Kilis 7 Aralık Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

Öz

Textbook is one of the most used materials in our country in schools. Therefore textbooks have an important place during educational activities. Textbooks that will be taught to students should be carefully prepared and organized. As well as being a concrete reflection of the abstract goals of the curriculum, textbooks appear as a teaching tool that significantly affects and directs classroom teaching activities. In this respect, textbooks, which have an important place in educational tools and materials, should be of appropriate standard and quality. Textbooks have many important features, the most important of which is that they are designed for students. In addition, providing information to students, repeating this information, explaining and reinforcing the relationship between information are among the important features of the textbooks. Although different teaching materials have been used in our country in recent years in order to provide students with simple and fast subject acquisitions in the learning-teaching process, textbooks continue to maintain their importance as a teaching material. There are several reasons why textbooks maintain their importance as a teaching material. The fact that they are the most frequently used material, that the books include information in accordance with the purpose, content and activities in the education program, and that they allow the teacher to spend the lesson time more efficiently can be counted among these reasons. These materials are also very important in that they contain the essence of the information, have a share in the evaluation of the students, and allow the students to repeat what they have been told. In addition, the fact that the textbook is durable and robust, it is easy to carry and practical because it is not too heavy increases its importance. Considering the importance of textbooks in education and training activities, the subject of this study has been determined as Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge Textbooks used in secondary schools. Along with the new curriculum put into practice in 2018, DKAB textbooks were also renewed within the framework of this curriculum. In this study, the textbook's on Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge prepared according to the new program in the 2019-2020 academic year and taught in Public Secondary Schools, it's aimed to be examined in terms of formal, visual, written content, student activities. It was also aimed to be examined in terms of preparatory studies and evaluation questions. For this purpose, the RCaM textbooks used in 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades by meeting face to face with 63 RCaM teachers who are at the center of the work were extensively examined in line with the aims of the general objectives of National Education, the school and the specific objectives of the Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge course. Qualitative research method was used in the study. The qualitative data of the study were obtained from the semi-structured interviews conducted with 63 Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers who worked in different secondary schools in Diyarbakır city center in the 2019-2020 academic year and were determined through criterion sample selection. The analysis of the data in the research was done by content analysis method. Some of the results that emerged from the teachers' views can be listed as follows: “When the middle school RCaM textbooks were examined formally, it was stated that the cover photos were related to the content and the writing style and font size were appropriate for the student levels. In addition, it was stated that the internal images of the books are generally successful in attracting students' attention and arousing curiosity in students. It has been stated that the questions of the unit preparation studies in the secondary school RCM textbooks cover the whole unit, are appropriate for the students' levels, and encourage the students to research ”. It was also stated that the evaluation questions were less in number, and most of the questions asked were based on information so the number of questions should be increased and various question styles should be included to improve students' mental skills. Based on the results obtained in the study, suggestions were made to the practitioners and researchers. The findings obtained as a result of this research are important in terms of revealing the current situation of the RCaM textbooks taught in secondary school, determining the deficiencies and indicating the suggestions for improvement. The research findings will also be important in terms of providing data for the preparation of textbooks and for future studies in this field.