When most of today’s parents think back to their school days they will recall using text books in the majority of their lessons. Today, online resources are becoming much more common place in schools up and down the land.
If you’d like a PDF version of this page, simply click Future of Text Books PDF
The future educational landscape for their children is very different, though. This begs the question, will teachers need text books in the future?
Recent research found that only one in 10 teachers now use text books in more than half of their lessons and 92 per cent believe they will be using online or digital resources in most of their lessons by 2020.
The NEU teaching union recently revealed that nearly three-quarters of members said spending on text books had been reduced by their school or college.
So, does that mean the next generation of schoolchildren will not be referring to physical books in class? Not necessarily, because sales of physical books have actually risen in the last year and there are still many advantages of pupils having a book in their hand as opposed to looking at material online.
There is a clear mindset within the current government to ensure that text books are still used in classrooms, with schools minister Nick Gibb particularly vocal on this. Mr Gibb says countries with better educational results, such as in the Far East, have achieved it partly because they make more use of text books.
So, are there any advantages in using text books? Here are five reasons why physical text books are still used by teachers:
Now we’ve looked at the advantages of physical text books, are there any disadvantages? Well, yes, there are. Here are five reasons why physical text books might continue to diminish:
So, will teachers need text books in the future? It seems that they will for now but, in the long term, things may change.
Do you have any questions regarding education? Perhaps you want to find out about the National Curriculum or special educational needs? If so, you’ll find the answers on our Knowledge Bank page. What’s more, there’s also a section full of advice for parents which will give you tips on protecting your child from bullying, filling them with confidence or entertaining them in a way that helps them learn during the school holidays. It’s a valuable tool for any parent – why not have a look?