EVALUATION OF TEXTBOOK

Book title: Mathematics Form 1

Writers: Lee Chin Choy, Yeo Mui Kiow

Editors: Yow Yoon Li, Lim Bing Hai

For the textbook evaluation, I already choose Mathematics Book for form one students to be evaluated. The Publisher of this book is Pustaka Cipta Sdn Bhd. This book is consist of 90 pages include with the cover page. The evaluation is based on three criteria which is the organization of the book, the content and the physical aspects.

For the book organization, this mathematics book has the table of content, glossary and index. The table of content shows that the book has three chapters and nicely organized. This textbook is uniform in appearance and content layout throughout the book as well as within each chapter. It also contains references and answer for the exercise. During my evaluation what I can see, this book also provide introduction to the topic and summaries at the end of each chapter. All the pages are numbered, so it is easy for learners and do not make the learners or students become confuse.

The second criterion that I already evaluated is the content. From my opinion, the content of this book is only meets the local standard. The content of this book is accurate but not really up to date since the book first published is in 2002. Since the book is not really up to date, so mathematics teachers need other textbooks to support in learning. The language that is used is appropriate for the intended level and the textbook contains exercise at the end of the each lesson. The content also is linked to the other subjects’ area like physics, for example in calculating temperature. But this book does not engage students with the activities and exercise in active learning. The content of the book is discouraging students’ higher level of thinking. Since there are some weaknesses in the content, I don’t think that the book will be use for several years but this book needs to have changes in order to ensure that the students can achieve the effective learning.

The book also is evaluated based on the physical aspects. For me, the size and the weight of the book are appropriate to the students who will use it. The book is not too weight, so it is easy to carry. But, since the book need another supported book, so it might be burden the student to carry more than one book for mathematics subjects. While, for the book’s binding, pages and covers are durable. Since the book use the times new roman font and standard size, so the font and the size that are used for this book is supposedly easy to read and appropriate. But I am really does not agree with the representation of the illustrations, table, figures, graphs and charts. So, it makes the representation of texts and pictures are messy and too crowded in every page. The grayscale color also makes it not appropriate for the age and different physical and mental ability. The illustration should be more creative in encouraging and attracting students to learn. The book is not appropriate for the students with different socioeconomic and different physical and mental ability. Some of the teachers do not really use this textbook because the representation and the content of this book are not so good, so the students need to buy another references book and it burdens the parents with the low socioeconomic background.In conclusion, I would like to suggest that this textbook should be improved for the student’s benefits. Learning will be more effective with the student and teacher efforts, the best references and equipments.