Evaluation of Textbook Difficulty and Adaptation Strategies Used in Turkish Elementary Schools
Ulusoy, Mustafa
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/79950
Description
Title
Evaluation of Textbook Difficulty and Adaptation Strategies Used in Turkish Elementary Schools
Author(s)
Ulusoy, Mustafa
Issue Date
2006
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Bonnie Armbruster
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Language
eng
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe Turkish teachers' self reported perceptions regarding textbook adaptation strategies. Another purpose of this study was to determine the match between the textbook and the students' reading levels. In order to determine the difficulty levels of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science and social studies textbooks and students' reading levels on these books, 275-300 word long sixth word deletion versions of cloze test passages were prepared. Social studies and science teachers' feasibility and use of textbook adaptation strategies were evaluated by using The Textbook Adaptations Evaluation Instrument (TAEI) (Schumm, Vaughn, & Saumell, 1994). Semi-structured interviews with 12 social studies and science teachers, and focus group interviews with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students were conducted. One of the Ankara's middle class districts, Yenimahalle, was selected as the population of the research. TAEI was filled out by 37 science and 67 social studies teachers of Yenimahalle. Cloze test passages were completed by 80 sixth, 77 seventh, and 80 eighth grade students, and analyzed by using percentage, frequency, and mean of correct responses. To analyze the TAEI, paired sample t test, independent t test, and one way ANOVA techniques were used. Themes and issues were found in teacher interviews and students focus group interviews. Cloze test results showed that nearly half of the students were reading materials at their instructional levels, and these students needed help to understand the passages. In this study, the high correlation found between teachers' judgment on students' reading levels and cloze test scores showed that sixth word deletion version of cloze test technique could be used in the Turkish language to determine students' reading levels and readability of textbooks. This study showed that strategies of TAEI had high potential for use in the science and social studies classrooms. Teachers and students believed that hard topics, heavy language, long sentences, and long and incoherent texts make texts unreadable and not understandable. This study suggests the need for further research in the areas of cloze tests and textbook adaptations.
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