47 Ramona Simona Kiru Adventus University ramona.kiru@uadventus.ro COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE 4TH CLASS SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS ABOUT TRANSMITTED VALUES Keywords Values, School Textbooks, Integration _______________________________________________ Abstract Values are passed through both family and school. The degree of opportunity, necessity or utility of one thing determines its value. Family and school teach the child what are the most important values after which they have to lead their lives. The handbook is an instrument the student uses to discover and interact with the world around him. The values transmitted by the manual guide the pupil in the act of learning and lead him throughout his training. How much the manual provides for more integrated and creative contexts, with that much it is a useful and valuable manual. _______________________________________________ 1. Review of literature Romania joined the European Union in 2007. Since then, it has mastered the objectives and values of this European community. 48 These objectives and values are the foundation of the European Union and are enshrined in the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The objectives of the European Union are: "to promote peace, European values and the well-being of its citizens; to provide freedom, security and justice without internal borders; to ensure a sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability, to maintain a highly competitive market economy that promotes full employment and social progress and protects the environment; to combat social exclusion and discrimination; to encourage technical and scientific progress; to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity between Member States; to respect the cultural and linguistic diversity of its peoples; to create an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro" (European Union). The values of the European Union are shared by all Member States in a society where tolerance, justice, solidarity and anti- discrimination are at the forefront. The following values should be part of the life of each European: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights. Axiology is the branch of philosophy dealing with the theory of values. The syntax of pedagogical axiology involves highlighting the educational values appropriate to the educational process. It also has as a center of interest the values underlying the educational endings, the contents of the program, the methodology of the training, the ways of developing the educational activities. Axiological education is education for and through authentic values. The European Parliament recommends including the teaching and learning of the eight key competences, including social and civic competences, which means the ability to participate effectively and constructively in social and working life and to engage actively and democratically chosen in increasingly diverse 49 societies. These are axiological competences because they represent "the ability of the subject to effectively evaluate the new cultural stimuli and to integrate or connect them to a system. The ability to highlight new reference codes or discover new connections in the value field. It is the superior requirement of axiological education, which implies maximum cultural autonomy of educators "(Cucoș, 2002, p. 181). In order to achieve this goal, "education should be organized around four fundamental types of learning, which, throughout life, are the cornerstones of knowledge: learning to know, which means acquiring the tools of knowledge; to learn to do so that the individual interacts with the environment; to learn to live with others, to cooperate with others, to participate in human activities; to learn to be, an important element, resulting from the first three " (Delors, 2000, p. 69). Learning to live with others is one of the major challenges of our day. People have less and less empathy, assertiveness, understanding and sincerity. Competition, violence, deception, lying and corruption have become leverage to solve problems. The task of education is to highlight how different people are, as well as to raise awareness of the similarities between individuals and their interdependence. All this can be done in educational activities when the teacher takes the following actions: it helps the student to discover his / her own identity, cultivates empathy for pupils to get to know each other and proposes common goals that take pupils out of differences and their conflicts. The school textbook is an instrument that the teacher uses to transmit values and attitudes to the influences of the environment. School textbooks are official documents "that focus the knowledge of a given field, being developed according to the requirements of school curricula defined at national or regional level" (Dictionnaire encyclopédique de l’éducation et de la formation, 1998, p. 666). 50 The school textbooks are: "Program support, the main student learning tool, content structuring model, ideology and culture vector, editorial product" (Dictionnaire encyclopédique de l’éducation et de la formation, 1998, p. 667). In the study "The Role of Alternative Textbooks in Child Education" conducted for the Union of Publishers from Romania on the 17th - 24th of October 2017 on a sample of 1214 parents the following results were obtained: • 78% of parents believe that alternative textbooks have a satisfactory or very satisfactory content. • 40% of parents said the textbooks selectively select the contents of the curriculum, and the teacher and the student are offered creative space. • 32% of parents said the information in the alternative textbooks is open to interpretation. • 27% of parents consider that they provide a way of learning that requires understanding and explanation. • 25% of parents said that information in alternative textbooks is a means to build skills, values and attitudes (UER, 2017). • Both parents and teachers recognize the important role of the textbooks. 2. Methodology Objectives This research aims to study the values that are transmitted by the school textbooks used in the fourth grade. Based on this goal, the following objectives were formulated: 1. Describe the school textbooks used in the fourth grade in terms of transmitted values. 2. Discover the differences between manuals in terms of transmitted values. 51 Hypotheses For the present research the following hypotheses were formulated: 1. To what extent do the 4th grade school textbooks transmit the following values: order, harmony and measure, integrated learning, creativity, curiosity and involvement, play and usefulness of information. 2. To what extent is there a correlation between the following values: order, harmony and measure, integrated learning, creativity, curiosity and involvement, play and usefulness of information. Variables Research has two main variables: textbook and values. The textbook's indicators are: discipline and publishing house. Values are: order, harmony, measure, integration, creativity, curiosity, involvement, play and usefulness of information. Methods The research method used was document analysis, which is a method that refers to the quantitative analysis of documents, highlighting certain themes, trends, attitudes or values. Content analysis is proprietary to rigorous and complex information. Tools The tool used was the handbook analysis grid tracking the promoted values. This grid had the following indicators and descriptors: 1. The order, harmony, and extent of the content of the manual. a) The contents of the handbook are crowded with many exercises and information placed without order and harmony. 52 b) The content of the handbook provides measure, harmony and order through the exercises and information provided. c) The contents of the handbook are incomplete without enough exercise and information. 2. The handbook offers an integrated learning. a) Multidisciplinary relationships are present to a small extent. b) Multidisciplinary relationships are present to a big extent. c) Multidisciplinary relationships are missing from the contents of the handbook. 3. Existence of the possibility to develop the creativity, curiosity and involvement of students in the act of learning. a) The Handbook offers too few possibilities to develop creativity, curiosity and student involvement in the learning process. b) The Handbook provides structured possibilities for developing pupils' creativity, curiosity and involvement. c) The handbook does not offer possibilities to develop students' creativity, curiosity and involvement. 4. The role and the weight of the didactic game in the structure of the contents of the handbook. a) Didactical games are too little present in the structure of the handbook. b) Didactic games are present in a balanced number in the structure of the handbook. c) Didactical games are not present in the structure of the handbook. 5.Valuing learning acquisitions in new theoretical and practical context. a) The Handbook offers opportunities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented without being relevant to the socio-professional adaptation of students. 53 b) The Handbook offers possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant for the socio- professional adaptation of students. c) The Handbook does not offer possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts other than those in which they are presented. Population The documents analyzed were the following Class IV manuals: 1. Romanian Language and Literature 4th grade Semester I Intuitext Publishing House. 2. Romanian Language and Literature 4th grade Semester I Ars Libri Publishing House. 3. Romanian Language and Literature 4th grade Semester I Art Publishing House. 4. Math 4th grade Semester I Intuitext Publishing House. 5. Math 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 6. Math 4th grade Semester I Art Publishing House. 7. Natural Sciences 4th grade Semester I Art Publishing House. 8. Natural Sciences 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 9. Natural Sciences 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 10. Geography 4th grade Semester I Intuitext Publishing House. 11. Geography 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 12. Geography 4th grade Semester I Art Publishing House. 13. History 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 14. History 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 15. History 4th grade Semester I Corint Publishing House. 16. Civic Education 4th grade Semester I CD PRESS Publishing House. 54 17. Civic Education 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 18. Civic Education 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 19. Music and movement 4th grade Semester I CD PRESS Publishing House. 20. Music and movement 4th grade Semester I Litera Publishing House. 21. Music and movement 4th grade Semester I Aramis Publishing House. 22. Visual Arts and Practical Skills 4th Grade Semester I Ars Libri Publishing House. 23. Visual Arts and Practical Skills 4th Grade Semester I Litera Publishing House. Thus, 23 manuals from seven publishing houses were analyzed as follows: one manual from the Corinth publishing house, two books from the Ars Libri publishing house, two textbooks from the publishing house Litera, two textbooks from the CD PRESS publishing house, three textbooks from Intuitext publishing house and nine manuals from the Aramis publishing house. The 23 manuals concerned the eight disciplines studied in the 4th grade. Three manuals were analyzed for each discipline, only two manuals were analyzed for Visual Arts and Practical Skills. All 23 manuals are approved by the Ministry of National Education. 3. Results The results of this research were as follows: a) The content of 10 textbooks provides measure, harmony and order through the exercises and information provided. b) The content of 13 textbooks is crowded with many exercises and information placed without order and harmony. 55 c) No manual has been found, with content to be incomplete, without exercise and enough information. d) In the content of 10 textbooks multidisciplinary relations are present to a large extent. e) In the content of 10 textbooks multidisciplinary relations are present to a small extent. f) In the content of three textbooks the pluridisciplinary relations are missing. g) The content of 15 textbooks provides structured possibilities for developing students' creativity, curiosity and involvement. h) The content of six textbooks offers too few possibilities to develop creativity, curiosity and student involvement. i) The content of two textbooks does not offer possibilities to develop pupils' creativity, curiosity and involvement. j) In the content of seven textbooks, didactic games are present in a balanced number. k) In the content of 11 textbooks, didactic games are too little present. l) In the content of five textbooks, didactic games are not present. m) The content of 14 textbooks offers possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant for the socio- professional adaptation of pupils. n) The content of eight textbooks offers possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented without being relevant to the socio-professional adaptation of pupils. o) The content of a manual does not provide opportunities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts other than those in which they are presented. 56 The following data was obtained following the handbook analysis grid: As for order, harmony and measure: • All three Natural Science textbooks provide measure, harmony and order through the exercises and information provided. • All three textbooks from Mathematics as well as from Civic Education are crowded with many exercises and information placed without order and harmony. In terms of integrated learning: • In all three Civic Education textbooks, pluri-discipline relationships are largely present. • In all three mathematical textbooks, pluri-discipline relationships are present to a small extent. • In terms of creativity, curiosity and student involvement: • All three textbooks of Natural Sciences, Visual Arts and Practical Skills and Civic Education provide in a structured way the possibilities to develop creativity, curiosity and student involvement. • All three Mathematics textbooks offer too few possibilities to develop creativity, curiosity and student involvement. In terms of didactic games: • In the two textbooks of Visual Arts and Practical Skills there are a balanced number of didactic games. • In the Mathematics and Geography textbooks, didactic games are present in a small number or not at all. 5. About the usefulness of the information submitted: The three textbooks in the disciplines of Natural Sciences, Visual Arts and Practical Skills and Civic Education offer possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant to the socio-professional adaptation of students. 57 All three textbooks of Mathematics offer possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented without being relevant to the socio-professional adaptation of students. Pearson's correlation coefficient was also calculated between the following variables: measure, integration, creativity, play, and usefulness of the information. As a result of this correlation, the results show that there is a significant positive correlation between the usefulness of information and creativity: r (23) = 0.774, p <0.01 and the usefulness of information and integration: r (23) = 0.663, p <0, 01. 4. Discussions The results show that many manuals are crowded with many exercises and information that tired and bored the students, especially those of Mathematics and Civic Education. On the opposite side are the Natural Science textbooks that provide order, harmony and measure through the exercises and information provided. The results show that many textbooks do not give students through their content an integrated learning that is to help the student to develop personally and socially in integrated contexts. These manuals are especially Mathematical. In contrast, the Civic Education textbooks are largely present in multidisciplinary relationships. The results show that more than half of the analyzed manuals offer opportunities to develop creativity, curiosity and student involvement in the learning process. These include Natural Sciences, Visual Arts and Practical Skills and Civic Education. And at the opposite end is the Mathematics manual. The results show that the didactic game is present in a few textbooks. Which means that pupils are deprived of their main means of learning and one of the most effective methods of 58 education. In the Visual Arts and Practical Skills textbooks, didactic games are present in a balanced number. And in the Mathematics and Geography textbooks there are few or none of the didactic games. The results show that more than half of the analyzed manuals offer possibilities to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant for the socio-professional adaptation of students. The results obtained from Pearson's correlation show that there is a significant positive correlation between the usefulness of information and creativity on the one hand and a significant positive correlation between the usefulness of information and integration. The more multidisciplinary relationships in the manuscript, the more opportunities it offers to apply learning acquisitions in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant for the socio-professional adaptation of students. The more the handbook provides for the development of creativity, curiosity and student involvement, it offers more opportunities to apply learning acquisition in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented, relevant for the socio-professional adaptation of students. So, a creative and integrated manual is a useful manual. 5. Conclusions This study wanted to analyze all the 4th grade manuals approved by the Ministry of National Education to carry out a comparative analysis of the transmitted values. The study aimed to monitor whether they are informationally balanced, attractive, living and motivating for reading. Is the student's or teacher's book 59 manual? Many times, the latter becomes the translator of the contents of the manual. In Romanian society, the manual is a very important element in the education process because often the teacher teaches after the manual and not the program as it should. The Ministry of National Education states that textbooks are a resource rather than a didactic norm. One student said, "The best manual is the teacher." This shows the teacher's importance in organizing, planning and coordinating the educational process. However good a manual is, without a competent teacher in the classroom, students will not be able to make their way to knowledge. To support his students, the teacher has the duty to consult all the textbooks approved for his class in order to provide them with the best support in learning. The teacher must choose those textbooks that do not bombard the student with information and exercises but give him measure, harmony and order through his content. The abundance of new knowledge in the handbook can intimidate and discourage the path of knowledge. The perspective of interdisciplinarity is another reason for choosing a manual. Personal and social development of the pupil through education must take place in integrated contexts. These contexts give the student the opportunity to solve the problems in real life. In order to awaken student’s creativity, curiosity and involvement, the teacher must show confidence in students, their talents and ideas. The manual, in its turn, should not be loaded with stimuli to cushion its desire for knowledge and research. The handbook should transform the student from the consumer into the innovator. Repetitive, many and poorly motivating exercises should be missing from any manual. The rush in solving all the exercises proposed in the manual should not take away from the time students need to learn. 60 Didactic play is another important element that should not be missing from the contents of the manual. Through the game, students become curious to see what is going on until the end, and so their attention is captured throughout the teaching scenario. The Handbook that offers the opportunity to apply learning acquisition in theoretical and practical contexts different from those in which they are presented is a manual that aims to prepare pupils for life and to face upcoming challenges. Such a manual could fulfill the educational ideal that aims at forming an autonomous and creative student. References Dictionnaire encyclopédique de l’éducation et de la formation. (1998). Paris: Editions Nathans. Cucoș, C. (2002). Pedagogie. Iași: Polirom. Delors, J. (2000). Comoara lăuntrică: Raportul către UNESCO al Comisiei Internaționale pentru Educație în secolul XXI. Iași: Polirom. UER. (2017, noiembrie 1). Rolul manualelor alternative în educația copiilor. Retrieved martie 11, 2019, from Tribuna învățământului: http://www.tribunainvatamantului.ro/rolul-manualelor- alternative-in-educatia-copiilor/ Uniunea Europeană. (n.d.). Retrieved februarie 20, 2019, from https://europa.eu: https://europa.eu/european- union/about-eu/eu-in-brief_ro 61 Tables, figures and appendices Table 1 The correlation between values Pearson Correlations Utility Crea- tivity Game Inte- gration Mea- sure Utility Pearson's r p-value Crea- tivity Pearson's r 0.774 p-value < .001 Game Pearson's r 0.512 0.456 p-value 0.013 0.029 Inte- gration Pearson's r 0.663 0.590 0.387 p-value < .001 0.003 0.068 Mea- sure Pearson's r 0.357 0.453 0.383 0.505 p-value 0.094 0.030 0.071 0.014