Could we be making more use of textbooks?

Michael Tidd would love to add more textbooks to his classroom, if only he could find resources that are good enough...

As I’ve travelled up and down the country discussing the new curriculum, the one word that’s come up more than any other – or at least, the one printable word – is ‘traditional’.

Of course, not everyone explains it that way. Some might say ‘old-fashioned’, or even make the inevitable references to Dickens’ Gradgrind. But, if anything, repeated calls from the likes of Liz Truss and Nick Gibb for an increase in textbook use serve only to further that reputation. So why do they do it? Is it really possible that we’re missing something?

A year or so ago, when Liz Truss complained that too few textbooks were in use (England’s schools use them less than almost any other country’s), she blamed progressive teaching. Well, if progressive teaching can be defined as prioritising the needs of children over the teachers’ desire for an easier life, then maybe she’s right. I suspect there’s more to it than that. So why is it that we don’t use textbooks significantly? Could we actually be making more use of them?

When Nick Gibb spoke again about his vision for education in January he didn’t call just for an increase in the number of textbooks used, he argued that we needed a ‘renaissance’ in textbook publishing. Perhaps the politicians are beginning to recognise that teachers weren’t shunning textbooks because they’re ‘progressive’. We’ve been shunning textbooks because they’ve not been good enough.

Teachers have a whole host of worksheets and ideas at their fingertips in this internet age, and a breadth of materials and resources to buy on the open market. If textbook publishers have failed to persuade teachers of their merits, then they have only themselves to blame, and no amount of government encouragement will alter that. In fact, I’d love to add more textbooks to my classroom, and I’d recommend you to do the same, if only I could find materials of sufficient quality.

Let’s be honest, many of the arguments that teachers put forward for not using textbooks are simply just arguments for not using poor-quality textbooks. Interest levels, challenge levels, order of teaching – all of these are issues that should be resolved by excellent-quality texts. We also need to challenge our own preconceptions: we often think of textbooks being used in Shanghai and South Korea in enormous classrooms filled with stressed students. But much-loved Finland also uses textbooks in almost every maths classroom.

Equally, some of the wider arguments about curriculum variety need not apply. It’s true that we might not all teach the local history of Billericay, but every primary school needs to cover short division, evolution and the use of subordinate clauses – wouldn’t it be easier if we each had access to a resource bank of materials in our classrooms to support that? What’s more, given the explosion of websites online offering teachers opportunities to share their home-made resources, isn’t it clear that thousands of teachers would be glad of easy access to high-quality materials to support their teaching?

And that is the crux of the matter – quality. In the past, textbooks were derided as dry, dull and uninspiring. That always worried me, I’ve never seen it the job of my resources to inspire my students: that’s for me to achieve. The resources should simply free me up to do that, and help me ensure that I’ve given children the best understanding of the topic at hand.

Even as a maths specialist, I recognise that I could learn more about the best progression of teaching, and even as an experienced classroom teacher I know that some of my resources could be improved. If high-quality textbooks are available, why wouldn’t I want to draw on them?

That means we need texts that provide plenty of practice opportunities for children of all abilities and experience; it means resources that I can choose from rather than a strictly controlled diet of one page after another; it means textbooks that leave me to do the teaching, but provide a bank of materials that I can draw on to support children’s learning.

Oh, and it might just mean a few pounds off the price, too!

About the Author

Michael Tidd is deputy headteacher at Edgewood Primary School in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.