A content analysis of selected chapters of the English textbooks for Iranian junior high schools (prospects) based on the four main processes of generative model of learning according to views of English language experts and teachers

Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning

Farzaneh Dehghan ¹

1 - Department of Foreign Languages, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2017-07-31 Accepted : 2020-06-23 Published : 2020-08-22

Keywords: Generative Learning Theory, Iranian Junior High Schools, Content Analysis, Communicative language teaching, Prospect Textbooks,

Abstract :

The present study is an attempt to analyze the content of Prospect textbooks taught at the Iranian junior high schools according to the generative learning framework. Based on the four main processes of generative theory (motivation, learning, meaning making, generation), a checklist was developed. Four experts in TEFL and 21 English teachers were asked to analyze 9 selected lessons from the books. The content validity of the checklist was confirmed by the 4 experts and the intra- and inter-rater reliability indices showed a significant reliability level. Then, interval evaluation was used for the analysis of the obtained means. The results showed that the textbooks were evaluated as successful according to the generation criterion, moderate regarding meaning making criterion and weak in terms of learning and motivation criteria. Furthermore, the books were evaluated as weak regarding their generalizability power to non-learning contexts (which is an important aspect of communicative approaches) as well as motivation, developing thinking skills and raising awareness and attention criteria. Some suggestions are made for the improvement of generalizability of learning to out-of-class contexts, thinking skills and motivation in texts, exercises and tasks.

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