READABILITY AND CONTENT EVALUATION OF RECOMMENDED SECONDARY SCHOOL ECONOMICS TEXTBOOKS IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY (F.C.T) ABUJA.

This study investigated the Readability and Content Evaluation of Recommended Secondary School Economics Textbooks used in teaching Economics among the secondary schools in Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T) Abuja. The six recommended Economics textbooks were, New Age Economics by Olisa et al. (Textbook A); Fundamental Economics by R.I.A. Anyawuocha (Textbook B); Essential Economics by C.E. Ande (Textbook C), New System Economics by Ewa Udu G.A. Agu (Textbook D); Macmillian Mastering Series Economics by Ayo Egunjobi Festus Egwaikhide (Textbook E); and Comprehensive Certificate Economics by A. Aderinto et al. (Textbook F). The study adopted evaluation design. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. Literature was reviewed under theoretical framework, conceptual framework and empirical studies. The population for the study comprised of seven recommended economics textbooks for secondary schools in F.C.T.; research subjects 10,055 public secondary school Economics students and 160 public secondary school Economics teachers in F.C.T. Abuja. A sample size of six (6) economics textbooks; four hundred and fifty (450) Economics students from 5 sampled secondary schools and thirty (30) teachers were used for the study, drawn from three out of six Area Councils of F.C.T. Data were collected using two instruments. Cloze tests (Economics Textbook Readability Evaluation Test (ETRET) was used to determine the readability of textbooks. while Economics Textbook Content Evaluation Scale (ETCES) was used to determining the content adequacy of the recommended textbooks. The two instruments (ETRET) and (ETCES) were face validated by three experts. The reliability coefficients for ETRET was established at 0.90 for SS I, 0.92 for SS II and 0.96 for SS III using K-R20. The reliability coefficient of ETCES was established at 0.82 using Crobach apha. Research question one was answered using frequency and percentages score while research question two and three were answered using mean and standard deviation. The three hypothesis were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that Textbook C (Essential Economics by C.E. Ande) had the highest readability percentage score of 64.0% followed by Textbook F (47.3%); Textbook D (45.5%); Textbook B (38.3%); Textbook E (28.0%); and Textbook A (23.7%). Three of the six recommended textbooks are highly readable while three are not readable. Textbook B (Fundamentals of Economics by Anyanwuocha R.A.I) had the highest overall mean content rating score of 3.38 out of a total or perfect content validity mean score of 4. Next are: Textbooks C (3.15); Textbook F (3.10); Textbook D (2.86); Textbook A (2.79); and Textbook E (2.39). Thus, five of the six recommended Economics textbooks had satisfactory mean content rating score except textbook E (Macmillan Mastering Economics). SS I class level had the highest mean readability score across the six recommended Economics textbooks, followed by SS III class level while SS II was the least. Textbook B, had its highest mean readability score at SS I class level. Textbook A and D had their highest mean readability score at SS II class level. This, three textbooks: C, E and F had their highest readability scores at SS II class level. The study showed that class level has no significant influence on the mean readability of the six economics textbooks evaluated in this study and there was no order of increase or decrease in the readability of the textbooks across SS I, SS II and SS III class levels. Considering the content adequacy and readability status of the six recommended Economics textbooks evaluated in this study, findings of the study indicate that textbook C, Essential Economics by C.E. Ande is considered the best because it is the most readable across the class levels (SSI, SSII and SSIII) and scored very high on both readability and mean content rating as measured by ETRET and ETCES. Followed in order of preference are: Textbook F (Comprehensive Certificate Economics by A. Aderinto et al.), which ranked second and Textbook D (New System Economics by Ewa Udu, G.A. Agu) ranking third.