The evaluation of the high school text book of Turkish and world history in the light of comments made by teachers and students

The history teaching and specifically the text books of history have been the subject of criticism and debates among social and academic sphere over the last years. One of the major developments in the field of history teaching in Turkey is the `Secondary Education Teaching Programme on Contemporary Turkish and World History? prepared in 2008. The general purpose of this research is to evaluate the quality of the 12th grade high school text book on ?Contemporary Turkish and World History? which has recently been introduced in the 12th grade and to present the comments received by the history teachers and the 12th grade students taking this course.Within the frame of this research, literature has been searched and the importance of text books for the education has been mentioned and information on history teaching has been given. This research aims to learn about the views of history teachers and 12th grade students taking this course on the text book of Contemporary Turkish and World History. The main part of this study consists of conducting questionnaire for teachers and students. With this respect, this study complies with the survey model. The result of the survey indicates that there is a discrepancy between the views of the teacher and the students. The teachers think that the text book matches the level of the students and has adequate visual materials, but it is not attractive and falls short of inducing students? interest in the course itself. The students, on the other hand, expressed their views that the text book has significant deficiencies. For instance, they think that the text book on ?the Contemporary Turkish and World History? does not sufficiently cover the course, the way that the topics are dealt with is not attractive and the visual materials do not captivate attention. In line with the results of the research conducted, the positive and negative aspects of the 12th grade high school text book ?Contemporary Turkish and World History?, have been ascertained and suggestions have been made accordingly.Key words: History, text book, history teacher