Textbook Quality

This book is a discussion and description of a set of standards for the quality of textbooks. As widely accessed resources for learning, textbooks are cultural products of primary importance. Drawing on Bakhtin's theory of speech genres, this publication views school textbooks as a specific complex genre whose key characteristics should ideally be defined by the addressee, i.e. the student. Further, it illustrates the significance of textbooks to successful learning outcomes and school students' cognitive development. The core of the book is formed by forty-three quality standards for textbooks, their operational definitions, theoretical backgrounds and practical implications. The standards are intended for use by textbook authors and publishers, educational authorities, teachers, educational practitioners and others involved in the creation, accreditation, selection and evaluation of textbooks and other teaching materials.
 
This book is about textbooks, textbook quality and quality standards of textbooks. From a theoretical point of view, in the light of Bahtin's theory of speech genres, school textbooks are seen as a specific, complex genre, defined by the addressee. At the same time, this approach requires us to see textbooks as a cultural product. From an educational point of view, textbooks are, according to Vygotsky's theory of cultural development, a key socio-cultural aid to cognitive development in school years. Forty-three quality standards are operationally defined and explained. They can be used for compiling textbooks, for textbook accreditations, for textbook evaluation and for selection by teachers.