What makes a useful textbook, and can the use of textbooks boost active learning and student satisfaction in political science higher education? Drawing on the author's own experience of writing a textbook and a student survey, this article articulates some propositions on effective textbook-assisted teaching practice. In seeking to develop a…

The present study examines cultural representations in two widely used AFL textbook series, namely "Al-Kitaab" and "Arabiyyat al-Naas." Fundamentally, three main issues motivate this study: (1) the cultural politics of language textbooks underlying the construction and dissemination of cultural knowledge and its prioritization…

There is general agreement among sociologists that teaching social structure is a core component of a sociological curriculum. Despite this agreement, there are few guides for instructors on how to teach this key concept. Using the sociological literacy framework, this research examines the most popular undergraduate Introduction to Sociology…

This study explores how faculty members select and use the educational materials employed in their courses. The primary sample represents all teaching faculty across all types of degree-granting higher education institution in the United States. Two subgroups of faculty are called out for detailed examination: those teaching large-enrollment…

There are various textbook sets commonly used in teaching Turkish to foreigners. In the literature, the literary content of these books has been examined by many researchers. However, there have not been enough studies on the visuals, which are as important as the texts in the books. The visuals belonging to the texts in the Gazi University…

This article examines the presentation of caste systems of stratification in U.S. introductory sociology textbooks. First, the "caste versus class" debate from the 1930s and 1940s is summarized and its competing perspectives are evaluated. Second, after an in-depth analysis of introductory sociology textbooks presenting material on the…

Traditional commercial textbooks at the college level are slow to update, often have problematic language or content related to queer and trans identities, and are likely to be prohibitively expensive. As an alternative, I explore the benefits of using open educational resources (OER) and free-to-access resources for a human sexuality course. I…

Quantum mechanics has proven to be a challenging subject for instructors to teach and conceptually difficult for students to understand. A major source of the difficulty is the lack of everyday experience that quantum mechanics can be related to and the change in thinking required in transitioning from deterministic classical mechanics to a…

Current higher vocational English textbooks have limitations in providing timely work-related information, representing the nature of vocational education, preserving authenticity of text materials, and using technology to enhance textbook interactivity. To address the limitations of current higher vocational English textbooks, this study adopts…

This article, delivered as one of two keynote lectures at the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) in Milan in September 2022, offers an example of an autosociobiographical approach to the history of education, in which the life story of the author is entangled with the collective movement of a generation of…

The sport management field of study purports to be the field that prepares professionals to work in the sport business industry. People with disabilities in sport are a growing population and segment in the industry. Thus, it is important that information about disabilities be included in the literature and materials used by professionals in the…

This study is one in a series designed to explore the process by which faculty members select and use the educational materials employed in their courses. The most common of these is the required textbook: faculty members typically choose one or more books that all students are required to use throughout the course. Faculty also employ a wide…

Phylogenetic trees are important tools for teaching and understanding evolution, yet students struggle to read and interpret them correctly. In this study, we extend a study conducted by Catley and Novick (2008) by investigating depictions of evolutionary trees in US textbooks. We investigated 1197 diagrams from 11 German and 11 United States…

Providing educational resources without burdening students financially is considered higher education's moral and sensible mission (Farrow, 2016). The financial burden of one or multiple textbooks can produce a great deal of stress on students, especially if the textbooks do not fulfill students' needs in satisfying learning objectives. We attempt…

The cost of course materials creates a gap between students who can afford them and students who cannot. Open educational resources (OER) are one way to close this gap through freely shared and flexible instructor-authored resources. OER programs have plenty of support through organizations that coordinate conferences, highly impactful open…