Textbook explanation

Chemistry teachers are frequently faced with having to provide explanations as to why certain things happen in chemical transformations. These explanations can take two forms: causal explanations, which take into consideration the properties of the reactants and their interactions; and teleological explanations, which describe an object, action, or event that have a particular function. To gain an insight into the role and nature of teleological explanations used in higher education, Vicente Talanquer, of Arizona University, investigated how authors explained certain phenomena in key undergraduate texts.¹