Textbooks for Learning Nurturing Children's Minds

by Chambliss, Marilynn; Calfee, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781557864116
• ISBN10: 155786411X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-12-07
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book is one of the most comprehensive texts discussing the design, selection and adoption of expository textbooks. Focusing on their own analysis, but also drawing on appropriate studies of others, the authors have produced not only a comprehensive discussion of what makes textbooks more readable, but also the steps that designers and adopters may take to apply the authors' recommendations. Textbooks for Learning recognizes the continuing significance of textbooks in the classroom and seeks to improve the present text-book orientated curriculum via practical rather than the more normal theoretical means through the use of wide-ranging illustrations and examples. The authors conclude that the actual design is the key to a successful textbook, not content alone, and designers will find here clear cut guidelines for creating and revising instructional material. Those selecting textbooks for student use now have at their disposal a framework to support the analysis of expository texts and for trainee teachers, a procedure to consider for textbook selection. Future studies of textbooks will necessarily have to start with this book.

Author Biography

Robert C. Calfee is Professor of Education at Stanford University.

Marilyn J. Chambliss is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vii	(4)
List of tables	xi	(1)
Foreword	xii	(1)
Preface	xiii	(5)
Acknowledgments	xviii
1 Today's Textbooks, Tomorrow's Minds: The Importance of Textbooks	1	(10)
The Power of Textbooks to Nurture Minds	3	(2)
Today's Textbooks	5	(3)
Reasons for Optimism	8	(3)
PART I THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELL-DESIGNED TEXTBOOKS	11	(152)
2 Designing the Ideal Text	13	(30)
The Concept of Design	18	(3)
Designing a Comprehensible Text	21	(20)
Concluding Thoughts about Passage Design	41	(2)
3 The Design of Curriculum and Instruction	43	(32)
Curriculum: The Expert's Lens	44	(10)
Instruction	54	(10)
Implications for Text Design	64	(9)
Moving from Passages to Complete Textbooks	73	(2)
4 Designing the Ideal Textbook	75	(40)
But First: A Few Words from the Audience	77	(1)
Guidelines for Top-Level Textbook Design	78	(8)
Examples of Top-Level Design: Frameworks and Textbooks	86	(19)
Designing a Good Text to be Better	105	(10)
5 Finding the Design in Textbook Materials	115	(48)
Evaluating Textbook Design	115	(4)
Finding the Design in a Text	119	(1)
Informational Patterns: The Building Blocks of Textbook Design	120	(33)
Finding the Design of Arguments and Explanations	153	(8)
The Versatility of the Lenses	161	(2)
PART II WELL-DESIGNED TEXTBOOK PUBLISHING, STATE ADOPTION, AND DISTRICT SELECTION	163	(80)
6 Current Practices: Publishers, States, and Districts	165	(28)
Understanding the Present by Looking at the Past	166	(2)
Present-Day Publishing, Adoption, and Selection	168	(22)
In Conclusion	190	(3)
7 Creating a Design for Publishing, Adopting, and Selecting	193	(50)
Well-Designed Publishing, Adopting, and Selecting	194	(7)
A District Committee Uses Design Rubrics to Select a Textbook Series	201	(40)
The Versatility of the Lenses	241	(2)
PART III STEPPING INTO THE FUTURE	243	(56)
8 A New Approach to Textbook Design: Instructional Support Systems	245	(35)
Current Systems for Teaching Reading	248	(32)
The Teacher's Guide: Centerpiece of the Instructional Support System	260	(17)
The Teacher's Guide as Centerpiece of the ISS: A Practical Idea?	277	(3)
9 Bringing about the Ideal: Leaders and Collaborators	280	(19)
The Potential of Design Lenses	281	(2)
All Participants Exhibit Appropriate Leadership	283	(10)
Collaboration Among Participants	293	(5)
Concluding Thoughts	298	(1)
References	299	(9)
Index	308