The Use of Critical Thinking in Social Science Textbooks of High School: A Field Study of Fars Province in Iran
Journal Title: International Journal of Instruction - Year 2011, Vol 4, Issue 1
Abstract
This study aims at investigating the use of critical thinking in high school social science textbooks based on Fars Province teachers' attitudes in order to present a model for textbook development. To achieve this goal, the use of the following skills in the social science textbooks was analyzed: reasoning, questioning, assessment of examples and statements, group work, interpretation, true judgment about issues, analysis and evaluation, logicality, and explicitness. It is a field study which was conducted in several high schools of Fars Province in Iran. The population of this study included 568 social science teachers. The sample was selected based on the stratified random sampling procedure so that 153 teachers participated in this study. The data were collected using a forty-four-item questionnaire based on Likert-scale, which was developed and validated by the researcher himself and some experts. The reliability coefficient was also estimated as 0.86. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, standard deviation, and coefficient of variations) and inferential statistics (Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis Non-parametric tests). The result showed that the teachers of the Social Studies Textbook evaluated assessment of examples and statements, and analysis and evaluation skills as not satisfactory respectively. They evaluated the other skills as fairly satisfactory. Teachers of Sociology Textbook 1 evaluated explicitness, assessment of examples and statements, analysis and evaluation, and interpretation skills as not satisfactory respectively. They also evaluated other skills as fairly satisfactory. Teachers of Sociology Textbook 2 evaluated explicitness as not satisfactory, logicality as satisfactory, and other skills as fairly satisfactory. Therefore it is possible to rank order the social science textbooks of high school as satisfactory and not satisfactory with regard to the use of critical thinking. In other words, Sociology Textbook 2, Social Studies Textbook, and Sociology Textbook 1 were ordered on a continuum of satisfaction from satisfactory to unsatisfactory, respectively.
Authors and Affiliations
Seyed Ahmad Hashemi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP129372
- DOI -
- Views 91
- Downloads 0
Rethinking Trends in Instructional Objectives: Exploring the Alignment of Objectives with Activities and Assessment in Higher Education – A Case Study
This study explored higher education level syllabi to identify trends in educational objectives. Bloom’s Taxonomy and various strategic models were used to classify 714 objectives from 114 sections of courses a...
Making Sense of Experienced Teachers’ Interactive Decisions: Implications for Expertise in Teaching
Teachers’ decision making has always been an area of curiosity in many studies related to teachers and teaching. One approach to understanding teachers’ decisions is through the analysis of their reflection-in-acti...
Variations in Decision-making Approach to Tertiary Teaching: A Case Study in Vietnam
Although the question of what to teach and how to teach has received much attention from the literature, little was known about the way in which academics in teaching groups make decision on what and how to teach. This...
Linguistic Proficiency and Strategies on Reading Performance in English
General English (L2) proficiency and reading strategies are believed to be highly effective in successful reading performance. However, available studies rarely investigated the combined effects of these two variables...
The Predictive Strength of Perceived Parenting and Parental Attachment Styles on Psychological Symptoms among Turkish University Students
This study aims to investigate the relationships between perceived parenting, parental attachment styles and psychological symptoms among Turkish university students and it also aims to find out which perceived parenti...