A topic in Teaching science
The textbook as a pedagogic text
A textbook is a particular kind of text, as it is designed to teach – to support learning.
(Read about 'textbooks')
Therefore the author of a textbook has a similar task to a teacher planning a lesson or scheme of work. We would therefore expect textbooks to be different form other non-fiction works such as research papers, reviews of research, or technical reference works which are usually written by experts for other experts in the same field.
A pedagogic text therefore needs to be designed with some of the same kinds of features that teachers use. These might include:
- careful sequencing
- previews and advance organisers
- simplification
- reiteration/repetition
- use of metaphor, simile, analogy -to make the unfamiliar familiar
- review activities
- complementary images, etc.
Writing at the reader’s level
"In a textbook the assumption is that intended readers are relative novices in the field, and they need an expert to mediate for them…between the current state of the field (the extensive and diverse technical literature) and their relatively limited background knowledge.
This influences how the author should approach writing. One methodological consequence is that the textbook author should seek to think about the subject matter as it would appear from the readers' starting points–so, for example, being selective to help highlight what is of most significance, and looking for optimal simplifications that communicate the gist of complex ideas without stripping away their essence."
Taber, 2021
Degree of simplification
"Teachers of science at school level seldom teach completely authentic canonical science. Curriculum statements are simplifications, and so are textbook treatments, as are the models teachers use to get ideas across to novices. Authors of a textbook about teaching and learning are subject to the same considerations. In order to emphasise and communicate key ideas it is necessary to be selective about content, to simplify complexity, to avoid subtle nuance and confusing detail, to use models that can be readily grasped–to present material in modest learning quanta that do not exceed the learners' [working memory] capacities….In being selective, in keeping things simple, in limiting unfamiliar language, in repeating key points (and then repeating them again, and then later repeating them once more), decisions must be made about the degree of selection and the level of simplification." (Taber, 2021)
Work cited:
- Taber, K. S. (2021). Making sense of a pedagogic text. Foundations of Chemistry. doi:10.1007/s10698-021-09405-8
