(Inquiry Level in the Activities of Upgraded Science Textbooks in Public Education in Saudi Arabia (Analytical Study

Abstract

The study aims at identifying the levels of inquiry in upgraded science textbooks activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by analyzing the activities of upgraded  intermediate school science textbooks and secondary school biology textbooks, to reveal the levels of inquiry in the activities of the textbooks, the percentage of their presence and the way they are distributed in the textbooks of the intermediate and secondary stages.

The study uses content analysis method through a prepared tool. After confirming its validity and reliability, 174 activities of upgraded science textbooks were analyzed in terms of four levels of inquiry: confirmatory inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry.

The findings of the study show that the structured inquiry has the larger proportion of activities in science textbooks, while open inquiry does not show in intermediate and secondary grades upgraded science textbooks. The findings also show that second intermediate grade science textbooks and second secondary grade biology textbooks are the best guides to constructive inquiry in the  science textbooks activities. Moreover, the findings  reveal that there is a statistically significant relationship between the levels of inquiry and the internal distribution of the activities of intermediate and secondary grade science textbooks . They also show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the levels of inquiry and their distribution in the activities of  intermediate and secondary grade textbooks.