THE REVIEW OF THE HIGH SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS IN TERMS OF THE CONTENT AND METHODS IN TURKEY

Öz

Geography textbooks have been revised significantly in recent years in comply with the changes in the curriculum since 2005. Textbooks play a pivotal role in learning and teaching considering that they are the main source of study for students and guide for teachers. They can facilitate learning process when they are properly written and structured, and if the opposite situation prevails then, it is easy to foresee the negative effects of it on the whole system which will totally be detrimental. Turkish Ministry of National Education publishes school textbooks for each lesson and distributes them to students for free every year updating and changing their contents regularly. Although these changes and amendments and substantial improvements, there are still many problems and deficiencies in textbooks that need to be dealt with. These problems range from the curriculum to the content of the textbooks, to classification problems, to the readability of the textbooks. We will try to spot and make suggestions about these problems focusing in particular on geography textbooks. A successful and working education system consist of not only perfect textbooks but also open-minded, innovative teachers and students and textbooks are just one of the most crucial components of it. All of them is required to reach the Western standards in education

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Geography textbooks, classification, geography curriculum, learning methods