Textbook Trends

Times and texts have changed.

It used to be that a pile of paperbacks was assigned reading for an English course, a sourcebook contained most of the articles needed for a Core class in historical study and a 900-page tome was the only way to wade through introductory physics or biology.

But the once clear-cut division between the type of texts used and fields may not be quite as clear anymore as professors report an increased use of sourcebooks across the board.

In fields as different as the hard sciences and the fine arts, professors say that the shift towards sourcebooks creates a different learning experience in the classroom as students are encouraged to construct their own understanding of the material.

"In my own sense, textbooks are not conducive to the classes that I teach because I like students to engage in the material themselves and probe the material for their own points of view," says Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn, who has been at Harvard since 1960. "A standardized textbook tends to predigest material."

Mendelsohn says that he looks for books or articles that have "a good story that is well-told."

"I like books or articles that make a point, that go from one place to another and that make the reader think about the material and the issues that are raised," he says. "What I use really are both articles and text that are specific to the substance of the class."

Like Mendelsohn, Professor of History Mark A. Kishlansky--who has been teaching for 23 years, the last six of which have been spent at Harvard--says he does not rely on standardized texts.

"I have never used a textbook in all the years that I have taught because I don't think that standardized texts are a good way for students to think critically about the past," Kishlansky says.

Kishlansky, himself the author of several textbooks, says his own textbook on Western civilization is used within Harvard's history department because professors often decide to use textbooks based on the nature of their course.

"Western civilization is the type of course where you do need a text because it is a course with a number of areas to cover," says Kishlansky. "I don't use textbooks for the kinds of courses that I teach because I don't teach survey courses."

In his seminars on 17th century England, Kishlansky says he tends to use five or six monographs--books on a single subject--to cover certain historical periods and sourcebooks to cover whatever material is left.

"It's very common in an introductory class, also called surveys, to use textbooks," he says, adding that math and science courses are especially conducive to textbooks.

However alumni say that it is just as common to use sourcebooks and commentaries in the humanities.

"Because so much of what I did was literature, I used mostly sourcebooks," says Joyce M. Greening '72, a Russian history and literature concentrator. "The only classes that I can remember that used textbooks were natural science classes, and even these usually had one textbooks and a number of assorted paperbacks."

"Primarily because of my concentration, [my time at Harvard] was very, very light on textbooks," Greening adds.

High-Impact Learning

Both Mendelsohn and Kishlansky seem to agree that their decision to use a specific kind of text has a direct impact on the nature of the learning that their students will receive in the classroom.

"The nature of the text given can push students to do their own interpreting on the basis of some of the frameworks developed in lecture or section," Mendelsohn says, adding that although a standardized textbook is probably the best way to teach a class like introductory biology or physics, professors in these classes should provide supplemental materials as well.

"[Supplemental materials and articles] allow more room for arguments among students," he adds. "A book that tells the story of a historical event can be compared to a novel version of the same event or to technical material. Students can see how each text treats the material and compare for themselves."

Even in departments such as the classics which tend to be textbook-heavy, especially in the beginning and intermediate-level ancient Greek and Latin language classes, professors say they recognize the importance of stimulating discussion in their classes through different types of course material.

"The types of text selected for classes is obviously important because they determine the interest that is generated," says Richard F. Thomas, professor of Greek and Latin. "It is an incentive for professors to pick interesting text that is also at the right level for the students."

Thomas, who has taught at Harvard for 17 years, explained that in the classics department, it is generally only the more advanced students, namely concentrators, whose texts are supplemented with additional readings and commentaries.

But Thomas says that sourcebooks and textbooks actually balance one another out.

"So long as texts stimulate interest and questions among students, then they are doing their job," Thomas says. "The sourcebook could simply be snapshots of a textbook; the two may not be different in kind. One is just a selection of the other."

A New Source of Material

Students rarely blink an eye these days when asked to purchase a sourcebook or two for their classes, but the now-familiar collection of copyrighted material was not always a standard fixture in all classes.

"Traditional textbooks are still the most that we sell, but there has been a trend towards sourcebooks in the last six or seven years," says Jeremiah P. Murphy '73, Coop president for the last five years.

But Murphy says he hesitates to claim that an overall growth in sourcebook popularity since the trend varies by field.

"[O]n the technical side, standardized texts remain more of a reference point of view," Murphy says. "We update the editions, and professors supplement that with outside readings."

Past graduates of the College say their academic experiences reflect Murphy's assessment that source books have become more commonplace in the social sciences since their time at Harvard.

"My public finance courses, Economics 10 and all my intermediate economics courses were all textbook-oriented," says Tom N. Ambrose '72, an economics concentrator, who adds that sourcebooks were uncommon in his other related courses.

Emile S. Godfrey '72, a Black Studies concentrator, says his experiences also used textbooks.

"I was in the first class with Black Studies, so there were quite a few source materials used in my courses. But overall my sense is still [that] more textbooks [were used then] than the amount used in classes today," Godfrey says.

What Professors Want

Murphy says that the decisive factor in what text professors choose for their course depends solely on what the professor is trying to achieve in the classroom.

"The professors or Faculty select what they want based on their experience and what they want to teach in the classroom," Murphy says. "It's really tailored towards the class."

Mendelsohn says that once photocopying made creating sourcebooks relatively more affordable, professors chose texts based on their vision for the course.

"Now we can mix our own materials," Mendelsohn says. "It allows for a much better match for the materials that we want to think about and the materials that are available."

Murphy believes that sourcebooks will only grow in popularity as publishers become accustomed to their presence in universities.

"The big issue is that all the parts of the sourcebooks have to be copy-righted," Murphy says. "It's a time consuming, detail-oriented process."

Murphy adds that the process grows even more tedious and expensive when professors have to deal with publishers unfamiliar with the concept of the sourcebook.

"You don't have a lot of publishers knowing how to deal with costs from a copyright point of view--it's not a standardized textbook," Murphy says. "When they're in control of the publishing, they know how much they have to pay the author. But when they do it in piecemeal fashion, they don't know how many professors will pick that one chapter."

But Murphy says he believes that the relatively recent growth in the classroom use of sourcebooks will be "a long-term thing."

"If this becomes part of the publishing industry, pricing should become more in line," Murphy says. "That's the uniqueness of a sourcebook--each one varies and so does the cost. As sourcebooks becomes less expensive, students can only benefit."

What Students Want

But while professors stress the benefits that will come from an increased use of sourcebooks and Murphy predicts a decreased cost, students are not as enthusiastic about the growing trend as some might think.

"I think that sourcebooks tend to be very detailed and peripheral to the subject matter," said Adriana E. Abdenur '97, who says she prefers a sourcebook in addition to a textbook. "One of my biggest gripes about all of the source materials is that they are very fragmented. It was only right before the final when I went to the library and checked out a textbook that I finally got a sense of the chronology of the period."

Carlton F.W. Larson '97 says he agrees with Abdenur's attitude towards sourcebooks, explaining that they are often too expensive and too comprehensive, making them both inconvenient and difficult to use as educational material.

"If I had to choose between a class with all sourcebooks or all textbooks, I'd choose all textbooks," Larson says. "There's something about having a solid amount of stuff you have to know."

But when a course lacks a single comprehensive text, the professor is not always responsible for that decision.

"Art history is one of those disciplines that is not built around the idea of textbooks for students that serve as introductions to the fields," says Professor of Fine Arts Norman Bryson. "There's only one course out of the zillions that we do in art history--Literature and Arts B-10 ["Art and Visual Culture: Introduction to the Historical Study of Art and Architecture"], the department's introductory class--that we have one text that could be seen as a textbook."

"Nine times out of 10, we have to devise our own sourcebooks which are probably not that different here at Harvard from the sourcebooks developed at other universities," Bryson adds.

In other instances, sourcebooks had to be employed when professors felt that suitable textbooks were not available.

"[Biological Sciences 10: "Introductory Molecular Biology"] principally depends on the sourcebook that I wrote and there is a textbook for supplemental readings," says Richard M. Losick, professor of molecular and cellular biology. "There isn't a textbook that corresponds to the nature of the course; one just doesn't exist."

"If there was a really good textbook that matched my view with the way the material should be taught, then I would use it," Losick says, adding that sourcebooks are very time-consuming things to write. "A well-done textbook would be highly welcome."

How Long Is Too Long?

Besides the nature of the text selected, professors say that the length of their course's reading list is just as important.

"At Harvard, we tend to use the most challenging and up-to-date materials, and that's a characteristic of universities like this," says Kishlansky, who says that his reading lists have grown shorter over the years as more and more students complain about their length.

"But we don't compromise much about the material we use," Kishlansky adds. "We expect the students to handle this and we don't water it down."

But others say that the length of reading lists has remained fairly consistent over the years.

"Basically, my impression is that the numbers of books recommended by professors has not changed," Murphy says. "But this is obviously a general statement because within courses and departments, there may have been some changes."

Thomas says he agrees with Murphy, explaining that while individual course lists may have changed in length over the years, the overall departmental requirements have remained steady.

"In my field, [the reading lists] have stayed the same in terms of length," Thomas says. "The expectation of what one reads for the general examination may have been somewhat abbreviated, but overall the expectations of what must be completed in courses haven't changed."

Rather than seeing an overall decrease or increase in the amount of reading assigned, Mendelsohn says that the length of reading lists have fluctuated in his time teaching.

"I've watch [reading lists] first grow and then grow reduced," says Mendelsohn. "They began growing when it became easier to reproduce and pass out material, and then it decreased when reading lists became too much."

But Mendelsohn says that he rarely adjusts his reading lists to accommodate the type of text being used. Instead, he says he includes whatever material is relevant, whether it is in a sourcebook or textbook.

"You add materials when it looks interesting, and sometimes you just have to scale back," he says.

But Kishlansky says he hesitates to cut down on reading that he feels is important to the coursework because some students may be discouraged by an unusually long reading list.

"This wasn't an exercise in typing for me," Kishlansky says. "I put together a course very carefully in that I try to use the lecture to supplement the readings and the readings to supplement the lectures. You couldn't really get a sense of the course if you only do half."

Kishlansky says he believes that a student's educational experience is only enhanced when students do all the assigned reading, and preferably before lecture.

"If you did [the reading before-hand], you would have an enhanced experience," he says. "Athletes don't practice after their meet, and students shouldn't study after the lecture."

But Kishlansky says that he also lives in "the real world."

"This is not just about classroom education," Kishlansky says. "It's about all sorts of things in [students'] lives that are equally important and need to be juggled. One just has to recognize that only a small percentage of students will be really into your course, and the rest just won't get the same experience."