Re: Teaching science on the edge of knowledge

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 10:40 AM -0400 7/20/04, Pamela L. Gay wrote:
> *If these topics aren't discussed in your class, is there any reason for
> text books to come out with new versions every other year?
It seems to me that there are three reasons to issue new editions of
elementary-level texts:

1) pedagogical (or technological) developments that mandate that the
text presentation be changed;

2) the discovery of an egregious error that requires substantial
revision to correct; and

3) the need for a glitzy new book to (a) gut the used textbook market
(my shelves are cluttered with earlier editions of textbooks that I
cannot even give away), and (b) keep up with the competition.

I suspect that reason #3 is by far the most common one used to
justify a new edition.

New, and especially controversial or speculative, developments almost
never need to be discussed in a text. If it is appropriate, the
instructors can bring them up in class (this assumes that the
instructors are keeping up with the subjects they are teaching).

Hugh
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Hugh Haskell
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<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

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