| If you don't assign homework from the textbook, do students
| benefit enough from having the textbook to make it worth the expense?
|
| Is learning how to read a physics textbook an important
| skill, or can the reading skill be achieved in other, less
| expensive, ways?
|
| Is having the information bound in a textbook a sufficient
| reason for spending >$100, or do class notes combined with
| resources on the web provide the same benefit at much lower cost?
|
| I don't know the answers, but they seem like important
| questions to ask.
Good questions, I think its worth the expense, to the extent that any of
these books are worth the expense.
But to turn the question around, if the only value of the text is that
that is where the HW problems are written down; is the text worth it?
Why not just have students purchase a book of problems that you make
assignments from?
To be honest, I did have a struggling student last semester who came
into my office about mid-way through the semester and asked me if I
thought it would be a good idea if she started reading the text! I must
admit that I was a bit shocked by the question, though perhaps I
shouldn't have been. I constantly refer in class to sections in the
text where material is coming from and that they should be concurrently
reading. Specific sections are listed for each class in my
syllabus-schedules, etc.
I strongly encouraged her to be reading the text as part of her studying
process.
________________________
Joel Rauber
Department of Physics - SDSU