Critical Thinking Skills in Pakistan Studies Textbook: Qualitative Content Analysis

The current study aimed to evaluate critical thinking skills included in the text-based exercise questions of the Pakistan Studies book at the secondary level. For this purpose, The Pakistan Studies textbook developed by the Punjab Text Book Board was analyzed. Qualitative content analysis was used for the analysis of the textbook based on revised Bloom’s taxonomy levels as well as nine pre-determined categories of Socratic questions. Categories from both types depict questions about critical thinking skills developed among the learners. It was found that text-based questions of Pakistan Studies were not conducive to the development of critical thinking skills among students. Just one question fell under critical thinking skills among all. Moreover, based on analytical categories, there was little inclination toward questions of clarification. On the other hand, there was no representation of any other category. Therefore, it is recommended that the textbook writers need focus on critical-thinking questions on text-based by the textbook writers to produce critical thinker citizens at the secondary level. Keywords: Critical Thinking, Pakistan Studies, Qualitative Content Analysis, Secondary School, Textbook Analysis