[NLA] Learning by reading textbooks

[Thomas Sticht]

NLA colleagues: A March 8th, 2003 report entitled <The Learning Process
and the Text in Use> will be available next week  online at  www.nald.ca
under Full Text Documents searched by Recent Additions or by "S" for my
last name. Tom Sticht

Overview of  <The Learning Process and the Text in Use>

In 1981, John Cole, Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of
Congress in the United States and I edited a small volume entitled The
Textbook in American Society. In a chapter in that volume I called
attention to the need for better understanding the interactions among
textbooks, teachers, and students and how these interactions acting across
time come to influence the publisher’s design of textbooks, the teacher’s
use of textbooks for instruction, and the  student’s strategies for
reading textbooks for the learning of content. The present report expands
upon the earlier one and includes three case studies of learning
strategies that adults taking correspondence courses, or engaged in job
training, or enrolled in a community college class reported that they used
for learning by reading. Community college students also offered
definitions of what a text book is and recommended how textbooks should be
designed to make them more effective for learning by reading. For
instance, one student's comments indicate the intimate and idiosyncratic
relationships between the conditions of text use and design
recommendations.  Here are the student's remarks about textbook design:

	"As most of my reading takes place in bed, with an
	overhead light, rough paper would reduce the reflective
	glare... characteristic of many textbooks.  A wide
	margin (approximately one-third of the page) makes
	possible excellent organization of class notes that
	correspond with the topics in the chapter.  Since
	starting an assignment is the hardest part, the
	chapters should be sized so that they can be read in
	one sitting...Pictures, diagrams, and illustrations
	are necessary to break the monotony of the reading.
	Since the monotony of the subject increases as the
	student continues reading, the density of illustrations
	should increase toward the end of the chapter."

The report suggests that a better understanding of the
text-teacher-student relationship might lead to more effective guidance
for textbook design, more effective techniques for teaching using
textbooks, and more effective development of student’s strategies for
learning by reading textbooks.


Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net



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