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چکیده
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Abstract Textbook analysis is a vigorous research tool for evaluating the conformity between the content and the purpose of education. Accordingly, the relatively newly-published Iranian ELT textbooks for senior high school, known as “Vision series” were analyzed for their prominent levels of learning objectives according to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (BRT). Activity sections of the textbooks were codified according to the Taxonomy's coding scheme, and the inter/intra-rater reliability of which were measured and approved. Being a mixed-method descriptive/interpretative study containing both qualitative and quantitative parts, results revealed that the lower-order categories of cognitive domain are more frequently represented in the Vision series of 1 and 2 than in Vision 3 in which higher-order categories are more frequent. Chi-square statistics indicate that Vision 3 is significantly different from the other two. This indicates that contrary to Vision 3, Visions 1 and 2 mirror the previous research findings of Iranian ELT textbook studies which showed lower-order cognitive domains outweighing their higher-order cognitive counterparts in their contents. Upstream National Documents suggest a balance between the two main cognitive categories as to their presence in high school textbooks. Contrary to Vision 3 in which lower and higher-order cognitive domains are almost symmetrical, with higher-order dominance being more tangible, in Visions 1 and 2, no such balance is seen. The inclusion of higher-order categories in Vision 3 creates hope for increasing students' proficiency and activating students’ need to develop higher-order thinking skills which are prerequisites to critical thinking and autonomous learning. Findings also maintain that the evaluate cognitive domain and metacognitive knowledge domain were the least perceived in the three textbooks which implicate the need to include more reflective activities and supplementing higher-order cognitive activities or complementary tasks in Visions 1 and 2. Key Words: Autonomy, BRT, Critical thinking, Textbook analysis, Vision series
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