Analyzing the Post-Reading Questions of Primary School Persian Textbooks in Terms of Barrett’s Taxonomy

This paper attempted to study the post-reading questions of Persian textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in terms of Barrett's taxonomy. The research method was descriptive-analytic. At first, the post-reading questions of the textbooks were counted (394) and they were classified into 5 levels and 27 sub-categories of Barrett's taxonomy. Then, the distribution of questions at different levels of the reading taxonomy was explored. Results from the codification of the 394 questions showed that the questions were not evenly distributed among the five levels of the taxonomy. The majority of the questions were of the recall type. High frequency of recall questions in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade books showed that majority of the questions (64.10%) dealt with lowest level of reading skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between the post-reading questions of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of reading skill. That is, as the students proceeded to higher grades and their cognition and language competence developed, the level of questions became higher. The findings of this study can be used as a guide to textbook designers (in writing questions) and teachers (in answering questions) to modify their materials and practice to achieve the teaching-learning objectives of the reading skill.