Sources Used in the Preparatıon of the Social Studies Textbooks to Study in Elementary School

Transcription

1 International Online Journal of Educational Sciences ISSN: Sources Used in the Preparatıon of the Social Studies Textbooks to Study in Elementary School Şahin Oruç 1 1 Yildiz Technical University, Department of Elementary Education, İstanbul, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Article History: Received Received in revised form Accepted Available online ABSTRACT It has been tried to determine what resources were used to what extent in the books analyzed. Fare indispensable sources of education period. Prepared separately for each course, Textbook are fundamental materials of education. The preparation of these books that have such an importance is a tough process. Especially sources used in the preparation of Social Studies Textbook determine the quality of the book as they affect the content of the book. Qualified and various sources should be used to prepare qualified Social Studies Textbook. This study bases on the analysis of sources used in the preparation of Social Studies Textbook published to be used in the fourth and fifth grades of primary school. Document Analysis method, a research method used in social scienced, is used to maket his investigation. Keywords: Social Studies, Textbook, Bibliography 2015 IOJES. All rights reserved Introductıon A Textbook is a published teaching material used for learning and prepared in line with the dimensions of target, content, teaching-learning and assessment and evaluation included in a Curriculum (Demirel and Kıroğlu, 2005:9). With these aspects, the Textbook is an indispensable material of educational environment and it has preserved its importance each semester. Although there are various traditional and modern instruments suggested to be used in the class, researches show that the Textbook has a crucial role in the class and teachers begin many activities with the Textbook and continue with them (Ceyhan and Yiğit, 2004:18). Textbooks are suitable instruments to implement strategy, method and techniques required by the objective of the curriculum of the related course. Also, they come to the forefront as fundamental course materials. Researches done in many different countries show those textbooks are still primary course materials. Textbooks are considered as the most commonly used material covering 72% of the course time in Turkey and 70-95% of the course time in the USA according to researches (Transmitting: Keteve Acar, 2007:222). As Textbooks are important sources that determine what students can learn and what teachers can teach in the teaching and learning process - especially in the planned educational practices -, they are the most refered fundamental source of the teacher and student. Textbooks have important roles in fulfilling the curriculum, because they have crucial effects on the decisions of both formal and informal educational activities (Tertemiz, 2001:1). Being such important teaching materials, the act of determining and preparing the content of Textbooks are more difficult than the act of choosing Textbooks (Gündüz, 2009). 1 Corresponding author s address: Yildiz Technical University, Department of Elementary Education, İstanbul, Turkey Telephone: Fax: sahinoruc44@hotmail.com DOI: 127

2 Many education specialists state that Textbooks are the best source and primary material for the purpose of transmitting information to students (Gökkaya, 2003:11). It can be easily said that the most commonly used material in the class is the Textbook. Those below are some of the main reasons for the particularly use of Textbook in the class (Halis, 2002:50): 1. Textbooks are instruments of teaching, 2. Since they are prepared in accordance with the curriculum, they have the content to fulfill the program. 3. They are easy to use. 4. The content of the book should be organized. 5. Assessment and evaluation can be easily done with Textbook. While Textbooks were the same until quite recently, today they try to reflect the diversity of the world. While there were no children games in Textbooks until recently, animating, learning through experiences are given more importance in Textbooks now (Baştürk, 2005:31). Considering the effects of Social Studies on personality development of children, Social Studies Textbooks that are one of the teaching instruments taking place in the process of learning-teaching have particular importance. Social Studies Textbooks provide events involving positive and negative features related to traditions, values, roles and groups; past, present and future (Yanpar, 1999:48). The required features in Social Studies Textbooks are stated in Turkish Republic Bulletin of Ministry of National Education issue 2434 as follows (MEB, 1995): Textbooks shall be determined in accordance with the curriculum. The subjects of Textbooks shall be taught systematically. The subjects of Textbooks shall be made more understandable with contributive factors to the teaching. Textbooks shall be sufficient from esthetical point and appropriate for the eye health. Prepared based on 2004 Social Studies curriculum, the new Social Studies Textbook differ from previous Textbooks in every aspect. The content, visual elements, preparatory and assessment questions of the Social Studies Textbook have completely changed. Aside from the difference of the subjects, the presentation style of these subjects is totally changed as well. Of course this stems from the changes in the curriculum of Social Studies renewed in 2004 (Oruç, 2009: ). According to Şeker and Yılmaz (2011:263), a Social Studies Textbook should be prepared by taking learning styles into consideration. Texts that writers have used to teach the subject in the newly-written Social Studies Textbook are so various. Especially, it is striking that so many literary texts have been placed in these Textbooks. Moreover, many different writings have been used to realize the acquisition in the syllabus of Social Studies. The reason of using these editions results from the constructivist approach (Oruç, 2009: ). This situation stated above naturally leads writers to use many different sources for preparing a Textbook. For example, when Textbooks written before Social Studies curriculum of 2005 are analyzed, it is observed that no newspaper reports, humorous works, websites are used in those Textbook with few expectations. The variety of sources of the current Textbook reveals serious improvement and changes gone through about preparing a Textbook. Generally encyclopedia, atlas, document, magazine, report, book, humorous Works, dictionary, guide book, websites are used as sources in current Social Studies Textbooks. Furthermore, the fact that sources are very rich is striking. An image of quality and type of materials used in the preparation of Social Studies Textbook has been tried to put forward in this study by analyzing types of sources mentioned above in quantitative terms. Method Document analysis method called as documental observation by Duverger (1973:96) involves the analysis of written material about the notion or notions aimed to be investigated. Document analysis is an inevitable data collection method almost for every study (Madge, 1965, s.75). 128

3 Şahin Oruç In these kind of studies, researcher can use documents, such as lesson books as the source of data. In this sense, documents are not the extra source of data to be used along with other data collection methods. Researchers using documents for this reason can analyze documents in four phases: choosing sample from the data to be analyzed, generating categories, deciding the unit to analyze and digitizing (Bailey, 1982). In this study, one 4th and one 5th grade Social Sciences Textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education and one 4th and one 5th grade Social Sciences Textbooks prepared by private press are chosen as sample. It should be noted here that both ministry and private press are involved in the study asa sample as Social Sciences textbooks can be prepared both by the Ministry of National Education and private press in Turkey. Bibliographies of four Social Sciences textbooks one 4th and one 5th grade prepared by the Ministry of National Education and one 4th and one 5th grade prepared by private press are analyzed in this study. First, the bibliographiesof four textbooks are put to preliminary analysis and the kinds of the sources are identified. Ten (10) different sources are placed as a result of preliminary analysis: Encyclopedia, atlas, document, magazine, newspaper report, book, humorous work, dictionary, guidebook and website. Then, a table is generated for each book and precentages and frequencies are stated in these tables. Finally, the results are tried to be interpreted by discussing the results and the situation of the sources used in the preparation of Social Sciences textbooks is tried to be determined and analyzed. These are the Textbooks that are analyzed within the research: Ministry of National Education (2009).4. Grade Social Studies Textbook, Ministry of National Education (2009).5. Grade Social Studies Textbook, Kolukisa, E. and at all (2009). 4. Grade Social Studies Textbook, Gizem Publishing House, Ankara Öztürk, C. and at all (2006). 5. Grade Social Studies Textbook, Sürat Publishing House, İstanbul (This book may not be taught as it is expired). Findings and Interpretation In this section, the findings and interpretation related to 4th grade Social Studies Textbook and 5th grade Social Studies Textbook, respectively. Table 1. Sources used in preparation of fourth grade social studies textbook published by ministry of national education 1 Encyclopedia Atlas Document Magazine Newspaper reports Book Humorous Works Dictionary Guide Book Websites Total As it can be seen in Table 1, the most commonly used source in the preparation of 4th Grade Social Studies Textbook published by Ministry of National Education is Books. Newspaper reports and magazine are also commonly used. Besides, all of the source types determined within the research have been included. This shows that a large variety of materials and sources has been benefited for the preparation of given course. 129

4 Table 2. Sources used in preparation of fifth grade social studies textbook published by ministry of national education 1 Encyclopedia Atlas Document Magazine Newspaper reports Book Humorous Works Dictionary Guide Book Websites Total As it can be seen in Table 1, the most commonly used source in the preparation of 4th Grade Social Studies Textbook published by Ministry of National Education is Books, too. However,in 5th grade Textbook, Books have been used less when compared to the 4th grade Textbook. Again newspaper reports and magazines are commonly used, as well. All the source types determined within the research have been included. Thus, we can say that this book has been prepared in accordance with the nature of Social Studies, too. Table 3. Sources used in preparation of fourth grade social studies textbook published by a private publishing house (gizem publishing house) 1 Encyclopedia - 2 Atlas - 3 Document - 4 Magazine Newspaper reports Book Humorous Works Dictionary Guide Book Websites Total As it can be seen in table 3, Encyclopedia, Atlas, Document, Dictionary included in the books of Ministry of Education have not be involved in 4th grade Social Studies Textbook published by a private publishing house. This is quite a negative situation, because materials like Atlas, Document, and Dictionary should be commonly used due to the nature of Social Studies. These books have commonly used newspaper reports and magazine like the ones prepared by Ministry of National Education. However, Humorous Works that have been involved very little in the books prepared by Ministry of National Education have been included 10.5% in private publishing house books. 130

5 Şahin Oruç Table 4. Sources used in preparation of fifth grade social studies textbook published by a private publishing house (sürat publishing house) 1 Encyclopedia - 2 Atlas - 3 Document Magazine Newspaper reports Book Humorous Works Dictionary Guide Book Websites Total As it can be seen in table 4, Encyclopedia, Atlas, Document, Dictionary included in the books of Ministry of Education have not be involved in 5th grade Social Studies Textbook published by a private publishing house. Humorous works used in 4th grade Social Studies Textbook have not been benefited in this book. Moreover, we see that sources used in this book are very few when we compare it with the other books. It shows that when very few sources have been used and there is no much variety, a Social Studies Textbook becomes inefficient and weak. Table 5. General distribution of sources used in the preparation of fourth and fifth grades social studies textbook to study in primary school Sources Types frequency % 1 Encyclopedia Atlas Document Magazine Newspaper reports Book Humorous Works Dictionary Guide Book Websites Total As it can be seen in table 5, many sources used in the preparation of 4th and 5th grades Social Studies Textbook to be studied in primary school are books. After books, the most commonly used sources are newspaper and Internet reports. We can say that the reason why newspaper reports and the Internet are commonly used is that they are accessed easily. It is striking that documents which are a crucial course material for Social Studies have been included rarely. Results and Recommendatıons Writing a Textbook is a crucial and tough process. Especially, the preparation of Social Studies needs a large variety of materials and sources to be used. Curriculum shifts in our country has changed the structure of Textbooks as well, and the preparation of Textbook requires many sources to be used. Although the most commonly used source is books in the preparation of currently used Social Studies Textbook, sources that 131

6 have never been used were included in previous Textbooks. Newspaper and Internet reports, websites and humorous works are leading ones of these sources. The use of newspaper and magazine articles along with humorous works reveals that these textbooks are prepared in a convenient manner for the nature of Social Sciences. Also, the use of documents in preparing these textbooks increases the objectivity of them. The importance of this statement is often mentioned in other studies about this topic. Demiryürek(2008:124) states that the use of first-hand sources and documents will contribute to the academic progress of the students. Additionally, Demircioğlu (2013:130) expresses documents, maps, diaries, letters and materials should be used in textbooks as sources. It could be remarked that Turkey is at a good state for preparing the Social Sciences textbooks by using a range of sources. The sources used in the preparation of Textbook can give an idea about the quality of a given book. So, the variety of sources used in the preparation of Social Studies Textbook needs to be increased. When we accept that Textbooks are primary teaching materials, sources used in the preparation of these materials are primarily required to be strong, accurate and credible. The way to ensure reliability is to use first-hand sources as much as possible and giving wide publicity to documents while preparing textbooks. References Bailey, K. D. (1982). Methods of social research (2nd ed.). New York: The Free Pres. Baştürk, M. (2005). Ders kitaplarının tarihçesi. Ö. Demirel ve K. Kıroğlu (Ed.) Konu alanı ders kitabı incelemesi (13-36 ). Ankara: Pegem A Yayınları Ceyhan, E. ve Yiğit, B. (2004). Konualanı ders kitabı incelemesi. Ankara: AnıYayıncılık. Demircioğlu, İ. H. (2013). Tarih ders kitaplarının yazımında yeni yaklaşımlar. Karadeniz Araştırmaları Dergisi, 38, Demirel, Ö. ve Kıroğlu, K. (2005).Konu alanı ders kitabı incelemesi. Ankara: Pegem A Yayıncılık. Demiryürek, M. (2008). Bir Türk ve Bir ingiliz Tarşh ders kitabında konuların elealınış tarzı ve değerlendirme sorularına eleştirel bir bakış. Dokuz Eylül Üniveristesi Buca Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi 24, Duverger, M. (1973). Sosyal bilimlere giriş. (U. Oskay, Çev.). Ankara: Bilgi Yayınevi Gökkaya, K. (2003). Sosyal bilgilere giriş. C. Şahin (Ed.). Konu alanı ders kitabı ınceleme kılavuzu- Sosyal bilgiler (ss 1-15). Ankara: Gündüz Eğitim Yayıncılık. Gündüz, M. (2009). Eğitim bilimi araştırmalarında ve sosyal bilim öğretiminde yerli kaynakları kullanma meselesi. Uluslararası Eğitim Felsefesi Kongresi, 6-8 Mart 2009-Ankara. Bildiriler (s ). Ankara: Eğitim-Bir- Sen Halis, İ. (2002). Öğretim teknolojileri ve material geliştirme. Ankara: Nobel YayınDağıtım. Kete, R. ve Acar, N. (2007). Lise 2 biyoloji ders kitapları üzerine öğrenci tutumlarının analizi. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi. 15(1), Kolukısa, E. A., Oruç, Ş. Akbaba, B. Dündar, H. (2009). Sosyal bilgiler 5. Sınıf ders kitabı. Ankara: Gizem Yayıncılık Madge, J. (1965). The tools of science an analytical description of social scince techniques. Garden City: Anchor Books Doubleday and Comp. MEB. (1995). Tebliğler dergisi, 2434, 03/07/1995 Oruç, Ş. (2009). Metaphor components and usage in the fourth grade social studies textbook. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1 (1) doi: /j.sbspro Öztürk, C., vd. (2006). Sosyal bilgiler 5. sınıf ders kitabı. İstanbul: Sürat yayıncılık 132

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