Are text books a thing of the past?

Both my kids have text books for every subject (except DT, art and computer science). They are at a big co ed boarding school. Lots of preps are along the lines of pg. 266 questions 1-10, some preps are online quizzes or past papers. Text books, folders, copy books get added onto the terms bill. School shop adds on any paper, pens, calculators purchased. I like that they have proper text books (and so much nicer than my old school books), but I am a book person. My DS likes doing as much as possible online, presentations with PowerPoint using sound effects and graphics, DD likes both the books and the online quizzes. They both agree the maths prep from the text books is generally long and hard whereas maths prep from a software package (can’t remember what it’s called but I can look it up if anyone is interested) is great fun.

This isn't a recent development.
I remember questioning my ds about it when he started secondary in 2007.
Any text needed will be put on whatever system the school uses for it's intranet / homework log in.

Text books go out of date quickly and are incredibly expensive. I seem to remember buying each of mine their English GCSE books so they could annotate and refer to things, and then some GCSE revision guides in Yr 11.

The biggest reason for Secondary in my opinion has been the frequent changes in the exam specifications, that renders a text book out of date after only a year or so (my subject, Computer Science has had three full syllabus changes at GCSE level since 2016 alone). If the exam boards could leave a syllabus alone for more than a couple of years, that would really help.

The arrival of the interactive whiteboard in the 2000s also meant that a different way of teaching could be facilitated and this was during a time when, to cater for differentiation, it was considered lazy by Ofsted to use a textbook, which was one resource as opposed to many created for all the different needs. In addition, teachers were perceived to be more ‘lazy’ if they used a textbook in class instead of coming up with the full lesson themselves.

We are now getting more pedagogical research that favours other methods of differentiation and so it may be that textbooks might start to make more of an appearance at Secondary, alongside the fashion for a more knowledge rich curriculum than a skills based one of the recent past. We would also need to re-train our young people back in to books and away from digital resources if they were to truly make a wholesale return to all.

And a better budget for schools to buy these astronomically priced books would also help!

This surprised me too. They don't even expect them to have dictionaries for French/German

@Ladyflip, as others have said, text books are expensive and go out of date quickly. The schools can't generally afford them, especially when students wreck or lose them. But individual teachers/departments may choose to buy some if they have enough budget, and usually ask for them to be returned. My DS is doing A levels now. He was given a text book for Year 12 maths, but now has to hand it back in at the end of Year 12 to be given to the next cohort. In year 13 he will get a different text book covering the higher topics. However he does have online access to both books - the school has a license for that - which means he can access them on the go.

For physics he wasn't given a book and was struggling with inadequate notes from poor explanations in class. I didn't twig this until his year 12 exams came round and he seemed very worried. So I bought him the official text book for the course. It has been under his bed since then - not sure if he's opened it. It does also come with online access, so hopefully he will benefit from that - I now wonder if I could have bought just the online access, for lower cost, but I didn't check that.

You might be interested to read this BBC article: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/business-48998789.amp

My dc has no textbooks...every term they get a printed book containing each subjects curriculum for that term. Plus worksheets

I am not anti text book but did have some horrifically poor teaching as a kid, entire subjects were open the text book at page whatever, copy it down and answer the questions.

We stopped using textbooks in my school in my subject (Science) after the last specification change. The books are horrendously expensive, and on the last spec we had ( to start with ) 32 copies, ie 2 class sets based on kids sharing one book between 2. ( 9 classes per year, 2 year course so nothing like a set per class) . But then one copy is needed in isolation, another copy is in learning support, a part time member of staff has taken one home to look at, a member of staff thought they were being nice lending a copy to a keen kid and all of a sudden you have kids sharing 3 to a textbook, and they can’t do that effectively at all.
So now we have an online textbook that they all have access to at any point when they have access to the internet. Yes there are issues over screen time and many ( myself included) prefer reading on paper but it has been the best ( in all honesty the only feasible) option for a cash starved state school.

I taught MFL and I did use textbooks (more for GCSE and A level than KS3) but we had one set and certainly couldn't afford to hand them out to every child. We used to pass them from room to room and if two teachers wanted them at once it was an issue.

If we had given them out we would never have seen some of them again. tbh.

For revision, as others say, there are CGP KS3 and GCSE guides and workbooks, these are good for MFL certainly.

For worksheets, supply them with glue stick and get them to stick in then and there.

Ds only got a school provided text book for higher maths, we bought some others for revision.

The school gave them lots of things to revise with - access to scholar, bbc bitesize, handouts, their own notes, materials on teams or revision notes and practice questions on the school website. They also have access to past papers.

Big part of senior years for ds was learning how to keep his work/ lots of handouts organised with a wallet folder for every subject handouts/jotter in his bag and folders at home for every subject to put materials in he didn't need to carry to school anymore. It is really worth helping them early on to get into a routine each day or two of quickly sorting out notes/handouts.

He had access to much much more to revise from than I ever had at school (pre Internet).

We have found teachers happy to recommend a book if you ask. Once they get to GCSE, plenty of opportunity to buy guides from the school, or to order from places like CPG who have subjects by exam board.

The government have a tendency to change the syllabus on a regular basis, making purchasing textbooks (which are expensive) a risky choice as they may soon become obsolete.

I expect Ofsted probably look down on textbooks as well.

I imagine being a teacher was a lot easier back when textbooks were a thing. ‘Turn to page...’ read, discuss, write something, done (that’s how it was at my school for many lessons) Now teachers have to make slides, print separate worksheets - presumably source said worksheets first - for every lesson or like someone said write everything on a board or recite everything while students make notes. Sounds like a faff. No doubt a few years ago someone in a suit carrying a clip board decided text books weren’t the thing anymore. That or cash strapped schools don’t have the money for them anymore.

Handouts were awful. DD either lost them before doing them, before handing them in or, if they made them that far, after they’d been marked, so there was no way to work out what homework she should be doing/had done, or have them as revision material.

We use textbooks in the classroom and have electronic versions for visually impaired. We provide revision materials for use at home. They can buy additional revision books if they like. We have also loaded materials on Teams. State school.

@Sittinginthesand. I think when I was at school textbook were a lazy option for some. my o level history lessons consisted of us all just reading the ( very boring ) textbook. 2 weeks in and I was this how the he'll was I going to do 2 years of that when they switched teachers around and we ended up with a brilliant teacher! that said without anything to physically refer to feel I am out at sea with no raft.

Charity shops (especially charity book shops) can be a great source of revision guides, especially July-Sept.

You have to buy them now.

My DS school uses text books. We have to buy them, but they use them for most of the subjects he has done.
Textbooks are important, IMO.

Few books here, except for languages and in y9 they started having online gcse textbooks which ds religiously lost the logins for. Most of the curriculum is online or googleable, I imagine textbooks get outdated fast. Yanbu to hate handouts though.

Dd1 has lots of text books - we get a list and have to buy them over the summer, but she can hand them in at the end of the year if no longer needed and get some money back (private school). I just do a massive abe books order, as there are always plenty available second hand. Her little sister (at a state primary) had to ask what a text book was, she’d never seen one.

DD goes into year 10 in Sept. No text books so far, apart from science revision guide.

Copies of English texts seem to be provided.

I pay for a locker each year, but don't think she uses it.

Normal here too.

For KS3 I bought a KS3 Science guide, some random books on religion, and French Grammar, Verbs & Dictionary books.

For GCSEs the revision guides for maths & science & RE are comprehensive. I struggled finding anything good for Food, or surprisingly for Geography (the issue there is they can use whatever case studies they like).

Yes, lots of teachers look down on textbooks and they are insanely expensive (£25-30 each). I’m a teacher and I have no idea why some teachers look down on textbooks, I think there was a fashion for thinking that they limited the teaching or were boring, or that it was better for teachers to spend hours recreating pages from text books by making worksheets - like text books were the lazy option. But text books are great imo, and the kids like them - especially if their notes are less than perfect or they are disorganised. No textbooks disadvantages lower ability children imo, if they are then having to revise from incomplete / less good class work it’s like a double penalty. There is real evidence that children remember less from screens than paper. They shouldn’t be used as the basis for the teaching but alongside it.