Eleştirel Düşünme Becerisini Geliştirme Açısından Türkçe Ders Kitapları Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Abstract

The two-sided relationship between language and thinking requires the development of thinking skills during the language education process. In today’s world, it’s important to identify reliable information sources, to select and evaluate accurate and qualified information, and to make the most appropriate use of information. Therefore, critical thinking skills have become crucial. Turkish textbooks are the materials that Turkish teachers frequently refer to. Therefore, it's important that the activities in the textbooks are aimed at critical thinking and are structured within a holistic teaching process. In this study, the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Turkish textbooks were examined in terms of developing critical thinking. The activities in the textbooks were reviewed through the Critical Thinking Skills Criteria Lists for Informative and Narrative Texts to examine if they are activities that constitute the teaching process for critical thinking. The findings that are obtained are supported through interviews with Turkish teachers. As a result, it has been observed that activities on critical thinking aren’t sufficiently included in Turkish textbooks (15%), the studies don’t follow a balanced distribution between the dimensions of critical thinking, themes, and texts, and they cannot be considered as activities because they don’t constitute a holistic teaching process. In addition, it was concluded that the questions in the books focused on the level of comprehension (54%), did not follow a balanced distribution between the dimensions of critical thinking, themes, and texts, therefore they were insufficient to support critical thinking. Finally, suggestions were made for supporting critical thinking skills.