Evaluation of Visual Materials in Social Studies Coursebooks by Teachers' Opinions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the visual elements (picture, photograph, map, table, caricature, etc.) included in the 7^th-grade Social Studies coursebooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education and taught in 2014-2015 academic year by several variables in accordance with the opinions of Social Studies teachers, with a critical point of view on social studies coursebooks. 120 Social Studies teachers working in 42 secondary schools in Erzurum, Bayburt, and Gümüşhane provinces constituted the study group of the research. Features such as gender, seniority, and the faculty of graduation were discussed in the determination of teachers' opinions. Data of the research were collected with the opinion scale concerning the visual elements in Social Studies coursebooks of a 5-point Likert rating type (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) containing 18-item Social Studies teachers' opinions (Kırbaş, Orhan and Topal, 2012: 2232). The content validity, intelligibility, and reliability of the scale developed were ensured. The reliability coefficient of the scale was determined as Cronbach's alpha =0.989, Bartlett = 5149,741 (p=0.000), and the validity coefficient was determined as KMO=0.922. That KMO result was greater than .50 and Bartlett’s test result was significant indicate the suitability of the dataset for the factor analysis. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 package program (percentage, frequency and chi-square test). Item-based frequency (n) and percentage (%) were used in determining the teachers’ opinions.