ABSTRACT
Richard presents some issues neutrally, e.g. having different teachers. The school may have chosen to do the individualised learning scheme because of a high turnover of teachers. The head of mathematics may feel negative about the high turnover of teachers but positive about the scheme for having supported a way of working with that problem. We do not know. Whatever you yourself preferred as a learner there will be other learners who find it does not work for them and other contexts in which it might not work at all. One mathematics teacher I was talking to, who had moved in September 2000 from a school with a scheme of work based on a textbook to a school that sometimes uses textbooks, said that the scheme of work based on a textbook boosted the confidence of the new teacher that they had covered the same work as the other teachers in the department. This is a use of the textbook to define the curriculum in some way. What other uses of textbooks have you thought of? Here are some suggestions:
• children are each issued with a textbook which acts as a resource to support their learning as the teacher works with them;
• sets of exercises for the students to practise which saves the teacher time making up their own. Sometimes the students do not get issued with their own textbook;
• teaching materials, explanations and worked examples actually in the textbook which can support the non-specialist mathematics teacher as they can ask students to read the explanation;
• mainly for the students to use but supported by a teacher’s guide with suggestions for introductions to lessons, extension and assessment materials;
• the book of the examination course with questions closely linked to those that will be asked in the related examination (happens often at A level).
