In this Edutopia article Geoff Ruth reveals that his students in a general chemistry class seldom open their textbooks because:
the less they do the more they learn.
Geoff explains that after taking three years to wean himself and his classes off the textbooks and satisfy the concerns of his Principal and parents he has found that his students are:
- more engaged,
- understand more,
- act out less,
- and develop a much deeper comprehension of the subject matter.
The downside to teaching without textbooks other than convincing administrators and parents that it is still effective is that is that it:
- take more prep,
- requires mapping of material to current school and state standards,
- and requires amassing and adapting curriculum from a wide assortment of sources.
Perhaps the responses of some of Geoff’s students provide the best incentive for teaching with out textbooks:
You don’t learn stuff from textbooks,you just memorize for a test, then forget it.
