A Chronological Analysis of Intellectual Demands in the Turkish Writing Curricula

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to critically evaluate the updated Turkish writing curricula to decide whether they permit teachers to design higher intellectually demanding teaching sequences. This study was designed as a qualitative inquiry through a document analysis to estimate the pedagogically oriented intellectual demands of the curricular objectives in the writing field. A total of 935 writing objectives were deeply analyzed, and the generic picture displays that the objectives at the understand level dramatically dominate (65.2%) the elementary and middle school writing instruction. About one out of four objectives in the curricula were observed at the remember level showing that from elementary to middle school, the writing curricula’s intellectual capacities stay at the bottom. None of the writing objectives was evaluated at the apply (0.09%) or create (0%) levels. Only 8.46% of all objectives might be used to design and conduct an instructional sequence demanding higher intellectual processing, such as at the analyze level. Teachers could translate only 2.14% of all objectives into instructional episodes to require intellectual processes at the evaluate level. Recommendations are offered to teachers, curriculum developers, and educational policymakers.