How Would You Select a Textbook? 116
benj_e asks: "I'm thinking about doing some adjunct teaching at a couple of local community colleges, and have the opportunity to choose the textbook for an online JavaScript class. In the training classes I've given in the corporate world, I didn't have the need to select a text - there were no textbooks for the software I was teaching students to use aside from the manual. I'm pretty sure I want something with WebCT or Blackboard content, but other than that I'm, well, clueless. So, for all you educators out there - how do you go about selecting a textbook? What goes into your decision making process?"
The only resource you will ever need - free (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. (Score:5, Informative)
For example, I was recently involved in moving our entry-level CS classes from C++ to Java, and helping the instructors get themselves set up. What to use? As a Java hacker, my gut said: just use lecture notes etc. But wiser heads prevailed. Eventually we went with Lewis and Loftus [amazon.com], which besides being well constructed for its task (teaching elementary computer science in Java) has a massive amount of support materials [aw-bc.com]. We could not possibly match that in quality. Yes, it's $70 on Amazon. You can get it cheaper tho. And it's worth it: we use it for three classes in a row.
What book to use for your JavaScript class? That I can't say, though O'Reilly's book is actually not horrible. But that's my hacker instinct firing off again...
you're the best text book (Score:4, Informative)
and truthfully, if you need a text book, the teach yourself in 21 days series are as good an introdcutory book as you will find. i also like the oreilly series alot too. the best part about the oreilly books is that they are not too expensive, and they will be useful after the class.
Publishers will send evalution copies of textbooks (Score:3, Informative)
Examine as many textbooks as you can (they greatly differ in both scope and quality). I strongly suggest selecting a text matches your philosophy, and covers as much of your planned course material as possible. It is best if the text provides more depth than the class so your students might want to retain the book as part of their professional library for future reference.
Feel free to email questions, best of luck. -Ken
O'Reilly! What else? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:O'Reilly! What else? (Score:3, Informative)
Not Easy (Score:3, Informative)
Start by making an outline for the class. How many class meeting will you have? What to want to teach? What do you think is important? Then break up what you want to do into subjects that can be taught individually. Use your own opinion as to how the course should flow and what seems logical to you. You are teaching the course. Trying to teach a subject out-of-order (in your opinion) will not only confuse the students but it will also frustrate you.
After you have an outline of how you are going to teach the course, try to find a book that closely follows your outline. This is the hard part. You are rarely going to find a book that presents a subject the way you would like it to be presented. This is the reason why some of the best books on a subject are not the best ones to teach from. This is also why instructors write their own books, so that they can follow how they think the subject should be taught.
If all else fails, pick a good book that the student can use as a reference after the course. What you will end up with is a good book, but you'll be jumping around within the book like a lot of instructors end up doing.
One of the problems I've seen are when a certain subject gets taught by multiple instructors. Then the department has to pick one book that everyone will use. This book usually ends up being a compromise that noone likes. There's not much you can do in this situation other than try to influence the choice of the text book in the future. If you are only teaching part time, don't be surprised if you are ignored.
Get a couple of books that discuss how to teach. Some of the better ones are actually short in length. One of the most important things I learned from one is that students will do most of their learning on their own. You are just there to present the information and to guide them.
You also need to know the subject well enough to give intelligent sounding answers to off the wall questions. Don't say you don't know. Instead, tell the students that you can't remember the answer off the of your head and that you'll get back to them (or some other excuse).
The books on how to be an instructor will give you some good advice on how to handle situations you are going to be unprepared for.
Simple (Score:2, Informative)
Re:As a current student (Score:2, Informative)
The teacher doesn't have any choice. Accrediting organizations force schools to use recent texts, even in fields that aren't changing rapidly.
Staying with an old edition can also be problematic, because the publisher typically doesn't sell the old edition any more. That means you have to depend on the bookstore's willingness and ability to scrounge around for lots and lots of used copies of the older edition.
Contact publishers (Score:2, Informative)
More advice from a student (Score:4, Informative)
anyway, here are a list of pet peeves I have with a lot of my text books.
- A lot of text books focus on a particular application (e.g. programming javascript with Dreamweaver and Internet Explorer). Try to avoid these and focus on books that teach the subject in a bit more general terms.
- Look for books that give lots of code examples. Theory is a good thing, but some books that say they are teaching a specific language seem to instead focus on trying to books on programming theory.
- As above, but in reverse. Try to find books that do offer some theory, and don't just focus on having students memorize what a given block of code does.
That aside, whatever text book you pick, remember that all books have flaws, and be willing to deviate from the book when you feel that it doesn't offer up the best approach. I would also recommend NOT using book assignments, they tend to be extremely trivial, uninteresting, and will not get students excited about the project at all.How I chose a textbook (Score:1, Informative)
Realistically how can any serious teacher review all the books on a subject unless they are teaching a narrow field with little published, even then you typically only have 4 weeks between when you are given a subject to the actual start date unless you are very very lucky.
I still have not 'read' the text book and a serious tutor should do that. Who has time.
Text books must be chosen by reliable publishers first then a quick read, preferably free samples from the publisher because at $40 minimum it quickly adds up.