The national curriculum in science is not geared solely toward the development of scientific skills and transfer of knowledge products. Accordingly the learning of scientific methods is among the main objectives of science education. To reach this goal, writing textbooks aimed at strengthening cognitive processes and attending to the stages of problem solving is paramount. To ascertain the extent to which the 7^th grade science textbook does this, its content was analyzed. The data analysis shows that 35% of the content actively covers the topic. Furthermore both the text and the illustrations therein fail to correspond with the stages of problem solving adequately. Nevertheless, in terms of exercises and homework given adequate correspondence is maintained and the stages 1-4 are differentially covered.

Key words: science textbook, 7^th grade, problem solving, content analysis