Nick Gibb calls for a teacher-led return to textbooks

[noblegiraffe]

Nick Gibb, Schools Minister said a couple of days ago at a panel discussion led by think tank Policy Exchange that 'The teacher-led move back to textbooks will be integral to ensuring that the national curriculum is as effective as we’d hoped.'

Nick Gibb needs to explain where the money for these textbooks will be coming from, because my department certainly hasn't got any.

Nick Gibb also needs to explain how schools can be certain that any textbooks published won't be a waste of money because they will be obsolete within a year due to another set of curriculum changes.

In addition, Nick Gibb needs to explain how we can purchase quality textbooks when all the textbook currently available are crap because they have been rushed out to the timeline of incredibly rapid curriculum change.

Nick Gibb finally needs to explain why we've been told for years by organisations such as Ofsted that textbooks are lazy teaching, have no place in the classroom and so on.

But sure, it's down to teachers to make textbooks a thing again.

julie - my DC's school uses iPads instead of textbooks, and they still come home with a bag full of scrappy handouts and worksheets

But yes, I agree that teachers should have access to e-text books which can be updated (and corrected) far more easily and cheaply than printed copies

But yes, I agree that teachers should have access to e-text books which can be updated (and corrected) far more easily and cheaply than printed copies

Unfortunately "e-books" are often just images of the text book and aren't ever updated until a new text book is produced. So errors in text books aren't corrected at all, neither in paper form nor "e-book" form. So, despite it should be easy to correct, many publishers dont.

And at what point do students really become proper independent learners who are geared up for 6th form and particularly degree level study if they never use books?

Students are meant to be learning study skills which can be used in future - these include using textbooks, but also other books too - you know, looking in the contents and index page and finding that often the material isn't terribly useful, but pressing on until something useful is discovered - it's a real skill which is needed for higher level study.

Up to GCSE benefit hugely from textbooks. A Level students benefit from a mixture of textbooks and more academic, less spoon feeing type books, where it's not all laid out under sub headings related to the syllabus.

I graduated from an American private high school thirty years ago. We had to buy nearly $ 500 in textbooks then. Textbooks make lesson planning much easier, especially in math and science. You need a copy for every student, though.

Textbooks only work with a stable curriculum, which is of much benefit to all concerned.
Learning study skills is essential for time management.

Personally I don't see how one can learn/revise properly without textbooks to refer to?

Switched on parents, if they can afford it, will buy commercially produced revision guides for GCSE and A Level. These are usually a sort of compacted-down textbooks, with lots of tips about what is likely to be on the exam.

So once, again, the children with less economic and cultural advantages will be the ones who suffer.

Another important advantage of [good] textbooks is that they can provide a fallback resource for pupils, in situations where children are saddled with a poor teacher, or an overwhelmed teacher, or perhaps with a series of supply teachers. Again, this is a situation that is more likely to affect the disadvantaged.

So once, again, the children with less economic and cultural advantages will be the ones who suffer.

That's what PP money is for. PP kids in my school get given free revision guides for every subject.

I still think kestrel's general point stands though - broaden it out to general underfunding and then look at what PPs who are themselves affluent and/or privately educate their children say are their experiences....

As a PP said, textbooks are a fall-back resource should the Teacher gloss over part of the spec, or if the student misses lessons.

I have joined a school where my predecessor used a text book in every single lesson - projecting the electronic version of the spread on the board and doing the “who wants to read the first paragraph”? thing.

I like textbooks but usually save them for Prep. It has been quite a passage for my students to move away from their textbooks to my multimedia extraganzas (short video clips, PowerPoint, worksheet, discussion)

Recently, I was a bit short on my planning, so I set them work from the text book, and they did so silently for the whole lesson (it was bliss - I marked a couple of sets of books). I did, for a few seconds, question myself, but decided they did need active lessons, but that I needn’t worry too much about using textbooks for a whole lesson when that’s the most appropriate thing to do.

We have to be pragmatic. It’s not possible to deliver a top lesson every single time. A textbook lesson can still be pretty good, and it can help with self directed learning,, and free up teacher time to do one-on-ones.

I’m old enough and ugly enough to not do major work at home. If I have reports to write, I do them at school, and if necessary, set silent work for the students. I don’t worry about Ofsted or performance management, or any fake hoops to jump through.

Fffion's comment illustrates another way in which, in addition to the educational benefits that can be obtained from the use of textbooks, they can help to cut down teacher workload. This is important at a time when, as another current thread is discussing, excessive workload is the main factor in pushing an alarming number of teachers out of the profession.

A textbook lesson can ... help with self directed learning,, and free up teacher time to do one-on-ones.

I was interested that Fffion's sentence above exactly describes the approach taken by teachers in Finland, where textbooks are extensively used:

I'm a British teacher and educational researcher based in Finland for the last 15 years. When I first encountered textbooks in Finnish classrooms I was pretty shocked, as others have noted, I thought that would restrict the teacher or interfere with the relationship between the teacher and pupils. As I've continued to explore the world of Finnish education, however, I can see that textbooks free teachers to teach! The basic concepts are clearly presented in Finnish textbooks, teachers can choose to what extent they follow the published material, the textbook offers pupils the chance to work at a pace more suited to their personal style of learning. Teachers can then support learners who are struggling or who need something more.

community.tes.com/threads/primary-maths-textbooks-in-finland-so-jealous.616426/

Note the second sentence as well, which is another example of something I discussed in an earlier post: this teacher from England clearly picked up from somewhere the belief that hostility to textbooks is the 'correct' educational perspective. Reading about Finnish education, I have seen the same attitude of shock and surprise at the use of textbooks expressed by other English and American teachers working or visiting there.

If you read Lucy Crehan's 'Cleverlands' she picks up on this - however, she says some interesting things about Finnish education, too. I don't think she thinks students do so well there because of the textbooks.

I’ve seen lots of comments on MN over the years about how crap teachers left them to teach themselves from textbooks so I’m not sure that’s an educational approach to be applauded.

The thing with English specifically is the textbooks are so convoluted. they do have some good stuff in them but it actually takes a lot more planning to cherrypick the good bits and to reorder the sequence of teaching in the book to suit one's style and class.

Also, they are so expensive that we only have a few and end up photocopying the pages anyway! Which ruins one of Gibbo's arguments!

They are useful for cover lessons, though , definitely. and mean you don't have to scrabble around looking for comprehension type passages for exam practice.

Obviously, textbooks are not the only factor in Finnish success. Perhaps they are not even that important. My point, however, as I said in an earlier post, is that lots of influential educationalists here would tell you that using textbooks is actually detrimental to learning. Clearly the teacher who I quoted above believed that, and as I said earlier, I've seen many examples of teachers saying that is what they learned during their training.

This is why so many English educationalists and teachers are shocked when they learn that Finland uses textbooks. As long as that belief that textbooks represent bad teaching is prevalent, it wouldn't matter how stable the curriculum might be or how much money might be available: many schools and teachers would simply ignore the potential advantages of using them.

Another reason we can't have a 'teacher-led' textbook revolution then if teachers are being trained into thinking they're shit (backed up by Ofsted until at least recently).

I’ve seen lots of comments on MN over the years about how crap teachers left them to teach themselves from textbooks

But today, we have crap teachers who leave their pupils to teach themselves from scrappy worksheets and the internet. At the end of the day, a crap teacher will be crap whatever materials they use.

But sadly kestrel we don't seem to copy anything they do in Finland!

I have never actually heard this textbooks are bad ideology : our death of textbooks was entirely down to affordability and constant obsolescence, so an unwillingness to invest.

I think textbooks can be a great way to create more equality between children of different backgrounds. If you are lucky enough to go to a great school with great teachers then I suppose it doesn't really matter what sort of materials are used for lessons. If you're not, in the UK that means you are disadvantaged straight away because everything depends on the teacher who may or may not be inspirational, enthusing or even qualified...

I went to school in the Netherlands where, just like in Finland, textbooks were used for every subject (both in primary and in secondary). Our parents had to buy them each year and it was very expensive, but you could usually buy about two thirds of the books second hand and at the end of the year you could sell them on. A few years ago the Dutch government decided that this was getting too much of a burden for a lot of parents, so now all schools have to provide a complete set of textbooks for each pupil. The schools may ask a deposit from parents to ensure that the books are returned in good condition, but they don't have to (sounds like a good idea, though!)

Textbooks, in my experience, did not make for lazy teachers, but certainly reduced their workload. Our homework would usually be: study chapter x from the textbook and do exercise a, b, c and d. Then in the next lesson the teacher would discuss with us what was in the book, ask what we didn't understand and explain things in greater detail, add things that he/she thought we should know as well and do things like science experiments or practise French/German/English conversation. Then we would have a look at the exercises and discuss them together (so teachers never had to mark any exercise books in secondary school). Yes of course there were some boring or bad lessons, but I don't think textbooks were to blame for that. More importantly, whatever school you were attending, you would always have access to the same resources as everybody else.

madame I think that sounds like how the books are generally used in Finland too.

It all sounds great but does everyone always dot heir homework ? Or is that, too, a British malaise?

It's also kind of the way I have just taught a poem. Read this (photocopied!) bit of a book, discuss what we got from it and then answer questions (on a worksheet!) It all worked fine but they were a pretty able group and all girls so , in the main, highly literate, wiling to read and to ask for help and keen to achieve.

If I had 30 copies of the book I wouldn't have needed to do al the photocopying although the questions were my own because I am precious

I’ve seen lots of comments on MN over the years about how crap teachers left them to teach themselves from textbooks so I’m not sure that’s an educational approach to be applauded.

As a pp pointed out, the lack of use of textbooks in (state) schools has significant knock on consequences at university level, where textbooks are an essential part of learning.

State school students simply do not know how to use textbooks. They are so used to being handed sheets with exactly the information they need that they do not know how to go through textbooks and extract information. It is very obvious that UK state school students are at a disadvantage relative to UK private school and international students in this respect.

And I would echo what others have said upthread. The UK HE sector uses textbooks less than elsewhere in the world because to "justify" the 9k fees lecturers are meant to prepare their own resources. But in reality, for core material that is taught to all first and second year students, a textbook that somebody spent 5 years writing, lecturing every year to home the material and exercises, refereed at publication stage by multiple academics, is better than notes prepared by one lecturer. It is ridiculous to duplicate error to produce something that is inferior. (Of course, at university level, there is a lot of specialised material for which individual textbooks just don't exist - so fair enough that lecturers prepare their own notes on this.)

Piggy no we didn't always do the homework, but you could get caught easily because there were lots of tests that were unannounced so you always had to be prepared.

In lreland schools use textbooks in Primary and Secondary . Parents buy them and each child has their own. Government pays an allowance towards costs to needy families. Schools also rent some to a child for a nominal fee. As a family we know this is the system and we are happy to pay as part of our childs education. Ireland is respected as a country with a good education system and our graduates are rwelcome all over the world.
As a teacher in lreland l would use a mixture of text books and other resources as would most teachers.
I always feel the English system is too much against textbooks and the workload on teachers is excessive.

Interesting blog here discussing reasons for the decline of textbooks - a possible unintended consequence of the rise of IWBs and increasing use of PowerPoint:

bennewmark.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/where-did-textbooks-go/

As a parent, I like textbooks. If they are good.

If a child comes home with questions, we can flick through and read the explanation together. If extra practice questions are needed, they are provided, etc. And most importantly, if the teacher isn't great, you at least have a reference.

I agree that textbooks only work if the curriculum is stable.

Just came across a good blog this morning discussing a number of different reasons why the author thinks textbook use has declined, including:

The belief that good teachers produce their own original resources seems to have become a pervasive one and, in some schools, almost a de facto Teacher Standard. Comments on a Twitter poll I ran suggested lots and lots of teachers would feel nervous using a textbook in an observed lesson for this reason.

bennewmark.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/where-did-textbooks-go/

Well worth a read.