The evaluation of 5th grade mathematics textbooks according to visual design principles

The aim of this research was to evaluate the 5th graders mathematics textbooks (Teacher?s Guide, Student?s Textbook and Student?s Workbook) on the basis of visual design principles and to examine the opinions of the in-service elementary school teachers whether these books were suitable to the visual design principles or not. There were a total 187 in-service elementary school teachers of 5th graders. The study took place in Afyonkarahisar during 2007?2008 fall semester. The survey model was used in this research. The researcher used a liker-type questionnaire of visual design principles prepared by Alpan (2004). The questionnaire of visual design principles includes 5 factors which are text design, visual elements? design, page design, cover design and external structure features directed at production, and total 48 items. The participants were informed of the research and wanted to examine on Teacher?s Guide, Student?s Textbook and Student?s Workbook of the 5th graders. The participants answered the questionnaire in two weeks after their examination of the books.After the collection of the data, the researcher used descriptive statistics in the analysis of the data. The study showed that according to the teachers? views, the books mentioned above were evaluated generally as positive in terms of visual design principles namely text design, visual design, page design, cover design and external structure features directed to production.Key Words: Mathematics, textbooks, guide book, workbook, visual design principles.