valuation of Ninth Grade English Curriculum in Terms of Holistic Education

Abstract

The study aims to evaluate 9th grade English curriculum within scope of holistic education. It was designed on mixed method. Quantitative data was collected with "Teaching Tendency Inventory" and "Attitude Scale Towards Foreign Language" adapted into Turkish by the researcher (Babacan, 2016) and also "Holistic Learning Tendency Scale" developed by the researcher (Babacan, 2016) in scope of this present study. Quantitative data was collected from 179 English teachers working at secondary education schools and from 1043 students determined by proportional stratified sampling method. Qualitative data was collected from observation of classrooms, from documents (curriculum, coursebooks, exams, observation notes) and from a total of eight English teachers and twenty-four students in four school types determined depending on stratified purposeful sampling strategy. Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskall Wallis analysis of variance were performed on the quantitative data gathered from students and teachers. Qualitative data was analyzed by inductive content analysis and documents were analyzed by comparative qualitative analysis technique. According to results, it was observed that holistic education was not applied in current English education and there were reflections of mechanical approach. It was found that students who had high language skills and who used English outside classroom had a high holistic learning tendency. Moreover, these and also those who preferred some study types and also female students studying at science and social sciences high school had higher attitudes towards foreign language. As for teacher findings, it was determined that teachers preferred transactional teaching approach and differences that depend on school types were found out.