Arab Educational Information Network

This study aimed to evaluate the science text books in the Upper Basic School according the teachers and supervisors views in Palestine. To achieve the aim of the study, the researcher used the descriptive analytical approach. To collect data, the researcher prepared a questionnaire included 7 main fields with 79 items. The fields focused on the text layout, objectives, content, activities, learning materials, methods, enhancing student's attitudes, questions, evaluation tools, and language appropriateness. At the end of the questionnaire, an open question addressed to teachers and supervisors to identify the characteristics that the book designers should take in consideration. The sample of the study consisted of 415 teachers and supervisors, including 399 teachers, 16 supervisors in addition to the science textbooks. Finally, The data collected, was analyzed statistically and the results were as follows: 1) There were statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean scores of the sample of the study in the evaluation fields of science text books for upper basic school in favor of the ninth grade according to some variables including the grade, the teacher’s gender and the teacher’s experience which is more than 15 years. 2) There were not statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean scores of the sample of the study in the evaluation fields of science text books for upper basic school and other target fields according to some variables including academic qualification and job description. In light of these findings, the researcher recommended to treat the weaknesses in the science text books for the upper basic school. For instance, the objectives should be related to the students' interests and needs and seek to achieve self-learning and selfreliance, a list of scientific references should be attached to help both the students and the teachers, the activities take in account the student's natural environment, and the questions should take in consideration the individual differences. Besides, training workshops should be conducted for teachers to train them on preparing activities to overcome the weaknesses and to illustrate the philosophy that the science text books based on. Also, the teacher's guide and the science text books should be enriched with technological resources including the most important and modern concepts in teaching/ learning science and the methods to deal with in the education field. (Author’s abstract)