Required Texts/Reserve Purchasing Guidelines

Textbooks are materials that are generally designed to be used by students for introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses of study. They generally have a particular structure and specific components.

Textbook Structure

Textbooks often use a "tree" structure that includes some variation of the following:

Example 1: Book⇒Chapter⇒Section

Example 2: Book⇒Chapter⇒Section⇒Subsection

Example 3: Book⇒Unit⇒Chapter⇒Section⇒Subsection

Other elements of textbook structure include:

• Pedagogical elements
• Sources

Pedagogical Elements

Openers

Openers are pedagogical elements that come before the main content. Their role is to lead the learner into the content and provide motivation or a preview. For example:

• learning objectives
• introduction
• focus questions

Closers

Closers are pedagogical elements that come after the main content. Their role is to help learners review or reinforce their learning. The goal of closers is to help students summarize, review, or practice what they've learned. Example include:

• review questions
• a section/chapter summary
• self assessment

Integrated Pedagogical Devices

Integrated pedagogical devices are elements incorporated into the main content. For example, each chapter in a mathematics textbook might include:

• a biography and accomplishments of a famous mathematician.

• a case study that illustrates the concepts by describing a real-world application.

• vocabulary words in bold.

• illustration of geometric figures.

• graphs.

Additional Examples:

Openers

• overviews (previews)
• introductions
• outlines (text, bullets or graphics)
• focus questions (knowledge and comprehension questions)
• learning goals / objectives / outcomes / competences / skills
• case problem
• special features, e.g. vignettes, photos, quotations...

Closers

• conclusions and summaries (may include diagrams)
• list of definitions
• reference boxes (e.g. computer instructions)
• review questions
• self-assessment (usually simple quizzes)
• small exercises
• substantial exercises and problem cases
• fill-in tables to prepare a real world task
• ideas for projects (academic or real world)
• bibliographies and links (that can be annotated)

Integrated Pedagogical Devices

• emphasis (bold) of key words

• marginalia that summarize paragraphs
• lists that highlight main points
• summary tables and graphics
• cross-references that link backwards (or sometimes forwards) to important concepts
• markers to identify embedded subjects (e.g. an "external" term used and that needs explanation)
• study and review questions
• pedagogical illustrations (concepts rendered graphically)
• tips (to help with misconceptions or procedural errors)
• reminders
• case studies
• problem descriptions
• debates and reflections
• profiles (case descriptions)
• primary sources and data
• models

Attribution

This definition was adopted from the Pub101 Course maintained by the Open Education Network.