Qualitative content analysis of the visual effects of the Iranian 7th grade English textbook, "English @ School: Seed"

This study was on the qualitative content analysis of the visual effects of Iranian seventh-grade textbook "English @ School: Seed". This book is part of the "English @ School: Seed" educational package, which has been outsourced in line with the multi-authored discussion of the fundamental reform document of education. It was a qualitative research with content analysis design. First, based on the aesthetic theoretical foundations, the approval of the national curriculum document, as well as the two checklists of Yazdānmehr and Shoghi (2014) and (Rahiminezhad, 2014), the intended components were extracted. The reliability and validity of these components were examined by experts at the universities. After their accreditation and validity review, the components of the research included "appearance design", "cover design", "typography", "artistic effects", "page layout" and "cultural elements". The research sample consisted of all the visual effects of the student textbook and 12 experts. The textbook content was analyzed based on the validated components. Findings indicated that the most significant shortages of this book include the weakness in the viewing angle and composition of the photos, and incorrect selection of some methods of illustrations, specific to adults. And the relatively appropriate page layout is the greatest strength of this book. Therefore, it is necessary that the photos to be taken again according to the characteristics of the 7th grade student with a suitable viewing angle, simple composition, and a point of emphasis, and all the images should be photographed using a method that has flat colors and no chiaroscuro processing, while keeping the lines simple.