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Re: Our textbook




I predict the the first author who succeeds in
writing a much shorter, but still good, textbook
will make a lot of money.


Unfortunately the trend towards bigger books is because the publishers want
to appeal to the widest possible market so they include everything. This
happens in HS with a vengeance where the books are only allowed to be used
in some states if they cover all of the mandated material. The publisher
then includes every requirement of every big state. Small books will not
generally sell as well.

As a result the course gets thinner and thinner. There was the study (In
TPT as I recall) which showed that students did better in their college
courses if their HS teachers used NO book, and the ones who did the worst
had courses where the teacher finished the book.

Also as a result of this trend research based books which cut back on the
coverage to achieve better understanding can not be sold to public HS in the
big states. Also such books do not appeal to most instructors. In addition
students complain about them and the directors of instruction think that
they are boring looking. Of course the fact that the fancy color pictures
are often gratuitous and misleading never enters into the discussion.

My recommendations of an IPC book based on the fact that it was both
accurate and well researched was ignored by a director of instruction
because she said it looked boring. I then recommended no published book in
another course because it was common practice to teach without one and that
the books generally did things in the wrong fashion. Actually the best book
was a web based free book. She said that was a matter of style and wanted
to have a book so that anyone could teach the course. This was a course in
JAVA. She is assuming that someone who has never programmed and can not
write a program could teach the course. Using the learning cycle and
avoiding the usual book methods is not a matter of style; It is a matter of
knowing how to get students to think rather than just memorize syntax.
Currently the other computer science teacher is incompetent to write
programs. This is like having someone who has never ice skated teach
skating, or someone who has never taken a physics course teach physics. As
a result in both cases students will be forced to buy large expensive books.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX