Content analysis of elementary Science Textbooks based on Lowery and Leonard (1978) Textbook Questioning Styles Assessment Instrument (TQSAI)

Subject Areas : Research in Curriculum Planning

mahdiye ruhi ¹ , Firooz Mahmoodi ²

1 - Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
2 - دانشیار گروه علوم تربیتی، دانشگاه تبریز، تبریز، ایران

Received: 2020-05-29 Accepted : 2021-07-17 Published : 2021-08-23

Keywords: Textbooks Questioning Styles, Questioning Styles Assessment Instrument (TQSAI) Lowry and Leonard, Analysis of Science Textbooks questions Styles,

Abstract :

The purpose of this study was to analyze elementary science textbooks questions using Textbook Questioning Styles Assessment Instrument (TQSAI). The population of the study was elementary school science textbooks published in 2019 and the sample was the questions of elementary science textbooks. The research method was content analysis (question analysis). The Instrument used was the Questioning Styles Assessment Instrument (TQSAI) Lowry and Leonard (1978). The validity of this Instrument was confirmed by experts based on content validity and the reliability was Cohen's Kappa inter-rater agreement coefficient which was 0.89. The results showed that questions in six grades showed that the frequency of open-ended questions (54.05%) in the first grade and (47.3%) in the sixth grade was higher than other grades. The frequency of Focusing questions on the second grade science textbook (13.1%), the third grade textbook is 37.5%, the fourth grade textbook is 39.3% and the basic textbook is 47.7%. On the other hand, a review of elementary school textbooks showed that the organizing experiential question type are more other types of experiential questions. This shows that the necessary attention should be paid to the design of high-level questions and other types of experiential questions. Therefore, it is better for science textbook authors to balance high-level questions with low-level questions.

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