Content analysis of the 6th grade textbook of “the Heaven Gifts” and the degree of its correspondence with the rudiments of the Holey Quran and the Document of Fundamental Development of Education

The purpose of the present paper was to analyze the content of the sixth grade textbook of “the Heaven Gifts (1391)” and comparing it with the rudiments of Holey Quran and the Document of Fundamental Development of Education. The methodology of content analysis was descriptive and the data was gathered using the content analyzing formats developed by the experts of the field, which were confirmed by the Research and Educational Planning Organization. The research population and sample of the study was the sixth grade textbook of “the Heaven Gifts”. Also, the descriptive statistics was used to analyze data. Among 33 instructional objectives of the textbook, 42.4% were of typical objectives, 45.5 % were of multi-sectional objectives, 15.2% of multi-level objectives and 12.1% were of general objectives. Among 49 separated objectives of the textbook, 75.5% of them were concerned with cognitive area, 24.5% with emotional area; however, none of the objectives were concerned with the psychomotor area. Results showed that among 33 objectives of the textbook, 32 objectives (96.96%) had references to the verses of Quran and just 1 objective did not have references to those verses. Considering the Document of Fundamental Development of Education and the objectives of the textbook concerning thinking and communication with God’s creatures, there are 4 detailed objectives in the National Curriculum, of which only one of them was embodied in the objectives and content of the sixth grade textbook of Heaven Gifts and no content and objective was considered with regard to the other 3 detailed objectives in the mentioned textbook. Furthermore, there were 4 objectives in national curriculum dealing with science and knowledge and communication with himself/herself of which 3 objectives were considered in the textbook. The results showed that the textbook achieved the multi-sectional objectives, typical objectives and multi-level objectives respectively, and among the learning fields, the textbook considered cognitive field especially knowledge category more than the other fields and categories. Furthermore, the objectives dealing with references to Quran verses were achieved well with the exception of a few references that failed to refer to Quran verses. Finally, considering the Document of Fundamental Development of Education and the objectives of the textbook, it failed to contain some detailed objectives or contents of national curriculum program according to the table of textbook designation objectives.