The changes required of a textbook that referred to a bakery – an “inappropriate” form of Japanese culture – illustrate how the system falls short of its goals of deliberative and critical education.
It’s not enough for textbooks just to be present in a classroom. They must support learning.
Global Partnership for Education/Flickr
Textbooks in sufficient quantities are effective in improving the quality of education but in Africa language poses a problem to how pupils interact with the material they are taught.
Yusuf Sayed, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Teachers in South Africa need far more high quality professional development, policy direction and support to take social cohesion from concept to classroom
What struggles do black families face over the summer?
Mother child image via www.shutterstock.com
Summer is not an idyllic time for all. Two researchers who are black and are parents to two black children describe why they feel the weight of the summer.
Many students don’t consider downloading textbooks to be piracy.
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When it comes to accessing online learning materials, university students don’t think much about whether their downloads might amount to piracy or copyright infringement.
Paying for expensive textbooks could become a thing of the past.
Flickr/Abstract Machine
Textbooks have been at the centre of two major South African court cases. They may not be a magical cure for all the country’s education ills, but research shows they are a critical part of learning.
Being able to learn science in a number of languages helps children to develop an understanding of concepts - like the robotics used to build this dinosaur.
David Mercado/Reuters
Using more than one language when teaching and learning science in schools can greatly enhance concept development. This in fact goes to the heart of science.
Children develop based on their interactions with people, books and cultural artefacts. History textbooks could have a great deal to teach them about empathy.
From www.shutterstock.com
As the world pauses to remember the Holocaust, it is important to at what children around the world are learning about the horrific events of 70 years ago and their aftermath. A recent research project…
Painting about peace in Kiev’s Maidan square.
Robert Ghement/EPA
Ukraine’s recent political crisis, a pro-Russian separatist movement and violence in the East has yet again drawn attention to the competing loyalties of Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine gained statehood in…
Mastered numbers? Let’s make it harder.
Arenamontanus
Ever-envious of Singapore’s much-heralded success in teaching maths, politicians are keen to see its methodology arriving in UK classrooms. Education minister Elizabeth Truss explained some of the background…
Deputy director of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research and Chair for History of Education and Comparative Education, Technical University Braunschweig