Designing texbooks according to constructivist view: AOF texbooks example

Ill ABSTRACT DESIGNING TEXBOOKS ACCORDING TO CONSTRUCTTVIST VIEW: AOF TEXTBOOKS EXAMPLE İrem Erdem Aydın Division of Distance Education Anadolu University Institute of Social Sciences, August 2002 Advisor: Prof. Dr. Levend Kılıç The main purpose of this study is to examine how the distance education textbooks can be designed according to constructivist view and what the distance students' attitudes are about the textbooks, which are designed by using constructivist principles of learning. The design of the study was based on literature review, conversations with experts, and general survey method. The experts were asked to investigate the research material (textbook) to determine if it includes constructivist principles as claimed or not. The survey was consisted of a Likert type scale including 38 items and a 2 open ended questions. The scale sent to the academic advisors of AOF in seven different cities of seven provinces of Turkey. These cities were Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Aydın, Van, Çanakkale, Samsun and Mersin. The advisors administered the surveys to the 457 AOF students who are participating their face-to-face evening classes. Frequency distributions and t-test techniques were used in analyzing data. Results have shown that AOF students generally express positive attitudes toward textbooks designed according to the constructivist principles. The students ranked the highest score on providing opportunities to investigate real life examples and the lowest score on list of other related materials that help to see different perspectives. Thus, it as recommended that the textbooks should be designed to provide more real life examples. However, these examples should not be just presented to the students but some opportunities to investigate these examples should be integrated to the texts.