Pedagogical Aids in Textbooks: Do College Students' Perceptions Justify Their Prevalence?

Abstract

Our study extends, Weiten, Guadagno, and Beck's (1996) research on the value of the pedagogical aids in introductory psychology textbooks. We asked 411 first-semester and advanced psychology students to rate each of 15 aids on familiarity, likelihood of use, and value. We also examined all full-length introductory psychology texts published between 1995 and 1997 to determine the prevalence of these aids. Although the 2 student groups generally agreed on the most and least useful aids, ratings did not consistently coincide with prevalence. We discuss how ratings may reflect students' concern with test preparation and call for empirical re-search on the relation between pedagogical aids and learning.

Instructional conceptions: Analysis from an instructional design perspective

“…Whereas, e.g., designers may insert a pre-question merely as an illustration of an interesting test item, Andre( 1979) found that learners generally use that question not as illustrative but as indicative of the high importance of the item. Similarly, Marek, Griggs, and Christopher (1999) revealed that students' conceptions of a given adjunct aid may influence its use. Respondents in this study appeared less inclined to use adjunct aids since these require a more elaborate study pattern.…”

Evolution and University-level Anthropology Textbooks: The “Missing Link”?

“…The presence or absence of a definition of evolution in each of these sections will provide the information needed to address our first research question (as well as part of our third research question), which centered on the extent to which the textbooks provide definitions. While previous research indicated that students also tend to read chapter glossaries (Marek et al 1999;Weiten et al 1996Weiten et al , 1999, only four of the textbooks in our sample (three of which were written by the same author) are included this section. As a result, the definitions provided in the chapter glossaries were not included in our data set or analysis.…”

“…As an additional note, it was surprising that very few of the books had a chapter glossary, even though previous research has indicated that students are highly likely to read them (Marek et al 1999;Weiten et al 1996Weiten et al , 1999. As authors and publishing houses continue to produce new textbooks for market purchase, we should not lose sight of the implications of formatting and editorial decisions.…”

“…For example, Weiten et al (1996Weiten et al ( , 1999 and Marek et al (1999) found that students were most likely to read, and to perceive as valuable, the chapter summaries, running glossaries, or text boxes (definitions or descriptions that are presented in the textbook's margins), chapter glossaries, and the bolded terms in the text. Given these results and the general indication among faculty members that textbooks "matter," researchers interested in university-level evolution education should address the presentation of evolution in textbooks, or at least in particular sections of these textbooks.…”

The Required Textbook Friend Or Foe? Dealing With The Dilemma

“…Several studies have been conducted which analyze issues relevant to the usage and selection of textbooks, including important textbook attributes (e.g., accuracy, review questions, author's reputation) and student learning (Landrum and Hormel, 2002), topic coverage, pedagogical aids, core concepts (Griggs and Marek, 2001), and student evaluation of textbooks and readability (Marek, Griggs, and Christopher, 1999;Durwin and Sherman, 2008). Many of these studies deal with psychology texts and are presented from the instructor's perspective with a few adding the importance of student input.…”