Textbooks alone are bad for us. Here’s Why
I don’t like textbooks. Not many people do.
Here are a few reasons:
- In the Indian context (CBSE, ICSE, State board), they are badly written with improper use of language, typos and illustrations which are simply not engaging enough
- The layout of the content is such that it promotes memorization of facts, as opposed to engaging the reader in the topic
- They are static. In other words, once written, they can never be changed or improved. Unless you wait for a rewrite, which hardly ever happens (!)
Most schools in India have not moved past a ‘textbook’ model of learning. The textbook model is centered around the textbook providing the anchor of classroom discussion and work. If at all there is any discussion. At least in most schools I have seen which rely heavily on textbooks, the focus is on writing. More specifically, on filling up the book with answers to exercises, completing fill in the blanks and so on.
This is fine, except that children are judged on the accuracy of their answers relative to the content in the text book. There is little room for the use of imagination. This goes for both teacher and student. I know children who come back home with a new ‘chapter’ of the book finished every few days — and they are then ‘tested’ on the material to assess God knows what. Any answers that don’t correspond with the textbook are WRONG.
The other aspect of the textbook model which often causes teachers and students immense stress is the volume of material to be covered. Even at the primary level, textbooks often have 12, 15 or even 20 chapters, and teachers are expected to finish all chapters by the end of the year. Assuming we have 5 subjects, that adds up to an awful lot of material to be covered. A lot of which is probably not needed, and most of which isn’t even remotely interesting to the children, if it isn’t supplemented by activities which they can relate to.
So, in schools where textbooks are used as the main instructional tool, and where there is no other mode of teaching or learning, students are forced to cover an awful lot of content, but with very little context.
When there is very little context, the learning is superficial, uninteresting and barely skims the surface of the topic.
Such learning does not make a person ask ‘why’.
Or ‘how’.
Or ‘why not’.
Let’s take a simple example.
Almost all primary textbooks have a chapter on plants, and chlorophyll and photosynthesis. I am talking about a Grade 1 text book. Note the words in italics — these are big words with difficult spellings, but often the focus is on getting the children to spell these right, and even describe what these terms mean. I don’t know about you, but I don’t expect a 6 year old to spell those words correctly. It certainly won’t be the focus of my lesson when I talk about plants. Nor do I need them to be able to describe in textbook terms what photosynthesis is.
If you go through the chapter fully, and cover the material enough times such that the children know the terms and processes by heart, they will reach a stage where they are able to tell you what photosynthesis is and much more. Almost to textbook perfection. All well and good.
But such learning does not excite their imagination and curiosity.
Contrast the scenario above to a situation where children spend 2 weeks going around the neighbourhood collecting leaves and flowers, observing them under a microscope, noticing differences in patterns and colours, filling pots with precise quantities of stones and soil in layers, planting seeds in these pots, positioning them where they would get adequate sunlight and then making it a point to water them every second day.
It isn’t hard to see that level of engagement in the second scenario would be very high. The content is something children can relate to — they touch, see, smell, observe and manipulate physical objects while they learn so much about concepts such as optimum moisture levels, chlorophyll, why we need layers of mud and stone in the pot, which layer we plant seeds in (not too deep, and not too close to the surface either), why we don’t need to water the plants everyday and so on. We just experienced this with the primary children at Jigyasa, and here are some very insightful questions that the children asked over the course of the last 2 weeks:
If chlorophyll is what helps leaves make food, then what about the red, purple, pink and yellow leaves? How do they make food?
How come the chlorophyll doesn’t go into the flowers and make them also green?
Do birds like to eat seeds that I have plucked and left on the ground? Or do they like to eat them from the plant?
Why do trees shed their leaves?
As you can see, these are very pertinent questions, and even the teachers did not have good enough answers — so we had to get onto Google and read up so we could give the children an answer that was satisfying to them!
Furthermore, no text book will have answers to these questions!
Textbooks have made teachers’ lives easier, while making the lives of students boring. As a teacher, it is the easiest thing in the world to come in to class and finish a textbook lesson. It doesn’t take much planning, nor do you need to use your own creativity or knowledge. It also gives everyone a false sense of accomplishment after the students have completed all the exercises in the textbook. Parents also can point to the written work that comes about as a result and mistake it for learning.
But it isn’t deep, transformational learning.
It has not stretched the child’s imagination.
It has not resulted in any meaningful interaction between teacher and student.
It has not piqued the child’s curiosity to know more, or to experiment.
And therefore the learning has remained shallow, static and only reproducible on paper in a format very similar to that of the textbook.
I spent years engaging fully in this style of ‘learning’. I had some very good teachers, who tried their best to stir my imagination, but in the end, they too were constrained by the textbook and the syllabus. They would say, ‘the portion has to be finished a month before the finals so you have time to revise’.
Revise what?
Sadly, I remember very little of what I learnt in school. (I wasn’t always in class but that’s for another day)
Through the device on which you are reading this, you can access all of the world’s information in a fraction of the time that it takes to write, print and distribute a textbook. Soon, you will be able to dive ‘into’ a physics lesson — you will be able to immerse yourself fully in virtual worlds — ride on a proton, see what its like to be a cell or travel around the galaxy on a spaceship. Studying about the Titanic? Great! Go to the bottom of the sea and walk around the ship yourself!
My cousins, aged 10 and 13, are able to ‘manufacture’ wacky science experiments by searching on the internet. They do their research online, and then use physical materials to explore various possibilities. So they combine resources in the physical and digital worlds to create memorable and fun learning experiences for themselves. We do this all the time at school too — allowing children to observe physical phenomena and then talk about it, exposing them to concepts long before the curriculum mandates, and thereby whetting their scientific appetite.
So if it isn’t clear already, textbooks should have disappeared a long time ago.
Textbooks are like feature phones in this era of smartphones. Feature phones are cheap, easy to manufacture, have basic functionality and enable communication, but their users often aren’t aware of the possibilities that they’re missing out on.
And so it is with those who rely solely on textbooks to implement the curriculum.
This is not a call to ‘digitise’ education — my intention is only to bring to your attention the limits of what a textbook can achieve.
Thanks for reading! Despite my best efforts, textbooks aren’t likely to go away any time soon. So how can schools supplement textbooks in this day and age?
I would love it if you give this story a recommend so it can reach many more people. And I would doubly love it if you shared this with people who would enjoy reading this. Thanks so much!
