Choosing and using a textbook: Practical tips from 12 top experts

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How do you select a high-quality textbook and ensure that your students make the most of it, both in the classroom and beyond? With spring textbook adoptions right around the corner, we know you're thinking about these critical questions—and we've called on the experts to give you the answers.

To help you make the best, most informed decisions about choosing and using a textbook, we surveyed some of our top authors whose texts were featured in our recent faculty mailings for spring 2011.

We asked them four key questions, and they answered with practical tips and insights inspired by their real-world experience as instructors. Use their responses to help guide your decision-making this year—and be sure to share this article with your colleagues who are navigating the textbook selection process.

|Before you begin, meet our panel of experts.|

Q. What makes a text high-quality?
Q. How do you choose a textbook?
Q. How do you help students make the best use of the text?
Q. What if you disagree with the text?

Q. What makes a text high-quality?

Quality is one of the most important factors in textbook selection, but there isn't an accepted set of standards on what makes a text "high quality." We asked our experts how they defined quality, and which criteria they used to ensure that a textbook met their personal standards. Survey respondents identified the following hallmarks of a high-quality text:

• Author reputation. The text you choose should be developed "by those with demonstrated expertise and scholarship" in the field, according to Virginia Buysse. Johanne Paradis says, "The most important factor to me in judging the quality of a textbook is the experience and reputation of the authors or editors. If they are well-known and well-published in the field covered by the textbook, then I am likely to be persuaded that the contents will be reliable." Maire Percy suggests checking Amazon or Barnes & Noble to see where the book ranks, how it compares to others of its type in terms of sales, and what others think of it.
• Usefulness beyond the classroom. Part of quality is value, and our respondents agreed that a valuable textbook is one your students will keep and use long after the class is over. John Neisworth sums it up succinctly: "The text should deserve a space on the bookshelf." Ask yourself if a textbook you're considering will be a helpful guide to your students for years after they launch their careers. If a text is high-quality, says William Schafer, "students will not want to give them up for use as a second-hand book."
• Reliable and up-to-date content. Echoing many of the other survey respondents, Virginia Buysse defines a high-quality text as "theoretically sound, evidence-based, and credible." Several respondents underscored the importance of checking the references to make sure they're current and updated. John Neisworth adds that while the content "should be comprehensive enough to capture the most recent information and practices," a quality text will also review the past, "to highlight differences between prior and emerging approaches or models."
• Balance. A balanced perspective is important: William Schafer stresses that a quality text "should not preach one point of view, but should include all positions held by professionals in the field with differing points of view." Ivan Brown agrees that a quality text will "reflect current knowledge—research and theoretical perspectives that are both broad and balanced."
• Student-friendly content. A quality text is one that draws in the student, actively engages their minds, and guides them clearly and logically through the material. Our survey respondents told us which specific features they look for:
  
  
  • suggested projects, further readings, and references to weblinks" (Ivan Brown)
  • "first-person examples and stories" (Cheryl Jorgensen)
  • a good, well-organized table of contents so students don't "get lost in a maze of details" (Maire Percy)
  • "real-life scenarios that allow students to engage in discussions about the content" (Debra Leach)
  • "illustrations from the field, as well as discussion questions at the end of specific chapters" (Gail Ensher); and
  • "presentation of practical strategies in a framework which permits understanding of why the strategies work" (Mary Farrell and Francie Matthews).

Q. How do you choose a textbook?

Choosing the right high-quality text for your course is one of the most critical decisions you'll make as an instructor—and with so many choices available, the decision can be daunting, especially for new professors or instructors developing a new course.

We asked our experts what advice they would give a new professor trying to select a textbook, and they shared their most important rules of thumb:

• Define your goals. Gail Ensher says, "I would suggest that a professor first be very clear about the major goals of his or her course and the ways in which the text can support and expand on the content of the course. Books serve different purposes in a course, and these purposes should be reflected in the ways in which the assigned readings are used in the class."
• Seek the experts first. Virginia Buysse recommends that professors begin by "conduct[ing] a quick search of the literature to find out which authors have made significant contributions on the topic. Then look to see if a synthesis, book, or edited volume that encompasses this work is available."
• Ask around. Maire Percy suggests, "I would check with my colleagues at my own institution and other ones, to see if models for the course already exist and if they have identified texts they like or do not like and why."
• Consult students. John Neisworth recommends recruiting a few students to read through the proposed textbooks and offer their opinions. "The students can judge text clarity and general usability—a good index is essential, appropriate language-level, and helpful illustrations."
• Supplement your expertise. When you choose a textbook, Debra Leach says it's wise to pick one that "matches your philosophy, but also provides information and resources that you cannot provide to your students without using the text. When planning a course for the first time, it is nice to have a textbook that has a variety of resources and links included to help you gather more information about the topics discussed."

One of the biggest questions professors face is which should come first—choosing the text or planning the course. Cheryl Jorgensen believes professors should "plan backwards. In other words, think about what you want your students to be like, know, and be able to do at the end of the course to inform what you have them read"—whether from a textbook or other associated readings. Ivan Brown says that more experienced professors might "select parts of textbooks to use to address their learning objectives [and] identify all the 'non-required' chapters as excellent resources and possible topics for assignments."

For new professors, though, Brown recommends that "if a relevant quality textbook is available, the course [should] be constructed to match the materials available in the text. The course will go much better, the students always appreciate material all in one cover, and the students are left at the end of the course with a valuable resource."

Q. How do you help students make the best use of the text?

Once you've selected the ideal textbook for your course, your next challenge is ensuring that students are actively using it. One out of five college students say they frequently come to class without having completed the assigned reading (NSSE, 2008)—so how can you make sure your students' textbooks don't collect dust?

Our survey respondents shared how they make connections between the lecture and the textbook in class, so students stay engaged and the text is actively used. Keep these dos and don'ts in mind when you plan your course so students make the most of their textbooks:

• Don't lecture directly on the text. "I never present material from the text in a lecture," says Ivan Brown. "Instead, I strongly encourage students to complete their required reading prior to the lecture, then hold some discussion on key points from the reading. If class time is structured to address and build on textbook readings, students soon learn that they need to have completed the reading to make their class time fruitful."
• Do expand on the text. "I always want my students to get something unique and meaningful from both the textbook and the lectures," Johanne Paradis says. "One strategy is to use a textbook chapter as the general background information students need for the lectures on that chapter, and select certain topics from the chapter to lecture on in depth, using material not found in the textbook or not covered in detail."
• Do encourage peer interaction. Activities that involve peer-to-peer interaction are a great way to encourage dialogue and promote learning. Martha Crago advises professors to "use examples from the textbook and bring them to life by having students present them to each other."
• Don't spoon-feed. "Make sure you don't spoon-feed information," Debra Leach says. "Ask the students to discuss what they learned in a particular section of the text, and then have them engage in an application activity about what they learned or provide additional information that wasn't in the text. I usually cite pages from the textbook in my PowerPoint so my students know where to go when preparing for exams."
• Do make class participation count. Maire Percy shares her favorite strategy: "I ask the students to read the chapter before the class at which the topic is to be discussed, and to submit a question for class discussion as well as to be prepared to take part in discussion on the topic. To motivate them, I assign up to 10 marks out of 100 during the term for such class participation."
• Do get creative. Use the text as a starting point to create engaging in-class activities. Mary Farrell & Francie Matthews suggest that teachers "bring in case histories—real or simulated" and develop in-class activities in which students use what they have learned in the book to plan instruction [based on] the case histories."

Q. What if you disagree with the text?

How should you handle discrepancies between your views and the views expressed in the textbook? Our survey respondents were quick to emphasize that discrepancies are nothing to fear—in fact, hearing and sorting through multiple viewpoints will help your students develop a well-rounded perspective and the critical thinking skills they'll need for the rest of their careers.

"I always emphasize the development of critical thinking in my classes, and part of this process is to raise students' awareness that there is no one right answer for most questions," says Johanne Paradis, who is careful to "present both sides of major theoretical debates whenever possible, and encourage students to understand that such debates drive science forward." Gail Ensher agrees: "Diversity is a valuable teaching tool in education," she says. "Discrepancies can provide great opportunities for discussion with students."

Differing viewpoints should be addressed openly and creatively in the classroom. Maire Percy says, "If I had a certain view about a topic, and the textbook another, I would invite the students to become detectives and try to shed new light on the controversy." Respondents had a wide range of suggestions on how to encourage this kind of detective work:

• Virginia Buysse says, "discussions and learning activities should be organized to promote critical thinking among students as well as professors to determine areas in which there is broad consensus and others where there are differences of opinion."
• Martha Crago advocates "presenting alternative views to those taken in the book by structuring debates around the topics in the book. Bring [alternative views] out clearly and make them a topic for debate."
• Cheryl Jorgensen recommends highlighting discrepancies during class discussion and asking students to write "compare and contrast" papers.
• Mary Farrell and Francie Matthews suggest the following in-class activity: divide students into two groups, present them with a scenario that might come up in their future work, and let each group apply their points of view to the development of instructional plans and activities. Then discuss the differences between their plans and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Respondents stressed that when students or professors argue a point, they should be careful to offer evidence to back up their positions, especially if those positions are controversial. "Different perspectives should be supported by various sources of evidence, to the extent that this is possible," Virginia Buysse says. Make it part of an assignment if you can: William Schafer says that "for some topics, it might be possible to explore with the class research strategies that could provide data to support one position as opposed to another."

Respect for differing opinions is also key to effective debate. "Be up-front about your perspective," says William Schafer, "but always respect the motives and intelligence of those who disagree with you." Johanne Paradis agrees: "It is inevitable that a textbook will express views on a topic that contrast with my own. When this happens, I merely present the two sides as I do with most other topics covered in class, and sometimes make it known that I am respectfully disagreeing with the author."

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For even more tips and insights on textbook selection and use, read the full survey responses from members of our panel. Keep their practical guidance close at hand as you prepare for spring textbook adoptions, and choose high-quality, student-friendly textbooks that prepare your students for success beyond the classroom.

| See Brookes's newest and bestselling textbooks for Spring 2011 adoptions |

National Survey of Student Engagement (2008). Promoting Engagement for All Students: The Imperative to Look Within—2008 Results. University of Indiana, p. 52. Retrieved from http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2008_Results on October 12, 2010.