Arab Educational Information Network

The study aimed to know the percentages of availability of visual thinking skills in the activities of the language skills lessons in the books "I love my language" for the first grades (1-4) of basic education in the Sultanate of Oman. To achieve this, the researcher used the descriptive method, and prepared a list of 22 visual thinking skills, and a content analysis card. The study population consisted of (527) activities of language skills lessons in "I love my language" books for the first grades (1-4) of basic education. The study reached the following results: The skill of recognizing the shape and describing is the most available visual thinking skill in the activities of the language skills lessons in “I love my language” books for the first cycle grades (1-4) of basic education, followed by the image analysis, Interpretation, then perceiving the relationships between the elements of the image, and finally inferring meaning and arriving at values and concepts. Statistically significant differences between the percentages of the following main visual thinking skills: (shape recognition and description, image analysis, interpretation, and inference of meaning and reaching values and concepts), in the activities of language skills lessons for the first grades (1-4) of basic education were found, while no statistically significant differences were found between the percentages in the skill of perceiving the relationships between the elements of the image. The study recommended drawing the attention of those responsible for preparing curricula and authoring books to considering the balance and comprehensiveness between the main and secondary visual thinking skills when designing the activities of language skills lessons. (Author’s abstract)