An Investigation into the Content Designs of the third Grade Mathematics and Turkish Textbooks

Abstract

The design of textbooks used in teaching and learning processes is of great importance to each level of education from pre-primary through to higher education. Textbooks, especially at primary level, include lots of visual images. It is, therefore, of crucial importance to resort to effective and proper ways of using visual design elements in textbooks. This study was to examine Grade Three Primary Mathematics and Turkish Textbooks published by Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education Publishing in 2018-2019 Academic Year in Türkiye in terms of visual-text design and typography. The data draws on the evaluation of content design of textbooks respecting typographic style, visual design principles and suitability of visual images. This study, based on qualitative research model, is a multi-case study for which the data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Following the evaluation of the field experts, there was a total of 18 open-ended questions. We recruited eleven field experts to collect qualitative data through semi-structured interviews. During the interviews, the participants provided data on typographic style, visual design principles and suitability of visual images. Based on the content analysis results, we found that there are some typographic errors in the content design of textbooks. Further, no original visual images seemed to be included in the textbooks examined. We can conclude that the related textbooks do not comply with the Gestalt Principle of Continuity. Other visual design elements such as the use of visual hierarchy, two-pages spread design, and the emphasis effect and alike are not satisfied since there is no consistency in the drawings of the content design of textbooks. We argue that it is of vital importance to recruit professional textbook designers in the design process of textbooks and to pay more attention to the visual evaluation criteria prepared by the relevant Board of Education.