👷 T H E T A S K

1.THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF TEXTBOOK  IS TO MAKE PUBLISHERS RICHER

• The majority of benefits go to the publishers.
• The author does not get much money .
• It is a business for publishers.
• When they do not earn much money( because people share textbooks and use second-handed textbooks in order to save money) they create a new edition to have more benefits.
• Nowadays they are three times more expensive than in the 90s.
• There are cheaper alternatives (internet resources).
• Publishers create packs in order to sell more products ( workbook - student’s book).

2. TEXTBOOKS AS AUTHORITY PUPPETS

• TextBooks are influenced by political ideologies.
• Textbooks shows the ideas of the upper classes.
• Textbooks represents the ideas of the culture of the country.

3. TEXTBOOK ARE NOT NEUTRAL

• As we have mentioned before they show a political ideology.
• Textbooks include a hidden curriculum.
• As the use “ He ”  we tend to associate knowledge with men (inequality).
• Usually books ignore important woman in science, history, literature and so on.
• In textbooks we can not see minority groups frequently ( diversity of people like multi-cultural people, people with down syndrome).

4. ARE TEXTBOOKS ENOUGH TO TEACH?

• Nowadays we have others sources of information that are not textbooks.
• Internet give us more information in just a click that textbooks (For example if we want to teach  children the history of the ancient Egypt in a book we can find just a few pictures, nevertheless on the internet we can find thousands of pictures, even in museums).

5. ARE TEACHERS SLAVES OF TEXTBOOKS?

• There are some teachers that just follow the textbook, they are not innovative, not critical.
• Teachers to be professional shouldn´t use too much the textbook. As professional teachers, they should know better methodologies than textbooks to teach.
• There are three ways  to respond to the textbooks for teachers:
• Dominant: The teacher follows the book strictly.
• Negotiate: The teacher considers if the book is appropriate or not, and  decides to follow it or not.
• Oppositional: The teacher refuses to use the textbook at all.
• Some teachers use digital books because they think they are innovative. However, it is not an innovative method as a digital book is the same as a normal textbook, but with animations.

6. TEXTBOOKS, DON´T  MAKE ME BORED!

• Nowadays children have access to a big amount of information and books are boring for them.
• Books reduces their motivations because they have to study  fixed contents.
• Children can not decide what they are going to learn if they use textbooks.

7. TEXTBOOKS DO NOT FIT EVERYONE

• If teachers based their lesson on books they  are teaching to all their students in the same way, and they do not attend to their necessities.
• Students are different from each other and they have to be taught in a different way, according to their skills. Textbooks do not allow it.

8. CONTENTS WITHOUT TEACHERS ARE JUST BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

• The main problem with books is that teachers follow it without interpret it, and for children is the same that if they go to the library and read by their own.
• Teachers to be professional and effective have to use the minimum the textbook itself and try to teach with different methods ( such as project-based learning, debates, outdoor activities…).