An analysis of the Eritrean grade 9 biology textbook
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Date
2000
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Teachers during various seminars, workshops, and departmental meetings continuously complained about the inadequacy of the grade 9 biology textbook used in the Eritrean secondary schools. Among others, the teacher's concern has provided a necessary stimulus for embarking on this research which sought to determine the role, quality, readability, and relevance of the Eritrean grade 9 biology textbook, based on the teachers' and students' perceptions. Interviews, questionnaires, the Cloze test, and Word Difficulty Index were used to collect the data. The interviews and questionnaires provided information on how the textbook was being used by both teachers and students. In addition, they provide information about the quality of the textbook and its relevance to the daily life experiences of the students. The finding of this study reveals that both teachers and students use the textbook as the major source of information. Also, the factors that determine the quality of the textbook were found to be poor except for the physical features and organization. With respect to relevance, very limited attempts were made to link biology to the daily life experiences of the students. The Cloze test results and Word Difficulty Index show that the students clearly experience difficulty in understanding what they have read. In conclusion, this study makes some recommendations to writers on how to improve the quality of the textbook. Moreover, the Cloze test and Word Difficulty Index provided
information on the readability of the textbook. results obtained Finally areas suggested. in this study are by no means exhaustive.
warranting further investigation is suggested.
Description
Magister Philosophiae - MPhil
Keywords
Eritrean secondary schools, Cloze test, Biology, Word Difficulty Index, Exhaustive, Recommendations