Most secondary science courses in North America are designed to use textbooks as the primary or exclusive source of information about the content or processes of science, and most science teachers focus their instruction on a single text. Although there are many serious issues raised by the overwhelming reliance on text-based teaching/learning in…

Many educators have long assumed that reading ability is directly related to science achievement, that reading plays a major role in science instruction, and that direct instruction on science reading skills would improve science achievement. The pilot study reported here investigated whether an instructional strategy could be designed to overcome…