Comparing of mother language instruction in Turkey and Japan in terms of mother language curriculums and activities

In this study, it is aimed to compare mother language curriculums of Japan who has a success in PISA over the OECD average, and Turkey who has a success in PISA below the OECD average in the reading literacy, science and mathematics literacy and it is also aimed to reveal the similarities and differences between the mother language activities in Japanese textbooks and Turkish textbooks and to give findings as to whether these differences and similarities affect success. Necessary data were gathered through document analysis method for this study which was designed with case study. The samples of the study are the Japanese National Curriculum, whose secondary school part was updated in 2011, and the Turkish Language Teaching Curriculum which was released in 2018. The study is limited to 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of Turkish textbooks and 7th, 8th and 9th grades of Japanese textbooks. Documents (curriculums) were obtained from the official web pages of the education ministries of the respective countries. In Japanese Mother Language Teaching Curriculums which deal with primary and secondary school programs separately, Primary School Japanese Mother Language Curriculum has been translated from English and Secondary School Japanese Mother Language Curriculum has been translated from Japanese. Textbooks have been obtained and translated from Japanese to Turkish in order to analyze the activities located in them. It has been found out that upon examining the curriculums and textbooks of both countries that have had their milestones in education around similar dates, when compared to Turkish Language Teaching Curriculum, Japanese Mother Language Curriculum is considered to be a draft program drawn in general lines, and the activities in Japanese textbooks are fewer in number but more detailed, leading to a deeper learning. The findings obtained from this study such as that the Turkish Language Teaching Curriculum was prepared in more detailed way than the Japanese Mother Language Curriculum, that the learning outcomes in the Turkish Language Teaching Curriculum and the activities in the Turkish textbooks were superior to the content expressions given in the Japanese Mother Language Curriculum and the activities in the Japanese textbooks prove that it is the quality that is important in education, not the quantity.