Q1. Choice. I am very interested in using/not using textbooks in teaching. I saw my son (9th grade) carried heavy-duty textbooks in his school bags... I always find it hard to pick textbooks for my own teaching and wonder about the values/contributions of textbooks to learning.
Q2. Critique. Are the research questions clearly stated and relevant? How well does the literature review argue for the importance of the current study? Did the findings clearly and adequately answer the research questions? Can you identify any potential sources of bias in this study?
Q3. Teaching. How do the issues under discussion (textbook and learning) relate to your own teaching or your understanding of teaching? Are the findings of this article useful/helpful to you as a teacher? In what ways are these findings helpful?
Driscoll, M. P., Moallem, M., Dick, W., & Kirby, E. (1994). How Does the Textbook Contribute to Learning in a Middle School Science Class. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19 (1), 79-100.
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Hey Folks
ReplyDeleteCome on and say something here! I understand it is not easy to make the first shot. But lets just start to give it a try, ok? I do not have high expectations on the quality of our first posts. I believe if you have read the article, there should be something say…
Did you find the research question(s) on the 2nd page (or page 131) of the article (you received the 2nd Tuesday when we are in the library) yet?
The questions are clearly stated but, there are a lot of questions that are all linked under the overall topic of do textbooks contribute to learning? The questions that I see are: "How does the textbook contribute to learning in the complex, public school environment in which it functions?", Then they descided to narrow their research by doing it in one middle school science class. This could be bad for the statistic part of the study because just taking one class limits your out come were the more science classes and schools you visit the better results your research will conclude with.
ReplyDeleteThe litterature review is deciding whether it is worth students time to hall the textbooks back and forth to school if they are not going to use them or benefit from them. On the other hand for the student that use them it is worth it because that is how they learn.
The data that they collected for the most part showed that the teacher only used the textbook for vocabulary and as a resource to back up her lectures. The study showed that very few students used the textbook on a regular basis for more then just looking up vocabulary.
The biases in this study is that it is only looking at one teacher, one class in one school. To get better results it would be worth while to visit several middle school science classes. They also only had limited time to collect data and for some of the students they might not need to use the book for that subject.
The findings of this research are helpful for me as a teacher. I will use a textbook but, I will let the student keep it at home and it will just be for reference. I do not believe that students need to carry it back and forth to school.As a student myself it is more useful to look at it to clarify something rather than to sit there and read it page for page. I believe that it is up to me as the teacher to pass the information to the students mostly through experiences in the classroom and lecture and labs. Then if the students did not understand something I would refer them to the textbook.
Very comprehensive critique - Good job, Connie (September 18, 2009 4:14 PM)!
ReplyDeleteYou do not have to answer all the questions, you can focus on one or two of what Connie mentioned - Research question(s), Literature review, data collected, bias - or any other aspects listed in the Research Article Critique handout.
I would have to agree with Connie about the students carrying the textbooks back and forth to class. Also Dr. Shi mentioned the weight of the text books and yes I do remember them being very heavy when I was in school and I think they still are!
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends had back problems and she was unable to carry her books back and forth to school, therefore she had someone help her with them or she didnt take them home at all. So what do we do for those students who physically cant carry the books? What about making some photo copies if something is essential for the students to have? Or if that would be too much paper products then making a few page summary/study guide sheet that the teacher could create in class with the students. (So it would be like a review session and a take home item for them to study on their own.)
Also this artitle mentioned how science classes seem to use the science text as "the major influence on instruction" (p. 131) WHAT? What about hands on learning and engaging lessons that allow students to explore the environment instead of reading about it?
I remember those "fun" science lessons where we were able to touch/create/find/experiement with things in the classroom. Besides I think out of all the subjects that are taught, science is one of the easier ones to create engaging and hands on lessons compared to history (like we have talked a little bit about in class). Science is also a great subject to integrate technology aspects in as well.
The article was very well conducted and there was a lot of research there to backup the point that they were trying to make. When I was student teaching, the only time that we used the textbook in Social Studies was to find vocabulary words and research other information. The science class I also worked with only really used the textbooks for looking up vocabulary as well. In the eyes of the students, they see the textbook of something that is going to make them have to do work or boredom. Teachers are finding new and alternative ways to teach materials to classes and the textbook seems to be becoming something of the past. The textbook can be a good guide as to plan out lessons but will not really be used in the teaching. I personally do not enjoy using a textbook unless it is completely necessary. As Laurin said, more tangible lessons makes learning more fun and exciting to students. More and more classrooms are transitioning to this and are leaving the textbook behind.
ReplyDeleteColleen Crook
ReplyDeleteQ2:I think the researchers gave a decent amount of background information on the topic. They talked about how their research piggybacked off of previous research that focused only on teacher textbook use. They extended their study into teacher and student use. I don't think the researchers explored any counter arguments to their study. They could have discussed research on the use of information from the internet, online textbooks, current research, and documentaries in place of the traditional paper textbook also. For example, there are many teachers who do not use textbooks in their classroom, how does their instruction compare? I think the researchers could have focused on a larger sample size. They only focused on one classroom and one teacher. They could have observed more than 1 class even if they only wanted to stick to science. I think the questions the researchers were looking to answer as they observed in the classroom were good questions that pertained to the research question. (what does the teacher do to initiate text use in class? What is the activity involving the textbook? etc.).
Q1/Q3: I have always been taught that textbooks are resources and should not drive your instruction, but supplement your instruction. I would have to say that I do not use textbooks in class very often or have my students take them home very often. I refer to the textbook in my own planning, but when instructing in class I tend to use hands on, visual, and discussion methods.
feel that the questions were clearly stated. I also feel that they clearly stated two questions; how teachers use text books, and how students use text books. The sources used at the begining of the article helped set up there premis yet I feel they failed to adequitly answer the questions they spent so much time setting up.
ReplyDeleteThe extensive amount of sources cited aside, I find it hard to see how two people watching one teacher, teaching one topic for only three weeks can attempt to make any generalizations about the tens-of-thousands of other teachers and their methods (that goes for the students as well).
I did sense a bit of bias in this article. Even though it was in the title, they seemed to have it out for science. It can also be a exciting area due controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution. Furthermore, the researchers really laid into the teacher. At times it was as if they were critiqueing her methods rather than observe the use of text books. The way they described her nervousness (probably about their presence) was rude. They picked and chose qoutes that made it seem that she was some how using the books incorrectly and did not know how else to teach. This gives further support to my thought that using one teacher to base a study on is ineffective and inacurate.
So, while the questions were clear and well set up they were never answered in an effectivly at all. The methods used for their individual study were incomplete to say the least.
In my opinion text books should be used sparingly and only to reinforce an idea or topic being taught. Vocabulary, such as in science, is also easliy taught and learned using text. So teaching students to use the sections (glossary etc.) is a very good skill, which is often taught through rote meorization; another thing the teacher in this article was critizied for. Really the only thing I would use from this article is the references.
-Josh
Lauri, Mark and Collen all made interesting points here.
ReplyDeleteI esp. like the fact that you start to make it more like a dialogue, a conversation instead of a monologue (of course we need every one's participation to make it a non-monologue!), for instance, Mark referred to what Laurin said "As Laurin said..."; and Laurin referred to what Connie said "I would have to agree with Connie."
Perhaps we can also follow Colleen's suit ;-) in structuring the post/comment: focusing on critiquing the article (Q2) and then briefly talking about content (Q3) or you can solely focus on Q2 (you can critique any aspect of the research listed in the Research Critique handout)!
There is still one or two more days left - stop by and be chatty ;-) (smile)
I believe the authors of “How Does the Textbook Contribute to Learning in a Middle School Science Class,” gave a good amount of background information on using textbooks in class, specifically a middle school science class. After reading the study I would like to find out more information concerning textbook use, do students enjoy using the textbook, is there a high quality of learning taking place, are there more effective styles of teaching, do teachers use the textbook when they do not plan? These are all questions that popped into my head as I was reading the study. I also look back at the classrooms I used textbooks in. I use to hate when we were forced to read the textbook to me it was very boring. Now that I am a teacher I see the other side of it also. I have observed when teachers only use the textbook when they don’t have any other plans, it is very easy to fall back on. Also they use the textbooks to help students learning more specific details about a topic that maybe they are not comfortable or confident teaching. I personally believe that learning should be fun and engaging. As Laurin, Mark and Collen mentioned there are more exciting and worthwhile ways to teach science, rather then just using a textbook. As a teacher you need to find out what your students are interested in and what they benefit from and do exactly that. It is our job to use various teaching methods to reach all students learning styles. We are there to help them learn, students are not there to just listen to us. This article also closely outlines my research topic, using cross curricular lessons to involve science in all aspects of the classroom!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with both Laurin and Connie. Carrying books throughout high school and college was terrible. I remember seeing a student at one of my placements that had a bookbag with wheels due to his bad back. I think that is a great idea with all the books and papers teachers give out. I also do think its important to try and stay away from textbooks. Like Laurin also mentioned, having the hands on activities and getting involved with science was much more fun than reading out of a textbook. I believe that the textbooks are an easy way out of lesson planning and something to keep the students occupied.
ReplyDeleteI think for question 2, the researches should have used more arguments against the internet. So many teachers and classes are based on the internet that it would have been interesting to see how we could have counter argued that.
The textbook debate is really very interesting. There are people that truly believe that in order to learn they must "read" the text book, and then the other side using the free and open source end of the spectrum. For most students hands on learning is preffered because it is more fun and interesting. Unfortunately we can't always create hands on lessons and reading is a necessary part of learning. Like Mark stated in his post on how he used textbooks within his class during student teaching. If you just give the students pages to read because it will keep them busy no one is really benefitting from it. If you use them as a type of resource with a purpose the students are more likely to use them.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this article about textbooks because I have always been a hands on learner and could never learn well from a textbook. The article states that the textbooks employed "virtually no instructional strategies to support higher level objectives", so I really don't see the point of textbooks if they are not going to enhance higher level learning and thinking skills. As stated in the article, the classroom in the study did not have many resources besides the textbook. I feel that the study could have been more effective if they chose a classroom with more resources in it so they had a broader spectrum of learning to observe. The findings did answer the research questions, but from experience with textbooks I think most of us knew what the findings were going to be. Overall, the research showed that the students mostly used the textbooks for looking up vocab. and only read it when they had to or were being tested on information in the chapters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Colleen said about their research needing improvement. I, too, would have liked to see more of their research on what other kinds of resources both the teacher and the students use within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI believe that they adequately answered their questions but they should have asked a wider variety of questions. I did like the overall research they conducted but they should have covered more bases. Like, what other influences the students had within the classroom or didn't have within the classroom; what kinds of technology/hands-on equipment did the teacher have access to, etc. As well as how those would or would not affect the students understanding of the subject material.
I don't think I'd call it bias, but these researchers definitely did not look at other middles school science classrooms before coming to an overall conclusion which generalized all middle school science classrooms/students/teachers. They portrayed the teacher very poorly as well. I would seriously doubt that she identified the "book learners" only to asked just those students to look at their books for understanding.
Just like Colleen (and others), I was taught that the textbook is a resource and not the sole text to be used for instruction. Even during my student teaching, I used the science textbook very little but did refer to it for certain activities and information if I was not fully versed in the subject. I taught three classes of science for student teaching and I found the more activities and projects I had, the more the students understood. I also assessed them using not only a traditional pen and paper test, but through "practicals" and other non-traditional methods. The assessment in the articles was obviously decided on by the teacher but the researchers may have gotten better data had they been in a variety of classrooms....
-Jenna Hillebrandt
I think the research questions are very clearly stated in the article. The author laid the questions out in a thorough and comprehensible manner. After I read the first parts of the study I definitely knew what the researcher wanted to study and gather for it. I think that the researchers provided just the right amount of literature review. I think it provided me with enough background knowledge to understand the study, the cause of it, and the data that they collected. I don’t think I can provide any sources of bias in the study. I think that this study was extremely extensive and sensitive to the limitations that could exist. I think the researchers took a lot into consideration and they didn’t leave anything up to chance.
ReplyDeleteI think this topic is extremely interesting. Throughout reading this study I was reminded of my student teaching days. For example, I really didn’t rely on the textbook at all while teaching in a third grade science class. I think is because, the students attention span wouldn’t allow for it, I also was challenged to create fun lessons on the smart board as well as create my own worksheets. However, when I was in a sixth grade math classroom the textbook was the only thing that I used at first. After realizing that the students understood and began to take more interest when I began to use the textbook as only a reference for myself as the teacher I began to use the textbook to guide the content that I taught and created my own visuals and learning tools. For example, for coordinate geometry I created a coordinate plane on board stock and used foam stickers to plot the points that we needed. I think steering the student away from the text books and getting them up out of their seats definitely helped them with coordinate geometry, a concept that they were had difficulty with at first. Having said this, I think that I would have to agree with the findings that students are more engaged when the textbook is the not the only teaching tool during instruction. Furthermore, I could definitely relate to the other findings that this article presented such as that the objectives in the text must fit what is on the tests and that “fact learning” rather than concept learning is prevalent and more dominant when just using textbooks which is not neccessarily a good thing. I think textbooks are a great tool for the teacher and the student however they shouldn’t be the only one that is used. Teachers need to use textbooks and the material they present to guide their lessons and the content/curriculum that should be taught.
Meaghan Wong