Investigation of the Turkish lesson activities in terms of the 21st century skills

Abstract

This paper investigated how the activities in the Turkish course books and student workbooks reflected 21st -century skills. In the study, 21st -century skills were focused on in terms of cognitive, affective, and sociocultural skill domains and the sub-dimensions of these domains. The research is a case study designed with a qualitative research method. The activities included in the 5th - grade Turkish coursebook and the 6th, 7th, and 8th -grade Turkish student workbooks used in the 2017-2018 academic year were chosen through a purposeful sampling method. The data collected through document analysis were analyzed with a descriptive analysis method. According to the obtained data, it was found that the activities related to the cognitive domain were in greater number compared to other skill domains in the books. Due to the relatively fewer number of the affective and sociocultural skill domains, it was not possible to observe a balanced distribution in all the skill domains in terms of sub-dimensions. Although numerous communication tools or environments (e-mail, forums, etc.), popularized with the development in technology, were used in the activities, it was still presumed that the appeal of the activities would increase and the distribution of the skill domains would be balanced.