The Thud at the Classroom Door: Teachers' Curriculum Decision Making in Response to a New Textbook. Draft.

N

22

Decision Making; Elementary School Curriculum; Grade 5; Instructional Development; Instructional Materials; Intermediate Grades; Social Studies; Teacher Attitudes; Teaching Guides; Teaching Methods; Textbook Research; Textbooks

This study, based on interviews and classroom observation, evaluates what seven fifth-grade teachers in California did one autumn when a controversial new state-approved social studies textbook arrived at their doors. By tracking the teachers' daily curriculum decisions for social studies during the first few months following receipt of the textbook, the study examined if and how the new textbook really mattered in their instructional choices. Analysis is focused on five categories of factors: (1) teachers' educational experiences and professional affiliations; (2) their normative views about the goals of social studies education; (3) their evaluation of the needs and abilities of their students; (4) characteristics of their schools and classrooms; and (5) daily relationships between teacher and students within a class. The study concluded that individual differences among teachers make a significant impact on how the teachers respond to external changes such as the arrival of a new text. Teachers who viewed the textbook as their primary resource used the textbook to structure their planning, but others did not. Reformers' hopes that a new textbook written to the specifications of a new curriculum framework would lead directly to improvement in the quality of the social studies curriculum may be ill-founded. (Contains 32 references.) (JDD)

1995

ED375123