Thinking Skills and Information Literacy in the Spanish Language Text Books: Chronology of study plans in Mexico

Abstract

This article focuses on a logical-historical research of elementary education study plans of the years 1973, 1993, 2011 and 2017 through first grade textbooks for Spanish Literacy Development used for children's reading and writing education. The purpose of the present study is to describe the underlying Spanish Literacy Development methods and approaches of these textbooks to provide an in-depth analysis of similarities and difference in terms of quality of content. The findings of this study, from an interpretative-pedagogical perspective, provide evidence to support the theory that Spanish Literacy Development methods from 1973 to 2017 in Mexico, have been: the syllable method, the sight word method, the global method, the analytic structural method, and the eclectic method. These methods are still used nowadays although cognitive skills strategies were used more frequently in the elementary school curriculum from 1973 to 1993. The findings were also supportive of the theory that information seeking strategies for student´s reading of newspapers, journals, encyclopedias and textbooks are infrequently used in Spanish Literacy Development syllabi, although in the study plans of 2011 and 2017, media literacy and digital competency are more frequently used.