Evaluation of Palestinian 4th-6th grades' EFL textbooks for their content creativity level

Other Title(s)

تقييم الكتب الفلسطينية المقررة لمادة اللغة الإنجليزية من الصف الرابع حتى الصف السادس من حيث مستوى الإبداع في محتواها

Dissertant

Isa, Ula Muhammad Diyab

Thesis advisor

Nasru, Fathiyyeh Said

Comitee Members

Harb, Ahmad
Assaf, Azim

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculy of Education

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2013

English Abstract

This research aims at evaluating the level of creativity in textbooks content design.

Thus, the research is an attempt to answer the major questions: To which extent content design of the Palestinian EFL textbooks for grades (4th-6th) is creative? And to which extent there is potential in these textbooks to contribute to fostering creativity in students in the Palestinian middle primary stage (4-6 grades) from teachers' viewpoint? The study uses the qualitative methodology with a triangular data collection approach to answer the research questions.

Content analysis technique is used for evaluation of the text sample by using a prepared evaluation scale.

This scale is a research-oriented one that is developed and refereed to suffice for the evaluation of the text.

Descriptive statistic is used to describe and analyze the triangulated data collected from the three sources (i.e.

the researcher, the teachers and an EFL expert).

A stratified sample from the targeted textbooks is drawn to cover 24 units.

The sample constitutes 9 units, 3 units from each textbook.

A convenient sample of seven teachers and two supervisors is chosen to apply the in-depth interview of their view of the texts.

The creativity levels in textbooks of the 4thand 5th grades are found to fail at levels of (46.5% & 50.4%) respectively.

Whereas, it is found that the 6th grade textbook's creativity level passes with (60.3%).

Moreover, there seems to be a low contribution of text-evaluation activities in promoting learners' original thinking and synthesizing abilities.

All sample texts (4th, 5th & 6th grades) failed the creativity level concerning originality by achieving low scores namely; 37.4%, 37.6% and 52.2% respectively.

While, it is found that the contribution of the text-comprehension sample was higher than that of text-evaluation activities.

Samples of (4th, 5th & 6th grades) scored 49%, 55.4% and 61.8%, respectively.

Nevertheless, flexibility and fluency as a measure of creativity in all text samples is found to be low on average (i.e.

47.6%).

Motivation in all text samples scored low on average (55.56%).

Teachers' views are mostly in agreement with findings of the content analysis based on the creativity scale.

Recommendations are given to improve the creativity in text design at levels of comprehension passages and evaluation activities.

Recommendations are presented to policy makers, researchers and teachers for improving the efficacy of the text design by becoming more creative.

Main Subjects

Educational Sciences

No. of Pages

128

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-706181