Evaluation of Turkish coursebooks in the context of texts and questions in PISA reading skills

Turkish language lessons are one of the main classes that impact academic success in all lessons and where the skills necessary in daily life are developed. Developing reading skills appropriate to the subject and content of information that can be accessed through various channels and presented in various ways is of great value for students today. In connection, PISA is conducted internationally and aims to improve education policies worldwide by evaluating literacy skills in three different areas - mathematics, science, and reading skills. It measures students' ability to solve problems at different levels, think critically, reason, and communicate accurately and effectively, obtaining data on how much 15-year-old students' life skills have developed and how ready they are for the future after the national education process. In the study, based on the PISA reading skills assessment framework, the format and type characteristics in the reading texts, and the texts in the Turkish course books activities and theme assessment sections were examined as discussed in PISA. Additionally, reading skill activities and the questions in the theme assessment sections were evaluated through the lens of PISA cognitive processes for reading skills. Document analysis method as one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study. Elementary school Turkish lesson course books between the 5th and 8th grades used during the 2023-2024 Academic Year were selected as data collection tools. Reading texts and texts related to reading skills in the activity and theme assessment sections in these books were examined in terms of text format and text type as addressed in PISA. Questions regarding reading skills, on the other hand, were investigated in the sense of PISA cognitive processes. The data obtained through the investigation were analyzed with the descriptive analysis technique. In terms of text format, it was found that texts for reading skills used in Turkish course books were mostly selected from the "continuous" texts and that "mixed" texts were not used in the books. Based on the investigation of text types, it was seen that texts used for reading skills in Turkish lesson course books were mainly selected from the texts in narration and exposition types, involving only a limited count of other types (instruction, transaction, and description). Upon examining the cognitive processes in PISA, it was revealed that the investigated course books primarily included questions concerning the processes of "Locate Information" and "Understand", accounting for the process of "Evaluate and Reflect" only very little. Based on the results of the study, it can be stated that texts in the Turkish lesson course books should be diversified in terms of text format and text types and questions regarding the activities for reading skills and theme assessment should be prepared in a manner suitable for developing students' higher order thinking skills Keywords: PISA, reading skills and literacy, Turkish course books, text format and type, cognitive processes of reading skills