The Analysis of the Curriculum for Empirical Science at Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Grades of Elementary School, Based on Learning Styles

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the curriculum of empirical science at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of elementary school based on Vark's learning styles. Materials and Method:It was a content analysis descriptive research using Shannon entropy method. The statistical population included the curriculum (purpose, content, methodology and evaluation) of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of the elementary school. The statistical sample of curricula is social studies subject. In order to analyze the existing curriculum (intended) with each learning style, the objectives of the textbooks were first studied, then the content of the textbook was examined. And in order to review the proposed methods, we analyzed the teaching manual. In the evaluation section, the questions raised in the textbooks and the teaching guide were analyzed. The research tool was Vark's Learning Styles Checklist (1998), which was developed based on the VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire and questionnaire and provided coding analysis to three researchers in planning to ensure the reliability of the obtained analyzes. A lesson was agreed and the percentage of agreement was estimated to be 0.88. Result and Discussion: The results of data analysis showed that in the curriculum of empirical science at the fourth and sixth elementary grades, the visual style was first and the Read/write style in the fifth rank. In fifth grade, the auditory style was first, and the combinative style in the fifth rank. Therefore, it can be said that the preferred style in the empirical science curriculum is the visual style in the fourth and sixth grades and the auditory style in the fifth grade.