Textbooks are included in the curriculum of almost every class but are usually pointless rather than useful. The combination of technical language and dry delivery makes the reading of a textbook virtually pointless for many people.
In my experience, when just purely reading a textbook, information goes in one ear and out the other. It is not an uncommon sight to see a student asleep at their workspace, hunched over a big, thick textbook.
Looking at the manner in which many textbooks are written, this is an unsurprising phenomenon. Textbooks are characterized by frequent usage of technical terms, detailed but uninteresting explanations of subject matter and exhaustingly long chapters. Each of those three characteristics has an adverse effect on students’ ability to concentrate on and retain the information they are reading.
These technical terms, although sometimes very necessary, have a tendency to lose people’s interest because they may not immediately understand what a term means.
Detailed but uninteresting explanations of subject matter have a habit of being too long and mundane. Because of the nature of these explanations, it is very difficult to focus on what is actually being said. It’s similar to hearing someone talk but not really listening to what they have to say.
The length of a chapter is highly subjective as to what is long, but for this, long is 25 or more pages. In addition to most textbook chapters being at least that long, if not longer, the pages are larger than the average novel page size. This contributes yet again to harming the ability to stay focused. Reading long, dry material is unlikely to be helpful.
We should not get rid of textbooks entirely. They can be useful, but they should not be so relied upon in so many classes. Rather, a better way to keep students attention and have them retain information would be to use original texts, varying the style of material. If a textbook chapter is entirely necessary, don’t just assign the reading. Assign notes to go along with it.
It has been shown taking notes by hand improves one’s understanding of a concept. Therefore, if textbooks must be used, it would be better to also incorporate the use of handwritten notes. With another way to stay engaged, students will better retain and understand the knowledge from the textbook.
Just reading a textbook is ineffective, whereas reading original texts, varying the style of material and assigning things like notes grabs and holds student attention. More information would be learned and held onto if teachers and professors stopped or at least greatly reduced their use of textbooks in class.
Anna Millar is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Tweet her @AnnaMillar16.
