Textbooks Should Be Taught In Schools

According to Johnsen (1989) there seems to be almost impossible to read a book without learning something (Johnsen, 1989). This was once an accepted pedagogics where every book was considered as a textbook. Textbooks today are in accordance with Johnsen regarded as “all printed learning resources that covers substantial amount of a given subject’s curricula goals for given level of education expected to be used on a regular basis” (Johnsen, 1989, p. 10).

Makers of the national curriculum goals have had both tradition and renewal in mind, claims Johnsen (1989). Making of a textbook includes the centuries long heritage of knowledge and perceptions and new discoveries which results in many different decisions in the process of design. Ultimately

According to Johnson we must develop skills in, what he calls high-level thinking; which consisting of not only acquiring information, but to sort it out. Not to understand it, but to consider it. Not to know many details, but to be able to summarise them. Not only determine what’s considered trustworthy, but to prioritise what to use in regard to relevance. This is the future Johnson thinks of by a joint use of learning resources like paper-based textbook and the computer. Johnsen (1999) claims that the classroom practice is highly textbook based, because teachers only occasionally have the time and energy necessary to understand curriculum goals and organise knowledge content according to these goals (Johnsen,

Johnsen alleges that it is expedient to not let the traditional concept of what a textbook is, prohibit student’s knowledge seeking and assessment of other sources. It is not suitable to have textbooks with enough explanations, argumentation and discussion to cover a subject throughout without necessary making a relative tick book. Johnsen points out that the textbook only need to have enough content which gives the fundamental understanding for a particular subject. The rest could be acquired through other channels. The ideal scope for such textbook could be approximately 50-100 pages, and this solution should not scare of authors and publishers according to Johnsen. The reason behind this type of textbook is according to Johnsen (1999) critique on textbooks having too much content which is fragmented in resent textbook debates. If the text binding is done in a successful manner the textbook on the other side, a textbook containing 200 pages would be more effective than a book containing 80