Nov 20 - Textbooks and How They Position Their Readers

 Math textbooks have always played a key role in education. They provide structure, practice problems, and a roadmap for learning. But I have never stopped think about the effectiveness of specific textbooks until I started teaching a few years back. I have also noticed that I read the textbooks in more details now as an educator than when I was a student. Reflecting on the why it is that students skip to the exercises on textbooks without reading the Introduction of the chapter or even the intro to the book itself is something I have thought about often. As a tutor (and an avid reader), I deliver my lessons to students, focusing on what the essence of the chapter is, wishing my students took the time to read the "extra" sections the textbook has to help them make more sense of what they are learning. 

Textbooks are one of my go-to tools for structuring lessons and ensuring my students meet learning goals. They’re reliable and standardized, which helps me stay on track. But after reading the article, I realize textbooks do more than just teach math—they influence how students relate to the subject, their peers, and even their teachers. For instance, the language in many textbooks can feel impersonal. Phrases like, “The equation shows you...” or “You must calculate...” make math seem rigid and detached from human involvement. This can unintentionally alienate students and reinforce the idea that math is about memorization rather than creativity or understanding. This can potentially be addressed by adding context to the problem because story telling is a powerful tool that helps students connect math to the real world. 

Considering my student bird, I can see how textbooks have shaped my academic career and life both positively and negatively. As a student who was naturally good at following instructions, textbooks were great for me as they provided me a clear path to follow and lots of practice problems to build my skills. That being said, textbooks did also feel dry and unrelatable at times.

These days, the role of textbook is not as rigid as it used to be. In class, we looked at some online open source textbooks developed by UBC professors and with the integration of technology in classrooms, there are more options for teachers to decide. I think this is a good thing because one textbook can only offer so many ways to approach and solve a math problem but when you have the entire world wide web at your disposal, the possibilities are endless. Teachers can modify their handouts to incorporate the different methods they want to teach depending on the collective and individual abilities of the class.