Textbook Authorship

Choosing a Textbook for Your Course--Part 9

This is the 9th in a series of blog entries from an article I wrote last spring: EVALUATING COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS FOR COURSE ADOPTION. This post considers in role of supplements, textbook apparatus, and pedagogy in the selecton process. © Mary Ellen Lepionka, March 30, 2006. All rights reserved.

Supplement Packages
Ancillary material also can be a good reason to adopt. I have sometimes been swayed by outstanding or especially useful supplements, including, for example, course­related anthologies, web sites, subscriptions, videos, and software. A web site with rotating 3­D diagnostic fossils and animations on comparative anatomy, primate evolution, and human haplotypes and migrations sold me on a biological anthropology textbook that was otherwise too difficult for the students. I also once chose a sociology textbook because it came with a reader on expressions and consequences of globalization. As a result of state PIRG pricing protests, ancillaries now come unbundled as well as shrinkwrapped or boxed with the text. So, today I might be able to subscribe to the web site and order the reader without having to order the textbook.

Publisher research shows that textbook adopters most covet acetate and electronic transparencies (despite all the Tufte­esque criticism of PowerPoints) and free videos. Many instructors also want a comprehensive Test Bank, perhaps even one that has been validated scientifically and comes with a testing service. Which supplements are most important to you when considering a text for course adoption?

Pedagogy and Apparatus
Something that many instructors do not know is that good textbooks are constructed to match what is known about the way people learn. In choosing a textbook, you probably will have the best luck with one that has been consciously endowed with pedagogy and apparatus. “Pedagogy” refers to instructional methods and teaching devices. “Apparatus” refers to the organization and sequence of elements within a chapter, unit of study, or book. For example, textbook apparatus minimally includes an opening section, the body, and a closing section for every chapter. The opening section may include, for example, the chapter outline, a chapter­opening photo, a list of focus questions for the chapter, and an introduction or chapter­opening vignette. The closing section may include a summary, a list of key terms, a set of problems or application questions, and a “For Further Reading” list. Chapter pedagogy, on the other hand, may include learning objectives, questions, captions, margin glosses, content recaps, features or boxes set off from text through design, and the like. Textbook pedagogy is supposed to be guided by scientific (more or less) models of teaching and learning.

There are many models of what happens cognitively when learning takes place, but the process of direct instruction generally follows these steps: 1) establish objectives, expectations, and relevance, or otherwise engage and motivate; 2) activate prior knowledge, or review any prerequisite knowledge and skills; 3) present new information, engaging students’ selective attention to acquire and remember the information; 4) use questioning to check for comprehension; 5) give opportunities for independent practice; 6) assess performance and provide feedback; 7) give opportunities to apply learning outcomes. Good textbooks do the same things.

In nondirect instruction, in contrast, students acquire content on their own through active learning and interaction with others. They learn through observation, inquiry, discussion, modeling, progressive skill approximation, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and hands­on experience. This is good too, but rarer. Textbooks exist that favor one model of instruction over the other, and textbooks exist that attempt to combine the best of both worlds.

Does a textbook you’re considering have brief readings in each chapter? If those readings are identified as belonging to specific narrative contexts, then they are meaningful for learning and therefore are examples of pedagogy, the more so if they include an explanatory introduction, annotation, or question. If the readings are followed by questions that test students’ comprehension of the readings, this is an example of the direct instruction model. In this case, students are supposed to master the readings the same as they do the text. There will be questions about the readings on the test. If, however, the readings are followed by questions that ask students how the readings relate to chapter content or to life, then this is nondirect instruction. The students must discover a connection for themselves, and the textbook trusts that they can do so. Classroom discussion can confirm it. Which model better expresses your approach to teaching your course?

Generally, the more apparatus and pedagogy, the lower the level. However, beware the empty anti­pedagogy that bloats introductory textbooks! Beware the gimmicky, obviously outsourced boxes without context, relevance, interest, sense, or engagement with the reader. But please also avoid the prejudice that boxes are bad. Done right, boxes are paragons of good teaching, facilitating students’ rapid long­term acquisition of chapter content. Rather than interrupting and distracting from text, they are deeply embedded in narrative context and bring textual processing to a higher cognitive level.

Labels: choosing a textbook, Criteria for textbook selection, evaluating textbooks, pedagogy, textbook supplements

posted by Mary Ellen Lepionka @ 5:10 PM