As a recent graduate of Grinnell College, I would like to share my opinion regarding the use of textbooks in the classroom. The classes in which I learned the most often had primary and secondary literature for the majority of the reading. I thought this was the most beneficial, and in fact, the most encouraging. I often feel that learning from a textbook is a sort of detached process. You're learning the information necessary for the subject, but you never get a true feel for how the information is gathered. By reading primary literature, particularly some of the first papers introduced on a subject, you get to see how real science is performed. This allowed me to visualize how you would actually go about an experiment and also taught me how to critique scientific literature in a positive and useful way. By learning from the actual experiments, it was easier for me to envision a future for myself carrying out similar studies, and I was able to use some of the analyti! cal skills I learned on my own papers. That being said, I also agree with Jeff Jewett. I often found it very helpful when there was a textbook available for further study. If I was having trouble with a particular topic, it was nice to have a fallback before going to the professor with my questions. I enjoyed classes that assigned optional textbook reading prior to a lecture, as this helped the main points really hit home. But again, I got the most from reading the primary literature. I hope this helps someone out there. Bryan J. Berube Research Technician University of Chicago
________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news on behalf of Jeff Jewett Sent: Tue 11/20/2007 4:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: textbook-free classes Speaking as a former high school teacher and current environmental science graduate student, I'd like to comment on instructors tossing the textbook from their courses. I appreciate _supplements_ to the textbook, such as selected websites, journal articles, etc. I have always had a problem, however, with instructors whose only "reading material" is something that they wrote themselves (whether it was a coursepack or something more formal). Every student learns differently, and not all students will relate well to any particular instructor's teaching style. If the course follows a decent textbook (even if assigned readings are not required), then a motivated student has a fall-back instructional method if lectures are not working (read the book!). If the only reading available is something that the instructor wrote, it is usually "more of the same" that the student heard in lecture. An instructor-written textbook rarely sheds new light on the subject or teaches with a different explanation of the concept. So...course readers and other supplemental materials are good, but be very careful that students have the opportunity to hear from a variety of instructional voices, not just one. Thanks for listening, Jeff Jewett Montana State University
