Integrative Pattern of Question Design in University Textbooks: A Case Study of the Questions in Education and Psychology Textbooks Published by SAMT

Abstract

Well-designed questions have an integral role in acquiring knowledge, developing perceptions, and stimulating critical thinking. This study is to present an integrative model for designing questions in university textbooks and accordingly conduct a case study on questions in education and psychology textbooks published by SAMT Publications. To this end, content analysis and case study were used. In the first section, the related literature on question design were content analyzed, and the integrated approach was chosen as the theoretical model. Then, the validity of the model was checked by eight relevant experts. In the second part, 1323 questions in eight education and psychology textbooks published by SAMT Publication between 1392-1397 AH were analyzed based on the research model. The results showed that a desirable model for designing questions should be developed based on three main dimensions including learning hierarchy, student engagement in the course, and types of convergent and divergent thinking. The final model was composed of 3 main dimensions with 13 types of main questions and 25 sub-questions. The evaluation of a total of 8 textbooks and 1323 questions indicates that 827 questions (62.51%) and 496 questions (37.49%) assessed Lower and Higher Order Learning Skills, respectively. Moreover, the design of the questions in these textbooks was mainly focused on content, and no attention was paid to fundamental, emotional, and engaging questions. Finally, only 10.5% of the questions relate to the development of divergent thinking, while 89.5% of them relates to interrelated questions.