Textbook

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Definition

According to Wikipedia, retrieved 19:57, 8 August 2007 (MEST), “a textbook is a manual of instruction or a standard book in any branch of study. They are produced according to the demand of the educational institutions. Textbooks are usually published by one of the four major publishing companies. Although most textbooks are only published in printed format, some can now be viewed online.”

Textbook is a teaching tool (material) which presents the subject matter defined by the curriculum. A university textbook is required to contain the complete overview of the subject, including the theories, as well as to be of a more permanent character.(CARNet, retrieved 19:57, 8 August 2007 (MEST)).

In this overview article we just will try to explicit a bit the textbook genre and provide a few major links and references. For further reading, see the related articles below.

Related articles

• Textbook writing tutorial (I later may move some stuff of this article there - DKS)
• Textbook research
• Textbook genres and examples

What is a textbook ?

Textbook and instruction design

We'd like to argue that textbooks are generally an element in a larger instructional design (e.g. a course). Therefore one must start by looking at the function(s) of a textbook.

In other words, use and production of a textbook is related to a "normal" instructional design problems and one can rely on various design methods and instructional design models, based in turn on underlying psychological and pedagogical theory.

Textbooks are usually part of a pedagogical design, i.e. it can be the center piece of a course syllabus, it can be used for self-study (students and professionals), teachers can assign just parts for reading. According to use contexts, functions of a textbook are not the same. But we do argue, that one can identify particular functional and structural questions related to production, structure, function, use, etc. of textbooks.

Cultural differences

From what I know (naively), functions of the textbook in the system and the ways they are written differ a lot within the few systems I know:

• In the US, in particular in so-called teaching universities, the textbook is a center stage. It duplicates in way the teacher.
• In Germany, Switzerland and France in the "normal" university systems there are few textbooks. Students are exposed to more lecturing and supplementary reading is mostly introductory books or academic literature.

There is a tradition of the pedagogical manual. Interestingly, the Wikipedia textbook translates in french to school manual (manuel scolaire) and in German to instructional book (Lehrbuch, "lehr" refers to teaching).

Let's have a look at the German definition in wikipedia (retrieved 12:54, 10 August 2007 (MEST)). A "Lehrbuch" (textbook) is a special form of a non-fiction book used for teaching. It contains didactically preparred learning matter and materials. (I wonder if there is a difference between "Lehrstoff" and "Lehrmaterial".) They then further state that such books present dominant theory in simplyfied form, but also sometimes on-going debates. Furthermore the authors then define two special cases:

• Repetitorium (lecturing scripts) these
• Schulbuch (school books), i.e. textbooks used a school level.

Textbook genres

• See [[textbook

Links

General

• Internet resources for scientific writing by Svetla Baykoucheva
• Textbook (Wikipedia entry)

Advice on writing textbooks

See textbook writing tutorial

Examples of (technical) author guidelines

• Pearson Higher Education (includes brands like Prentice Hall, Addison-Wesley, Longman, Allyn & Bacon, and Benjamin Cummings).
  • Prentice Hall guidelines
• Guidelines for Preparing Camera-Ready Copy, Wiley - Old version
• Manuscript Guidelines for Higher Education

Electronic textbooks

• Ruth Wilson and Monica Landoni, Computer and Information Science Department, University of Strathclyde. Electronic Textbook Design Guidelines (HTML/Word/PDF).
• Textbook League, a resource for middle-school and high-school educators.

Discussions

• A Dumbed-Down Textbook Is "A Textbook for All Students", by William J. Bennetta, The Textbook Letter, May-June 1997.
• The Tragic Decline In Textbooks. (actually a discussion about "decline of the school").
• Dumbing Down Revisited by M.E. Lepionka, Society Of Academic Authors.

Organizations and conferences

• The International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media
• The Eighth International Conference On Learning And Educational Media. Caught in the Web or lost in the Textbook? (include online proceedings)

Software

See various writing tools for a longer list of tools and a discussion of various writing tool categories.

• IOWA, Instructional Objective Writing Assistant

References

• Johnsen, Egil Børre (2001), Textbooks in the Kaleidoscope, A Critical Survey of Literature and Research on Educational Texts, Translated by Linda Sivesind, Digital Edition Tønsberg: Vestfold College, 2001 HTML (This on-line text also includes a good bibliography, up the early 1990's).

• Lepionka, Mary Ellen (2003), Writing and Developing Your College Textbook, ISBN 0-9728164-0-2. (This practical book gets good reviews. I bought it and find it useful - Daniel K. Schneider)

Practical Textbook and book writing

See: textbook writing tutorial

Textbook research

See the textbook research article for longer bibliography