Examining History Textbooks: Are Texts More “Considerate” After 20 Years?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 126
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching and Learning With Historical Documents, Textbooks, and Expository Texts

Abstract

Features of eighth grade history textbooks were examined through replication of a 20-year-old study that investigated “considerateness” of textbooks. Considerate texts provide clear, coherent information and include features that promote students’ comprehension, such as explicit use of organizational structures, a range of question types dispersed within and at the end of chapters, and highlighted new vocabulary. Conversely, inconsiderate texts can impede student learning because comprehension is influenced by coherence and clarity between and among new vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs, and passages at both macro and micro levels throughout texts’ chapters. Results of this study indicate areas where today’s texts are more clear and coherent than 20 years ago, and areas where improvements and supplements are still needed.

Authors

• Sheri Berkeley, George Mason University

• Peggy King-Sears, George Mason University

• Brittany Lynn Hott, Texas A&M University - Commerce

• Katherine Bradley-Black, George Mason University