Why textbooks count

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In this paper Tim Oates describes the 'underlying anti-textbook ethos' that lies at the heart of teacher training and educational research in the UK. He attempts to show that the use of high quality textbooks is key to ensuring English schools teach the curriculum to a standard that matches the world’s top education systems. 

His study reveals the use of textbooks in classrooms in England is extremely low compared with schools in high performing Singapore and Finland. High quality textbooks, he says, are not antithetical to high quality pedagogy: they support sensitive and effective approaches to high attainment, high equity and a high enjoyment of learning. 

It is textbooks, Oates says, that provide the detailed knowledge implicit in national curriculum programmes. Textbooks and resources should be considered as an integral part of establishing the policy intentions of a national curriculum. 

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Comparing pedagogical practice in England and Wales to some of the world’s best performing education systems, this report will be useful for policy workers looking for new evidence and ideas around teaching and learning.