Original scientific paper

STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

Milan Matijević ; Učiteljski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Višnja Rajić ; Učiteljski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Tomislav Topolovčan ; Učiteljski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatska

Abstract

Textbooks are the most important sources of knowledge students have besides their teachers. During their schooling students are offered a number of textbooks which present the educational contents and help students acquire the necessary competences (e.g. learning to learn, solving problems…). Thus, students are highly competent to evaluate textbooks’ characteristics and suitability. This research was conducted in October 2011. Its aim was to determine secondary students’ perceptions of textbooks they had used in the course of their schooling (N=734). A questionnaire was constructed for the purpose of the research which was structured as Osgood’s semantic differential with 14 bipolar elements.
This paper presents a part of the research results dealing with the following research problem: are there any differences in the 4th grade students’ perception of secondary school textbooks according to the difference in their gender or the type of school they attend. The sample was made of 4th grade secondary school students (N = 264), out of which 125 (47.3%) of the students attend vocational secondary school (technical schools and schools of economics), while 139 (52.7%) attend grammar schools.
The students’ perception of the concepts of secondary school textbooks was investigated and the Mean value was calculated on each scale (on a 7 point scale) for the whole sample. The students found the usefulness of textbooks (M = 4.48) and their methodological organization (M = 4.22) to be the most positive aspects of textbooks. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference in textbook perception according to gender, but there is a significant difference in textbook perception according to the type of secondary school students attend. The research has shown that vocational school students have a more positive perception of textbooks than do students who attend grammar schools.

Keywords

textbooks; secondary schools; grammar school; teacher-cantered education; vocational secondary schools

Hrčak ID:

121334

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/121334

Publication date:

13.6.2013.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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