An examination of 3rd grade science books in terms of constructivism and supporting science process skills

The present study examines the congruence of the Science Book of the primary 3rd grade with the constructivist learning approach, and its quality in terms of supporting scientific processes skills. The study was carried out under two sections; its congruence with constructivist learning approach and its quality in supporting the scientific processes skills. While examining the congruence of the book with constructivist learning approach, the criteria which represent the constructivist learning and also required for assessment in textbooks were collected from the available literature. The assessment instrument developed by Akkocaoğlu (2009) was used to analyze the primary school 3rd grade science book in document analysis method. Frequencies of these criteria were determined for each of the seven units in the textbook. As for the book's support to development of scientific process skills, activities were classified according to their contributions to the skills in the process in the light of the available studies. Following the examination of all the activities, the frequencies of the skills in each unit were tabulated. Examination of the book in terms of its support to constructivist learning showed not only an uneven distribution among themselves but also in frequencies of criteria between the units. This implied, although the book covered all the criteria required for constructivist learning, due to the distribution rate of the criteria, it proved to be partly effective. As for the book's supporting scientific processes skills, certain skills were found to be covered repeatedly while some were rarely found or not at all, which meant the book was found not efficient enough.