The Content Analysis of the Persian Textbooks of the Elementary School Based on Multiple Intelligence Components: Shannon Entropy Method

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the content of the Persian textbooks of the elementary school from the perspective of emphasizing the components of multiple intelligences (linguistic-verbal, mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, kinetic-physical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic, musical and Existential). The present study is a descriptive and It's the kind of content-based analysis using the Shannon Entropy method. The statistical population includes all elementary Persian language textbooks. The statistical sample is equal to the statistical population. The research tool was a checklist of multiple intelligence components based on the scientific basis of multiple intelligences (Gardner and Fleetham), which the researcher developed and its content validity was verified by five experts. The reliability obtained using the re-run technique is 0.86 for the check list. The results of content analysis showed that in Persian textbooks, the coefficient of importance of verbal and natural language intelligence (0/115), visual-spatial intelligence, mathematical-logical, kinetic-physical, interpersonal, interpersonal and Existential (0/111) and musical intelligence (0/103). In other words, each of the components of multiple intelligences in Persian textbooks has not been considered in a balanced way, and Persian textbooks do not cover in same size multiple components of intelligence. Regarding the role of multiple intelligences in student’s life, and given the researchers' emphasis on this constract, it is essential for the authors of Persian textbooks to pay much attention to this in subsequent editions.