THE USE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS OF HIGH SCHOOL: A FIELD STUDY OF FARS

This study aims at investigating the use of critical thinking in high school social science textbooks based on Fars Province teachers ' attitudes in order to present a model for textbook development. To achieve this goal, the use of the following skills in the social science textbooks was analyzed: reasoning, questioning, assessment of examples and statements, group work, interpretation, true judgment about issues, analysis and evaluation, logicality, and explicitness. It is a field study which was conducted in several high schools of Fars Province in Iran. The population of this study included 568 social science teachers. The sample was selected based on the stratified random sampling procedure so that 153 teachers participated in this study. The data were collected using a forty-four-item questionnaire based on Likert-scale, which was developed and validated by the researcher himself and some experts. The reliability coefficient was also estimated as 0.86. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, standard deviation, and coefficient of variations) and inferential statistics (Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis Non-parametric tests). The result showed that the teachers of the Social Studies Textbook evaluated assessment of examples and statements, and analysis and evaluation skills as not satisfactory respectively. They evaluated the other skills as fairly satisfactory. Teachers of Sociology Textbook 1 evaluated explicitness, assessment of examples and statements, analysis and evaluation, and interpretation skills as not satisfactory respectively. They also evaluated other skills as fairly satisfactory. Teachers of Sociology Textbook 2 evaluated explicitness as not satisfactory, logicality as satisfactory, and other skills as fairly satisfactory. Therefore it is possible to rank order the social science textbooks of high school as satisfactory and not satisfactory with regard to the use of critical thinking. In other words, Sociolog