A Content Analysis of the Persian Language Textbooks (“Base Courses” and “Capital of Iran”) in terms of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Abstract

Textbooks are the most important and common teaching resources in the educational system of Iran. The policy making and administration are centralized in this system. In such systems, the formal schooling depends largely on teaching and learning on the basis of textbooks. Therefore, it is important that different parts of textbooks including the content and the exercises be compatible with the real needs of students. This study sought to analyze the Persian language textbooks written for the speakers of other languages (‘basic courses’ and ‘capital of Iran’) based on the Bloom’s revised taxonomy. The results showed that in both of these textbooks the lower-level cognitive skills were considered more than the higher level ones. Further, the textbooks included more composition and creativity exercises (higher-level cognitive skills) than the application ones (lower-level cognitive skills). Moreover, the comprehension exercises, which are lower-level cognitive skills in the taxonomy, were employed much more than the other higher-level skills in the taxonomy. The results of this research can be useful in planning the curriculum and designing new textbooks for the Persian language students.

Keywords

• content analysis
• textbook
• bloom’s revised taxonomy