The educational value of secondary school religious culture and ethics textbooks with regard to their contribution to learning-teaching processes

This master's thesis has examined the compliance of secondary religious culture and ethics (RCE) textbooks with the RCE curriculum which was accepted in 2010 and in relation to this the contribution of the textbooks to teaching and learning process. The constructivist approach which was adopted by the curriculum predicted certain principles to emerge from the learning-teaching process. The textbooks were examined in terms of these principles. Data was collected through conducting document reviews and was thereafter divided according to the introduction, body and conclusion phases of the learning-teaching process. Thereby, the criteria for assessing the textbooks were acquired and the textbooks were examined in terms of such criteria (11 criteria in total). In the study, using content analysis, data was grouped based on their common themes. According to the results of this research, the analyzed textbooks were found to be in compliance with the curriculum and, in general the principles the constructivist approach predicted to emerge on an average level (51,2%). this percentage is expected to be higher in order for textbooks to contribute to the learning-teaching process more efficiently. When the learning-teaching process was examined in terms of the introduction, body and conclusion phases, it was found that the textbooks have the least level of contribution at the body phase (33,7%) which was followed by the introduction phase (44,6%). The conclusion phase of a lesson was found to have the highest rate of contribution (87%). The results showed that the textbooks contributed to the learning-teaching process most efficiently in the conclusion phase of a lesson. According to this research study, it was concluded that the qualifications that were expected from the introduction and body phases of the learning-teaching process by the curriculum should be reflected more to the textbooks.