Published by Department of Basic Education
Excerpt:
Why are textbooks important in teaching and learning?
- The textbook is one of the most effective tools through which to deliver the curriculum and support assessment.
- the textbook can ensure curriculum content and assessment coverage, and it can also offer appropriate pacing and weighting of content and assist teachers with lesson and year planning.
- Each Learner should have a textbook for each of his/ her subjects to take home, do homework, and study from or prepare for subsequent lessons, test and exams.
What is the role of the textbook?
- A textbook interprets and presents the knowledge (content and concepts) and skill as listed in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for all learning areas and subjects and in the Content and Core Knowledge and Concepts Frameworks.
- The concepts and content are presented in an organised, systematic synthesized fashion. The content is sequenced and paced in such a way as to assist the teacher with planning and teaching.
- The textbook provides examples of problems, informal daily teaching and learning activities and suggestions for formal tasks.
- In addition, good textbooks are usually written in a manner that allows adoption of the content for learners who experience barriers to learning . Textbooks must accommodate learner diversity and be made available in accessible format, e.g. in Braille, large print or audio text.
How should teacher use textbooks?
- Teachers should use their textbooks to plan along with other resources and curriculum guideline documents.
- In doing do, the teacher should compare the content and activities presented in the textbook to those listed in the Content Framework for the subject in order to identify any gaps.
- Teachers can apply information from textbooks when differentiating teaching and learning to accommodate a range of learner needs.
- Teacher should use the textbook to plan their work schedule, lesson plans, daily assessment tasks as well as their formal assessment tasks
Why should we stress the importance of textbooks to learners and their parents?
- The importance of textbooks must be made known to learners and parent.
- They should be strongly encouraged to treat all books with respect and to understand that they remain the property of the school.
- Schools should ensure that textbooks are returned at the end of each year by learners.
