Analysis of the content of reading books for the first three grades in light of formal thinking skills and the attitudes of subject teachers towards them

Abstract

The current research aims to identify the analysis of the content of reading books for the first three grades in light of formal thinking skills and the attitudes of teachers of the subject towards them. To achieve the research objective, the researcher adopted the descriptive approach. The researcher identified the research community as reading books for the first three grades of the primary stage (2024_2025) approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Education, and teachers of the reading subject for the first three grades in Dhi Qar Governorate. The researcher prepared a tool for analyzing the content of reading books for the first three grades of the primary stage, which dealt with formal thinking skills for the purpose of building analysis lists, then determining the skills of formal thinking. 6 skills were identified for formal thinking, which are (proportional thinking, hypothetical thinking, synthetic thinking, probabilistic thinking, logical measurement). The researcher prepared five paragraphs for each skill, and thus the first tool consists of (30) paragraphs that the researcher verified their validity and stability. She also prepared a scale of attitudes towards formal thinking skills. From (45) paragraphs distributed over four areas: (proportional thinking skill, hypothetical thinking skill, synthetic thinking skill, probabilistic thinking skill, logical measurement skill, variable control skill). The response was designed on the attitudes scale according to the five-point scale. The researcher verified its validity and reliability. The results showed that some formal thinking skills were not available in the three reading books. It was also concluded that the motivation of first-grade teachers was higher than the motivation of first-grade teachers. The researcher concluded that the authors of curricula and textbooks for reading materials for the first three grades of primary school neglected some formal thinking skills. She also recommended that those responsible for planning and preparing curricula should pay attention to including formal thinking skills in reading books for the first three grades of primary school.