Inquiry into Scientific Correctness of the Elementary School Farsi Textbooks

Inquiry into Scientific Correctness of the Elementary School Farsi Textbooks   H. Ghamari, Ph.D.*   Scientific validity or correctness is of paramount importance when it comes to the contents of textbooks used in elementary schools, as the very foundations of learners’ knowledge is constructed therein. Hence, an analysis of these contents from this perspective is necessary in order to guide any corrective measure that the publisher may want to undertake. The Farsi textbooks across the six grades in elementary school were chosen for such an analysis. Seemingly suspicious parts of these textbooks were initially derived and listed, and then checked against valid sources leading to elimination of parts that were evidently correct. The remaining list was categorized and instances of each category counted. Although most of the content is scientifically correct, inaccuracies were observed in the areas of vocabulary explanation, editing, referencing, literary information, and textbooks structure. The more specialized the content, the more frequent are the inaccuracies. Given that such inaccuracies could lead to students misunderstanding the lessons, it is for the authorities to take the necessary steps towards correcting the identified inaccuracies.   Keywords: elementary school, scientific correctness, Farsi textbooks    _______________________ Date received: Sep. 30, 2018                   Date accepted: April 13, 2019 *Assistant Professor at Farhangian University (corresponding author). [email protected] This article is presented to my dear professor, Dr. Hassan Anvari whose matchless attempts at authoring my generation’s textbooks is appreciated.