The Content Analysis of Persian Reading Books for the Third Grade of Primary School Based on William L. Romey’s Approach: A Case Study of the Academic Year 2012 and 2020

The present study aims at evaluating two versions of the content of the coursebook Reading Persian, developed for the third grade of elementary school. The book was first published for the academic year 2012-2013, and it was then revised and updated for the academic year 2019-2020. The descriptive content analysis—developed by William L. Romey—and involvement coefficient were employed to analyze the book content. The analysis consists of gauging the involvement coefficient for the text components, including the questions and illustrations. The results show that in contrast to the older version of the book, published for the academic year 2012-2013, the newer version has failed to consider the adequate standards, and demanded writing a decent coursebook. As a result, it seems that revising the coursebook is a must to meet the expectations. Given that the illustrations of the two books failed to promote active learning strategies and interactive items, the book's authors are invited to include images that facilitate understating of the book content and encourage students' reflection. The results also indicate that the questions employed in the newer version of the textbook are more engaging and increase students’ level of involvement with the learning process.