, inclusiye. An attempt has mans, Green and Co., New York City;1923. GAR-, IRAD.. "Applied chemistry." The Macmillan Co., again been made to select only books that are truly representative of the years in which tach was copy- New York City, 1924. NEWELL.LYMANC., "Cdlege chemistry," D. C. Heath and righted. By this procedure a representative sampling Co., New York City, 1925. of college general chemistry textbooks, one for each SNEED,M. CANNON. "General inorganic chemistry," Ginn and of the past twenty-five years, has been obtained. Co.. New York Citv. 1926. The same general procedures and criteria were used RlcHARnsoN, LEONB., "General chemistry," Hemy Holt and in this tabulation as in the previous study.' The fol- Co., New York City, 1927. BLANCHARD, WILLIAMMARTIN,"An introduction to general lowing twenty-five college general chemistry textchemistry," Doubleday. Doran 8r Co., Inc., Garden City, New books have been included in this study. York, 1928. BLAKE, J. C., "General chemistry, theoretical and applied," The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1913. MELLOR,J. W., "Introduction to modern inorganic ehemistry," Longmans, Green and Co.. New York City, 1914. SMITH, ALEXANDER, "General chemistry for colleges," The Century Co., New York City, 1915. CADY, HAMILTONP.. "General chemistry." McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York City, 1916. BYERS,HORACEG., "Inorganic chemistry." Charles Smibner's Sons, New York City, 1917. KAHLENBERO, LOUIS, "Outlines of chemistry, a textbook for colleae . students," The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1918. I DUNBAR, "Changing conceptions of major topics in highschool chemistry textbooks," J. CHEM.Enuc., 17, 394-7 (1940).
BABOR,JOSEPHA., "General chemistry, a textbook for college students," Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York City, 1929. SCHLESINGER, H. I., "General chemistry," Longmans, Green and Co., New York City, 1930. KENDALL, JAMES, "Smith's introductory college chemistry,'' The Century Co.. New York City, 1931. FOSTER,WILLIAM."The elements of chemistry," D. Van Nostrand Co., New York City, 1932. NAYLOR, NELLIEM., AND AMYLE VESCONTE, "Introductory chemistry with household applications." The Century Co., New York City, 1933. MCPHERSON, WILLIAM,AND WILLIAMEDWARDS HENDERSON. "An elementary study of chemistry," Ginn and Co., New York City. 1934.
DEMING, HORACE G.. "General chemistry, an elementary survey," John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1935. HOLMES. HARRY N., "General chemistry," The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1936. HOPKINS, B. SMITH, ‘General chemistry for colleges." D. C. Heath and Co., New York City, 1937. These twenty-five college general chemistry textbooks are the product of thirteen separate and distinct publishers and are believed to be a fair sampling of the average texts of the past twenty-five years. A study of the table of contents of the several textbooks examined seemed to justify a tabulation under twentysix major topics, instead of the twenty-four as used in the previous study.' The results of this study have
been assembled in Table 1, which includes the number of pages and percentage of total space devoted to each of the twenty-six major topics in each of the twenty-five texts published during the past quarter century. An examination of Table 1 indicates that these college general chemistry textbooks have been slowly but consistently increasing in size during the past quarter century. A total of eight texts, published during the past twelve years, contain more than the average number of pages (610.4) while six texts published during the first twelve years covered in this study contain less than the average number of pages for the entire period of twenty-five years. A better comparison,
TABLE 1 N O Y ~ BOF B PACES AND PBXEBNTADB OF TOTAL SPACB DBVOTBD TO EACR 01 THB TII-BNTF-SIX MATOR TOPICS IN COLLBOB GBNERAL CBBMIJ~RY TBXTBOO~S
N-BP
OF P I O B I A N D P&REBNTACm On TOTAL
TABLE 1 (Conlinucd) SPACE DGYOTBO To E A E B OF TBB TWENTY-8TX MAJORTOPICS nr C o ~ ~ m G o a~ ~ s aCeamsrau u. TsxrsooEs
1. Hi~t&eal and Intraductory Material 2. Laws and Theory 3. Water and Solutions
4. Hydrogen 5. Oxygen
6. Air. Nitrogen, and Nitrogm Compounds 7. Halogens
8. Svlfur and Its Compounds 9. The Phoophoms Group 10. Boron and Silimo
11. Carbon and Its compound. 12. The Alkali Metnls ' 13. The Alkali-Earth Met-
PIS 14. Aluminum
15. Iron and Steel 16. Copper
17. Silver and Gold 18. Chromium and Manganese 19. Tin and Lead 20. Other Metals 21. Colloids
23. Radioactivity 24. Gascs and Their Me-vremeot 25. The Periodie Law 26. Atomic and Molecular
structure TOTAL
1
perhaps, is the fact that the twelve textbooks published during the first twelve years of this study contain a total of 6964 pages while the twelve texts published during the last twelve years contain a total of 7678 pages. This is probably due principally to the inclnsion of new items of theory, research, and industrial development without an equal willingness by the several authors to delete an equal amount of obsolete material. A stndy of the exact number of pages devoted to each of the twenty-six major topics, as listed in Table 1, also substantiates this same conclusion. However, a better comparison of relative emphasis, or increased or decreased emphasis, can be obtained by a comparison of the percentage figures. The twenty-five textbooks contain a total of 15,261
pages of which 1938 or i2.7 per cent. are devoted to a
. consideration of the laws and theories of inorganic chemistry. This topic, therefore, receives greatest emphasis among the twenty-six listed. Second in emphasis is a stndy of carbon and its compounds with a total of 1768 pages or 11.3 per cent. Air, nitrogen, and nitrogen compounds follow with 1024 pages or 6.7 per cent. A number of miscellaneous metals occupy nine hundred seventy-seven pages or 6.4 per cent. of the total. Other topics which follow in order of decreasing emphasis are: the halogens, 6.3 per cent.; water and solutions, 5.6 per cent.; sulfur and its compounds, 4.9 per cent.; ionization, 4.6 per cent.; the phosphorus group, 3.7 per cent.; the alkali metals, 3.6 per cent.; oxygen, 3.3 per cent.; iron and steel,
AUGUST,1940
373
3.0 per cent.; historical and introductory material, 2.7 per cent.; the alkali-earth metals, 2.6 per cent.; boron
(1) Recent college general chemistry textbooks are placing an increased emphasis upon the subjects of col-
TABLE 2 A COYPA~ISON OP T m R ~ L A ~EYPB~SIS VB ON TWBNTY-*ODE M A I O n TOPICSIN HID=-SCBOOL AND COLLBDB GBNBRUC a s l d l ~TBXTBOOSS r~~
MAJOR TOPICS
1. Historical and lntmduetow Mntcrinl 2. Laws and Theory 3. water and Solmtiom 4. Hydrogen 5. oxygen 6. Air, Nitrogen, and Nitmgm Compounds 7. Halogens 8. Sulfur and Its Compounds 9. The Phosphor"% Group lo. Baron and Silicon 11. Carbon and itr Compoundr 12. The Alkali Metals 13. The Alkali-Earth Metals 14. Alvminvm 15. Iron and Steel 16. Copper 17. Silver and Gold 18. Other Metals* 19. Colloids 20. Ionization 21. Radioactivity 22. Gasen and Their Mcss-mmt 23. The Periodic Law 24. Atomic and Molecular Stmet-
*
his item represent. all other metals, including chromium mnd mangan-r :, and tin and l e d , which were not separately tabulated in the case of the high-schooi texts.
loids, ionization, atomic and molecular structure, and radioactivity. (2) Greatest emphasis is placed upon the laws and theories of inorcanic chemistrv, .. with a studv of carban and its compounds occupying a close second. (3) Recent texts are placing less emphasis upon a detailed consider@on of the complex chemistry and metallurgy of numerous metallic elements. (4) There is a slight increase in the amount of historical material contained in recent texts. (5) Other basic topics as listed show little change in emphasis. (6) Recent college general chemistry textbooks are increasine sliphtlv in size, due to inclusion of new material, withiut an equal deletion of older material. (7) The high-school chemistry texts place considerably more emphasis upon a study of carbon and its compounds than the college general chemistry textbooks. (8) . The college texts place slightly more emphasis than the high-school texts upon recent developments such as ionization, radioactivity, the periodic law, and atomic and molecular structure. (9) The college texts place greater emphasis than the high-school texts upon a consideration of the chemistry of the less important metals. CONCLUSIONS (10) In all other respects, there is almost perfect agreement or duplication of emphasis on chemical In addition to the facts immediately obvious from a study of Tables 1and 2, the following conclusions seem subjects, as outlined in this study, by high-school and college general chemistry textbooks. to be justified.
and silicon, 2.5 per cent.; atomic and molecular structure, 2.3 per cent.; hydrogen, 2.2 per cent.; the periodic law, 2.1 per cent.; chromium and manganese, 2.0 per cent.; tin and lead, 2.0 per cent.; gases and their measurement, 1.9 per cent.; aluminum, 1.8 per cent.; silver and gold, 1.6 per cent.; copper, 1.5 per cent.; radioactivity, 1.5 per cent.; and colloids, 1.2 per cent. A more detailed study of the percentage tendencies from year to year reveals a marked increase in the emphasis in recent years on the subjects of colloids, ionization, radioactivity, and atomic and molecular structure. And there is also a verynoticeable time lag between the announcement of these related scientific discoveries and their inclusion in college general chemistry textbooks. There is some decrease in the emphasis placed upon a detailed study of the chemistry of the less common metals. The basic laws and theories, historical material, mathematical treatment of the gas laws, and a study of carbon and its compounds continue to bold an important place in recent textbooks. A comparison with findings in the previous study1 is worthy of some note. These comparisons can best be made in tabulated form and are summarized in Table 2.
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