Examination of science textbooks in terms of scientific inquiry skills

From past to present, rapid developments in science and technology cause changes by affecting the lifestyles of individuals in every field. These changes also change the ways of accessing information. Teachers and students try to reach the information they need from the books first. Accordingly, the contents of the books should be in a quality that meets the needs of the individuals. It is aimed to raise individuals who can use scientific process skills and understand scientific inquiry, among the concepts that are frequently emphasized within the general objectives of the MEB 2018 science course curriculum, which aims to train all individuals as science literate. In this research, what is the suitability of the experiment and activity sections in the science textbooks of MEB publications to be taught in the 5th, 6th, 7th grades in the '2020-2021' academic year and in the science textbooks approved by the Ministry of National Education approved by the Ministry of National Education for 8th grades?The answer to the question has been sought. Our research is limited to the secondary school 5.6 (2 textbooks), 7, MEB publications and 8th Grade (Private publishing house) 5 Science Textbooks recommended by the Board of Education in the 2020-2021 academic year. In this study, the data collected by document analysis were evaluated by content analysis method. Content analysis is a method in which scientific methods are used, the materials to be used, the messages they give are summarized, classifications and comparisons are made and numerical meaning is gained (Chen, Monion, & Morrison, 2007). Inquiry-based Tasks Analysis Inventory (ITAI) developed by Yang and Liu (2016) was used to analyze the inquiry-based tasks of experiments and activities in science textbooks. Inquiry-based task analysis inventory (ITAI) consists of 3 main dimensions and 22 sub-dimensions. As a result of the research, it was determined that the test-activity sections of the documents examined were not suitable for scientific inquiry. In this context, it is suggested that the science textbooks to be prepared should be more comprehensive in terms of scientific inquiry skills and that the scientific process skills involved in experiments and activities should be arranged in a way that will show a proportional increase in transitions between levels.