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thelmadatter

Hey

Im doing a little bit of research but my resources are limited. Im looking for some kind of verification of what I see at my school and hear through the grapevine... that to somehow "prove" that students are learning, most Mexican teachers (and parents?) value that every exercise of the chose textbook is done, even to the point that every page in the book be filled in. Also, there seems to be the notion that any work done outside of a text is somehow "free time" or less valuable.

I did find sources talking about rote learning, passive students and resistance to technology, but nothing specific to attitudes toward the role of textbooks in teaching.

Does anyone know anything published on the subject (in English or Spanish) and/or care to share what it is like at your school?

El Gallo · Joined: 05 Feb 2007 Posts: 318

Hi,

It has been my experience teaching private students that it is generally true that they feel something missing if every exercise is not done or all the workbook filled out. Even there there are some things in Cambridge Interchange Third Edition that can be skipped, one of my 11 year old students dutifully points it out if I decide to do so. Sorry, I don't know of any written articles to support this.

geaaronson · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 948 Location: Mexico City

Why not go to an education library of a school that has a strong teacher`s program and check out if there have been any studies done on this subject for starters.

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

My experience in several Mexican private schools is that the practice books definitely need to be filled in and used up. The "logic" behind that is that the parents paid, so make is seem like they�re getting their money�s worth. Last school also wanted notebooks filled up as much as possible...even if it was simply copying out what the textbook said! Again...money was spent to buy them, so use them.

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

We use Cambridge Interchange 3rd Edition as well. Students don't seem to much care if we skip stuff in the students book, which usually happens because there isn't enough time to do every last activity, but they faithfully do every page in the workbook. Actually, the school requires us to assign all the pages in the workbook because the students and the parents expect it.

cummings93 · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:10 pm Post subject: yes it is true

Parents drop alot of money on books. I was instructed that the entire book(s) have to be completed by the end of the year.

notamiss · Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:34 pm Post subject:

It's not just the money, though that's surely a factor. In public school, textbooks are supplied without cost, but my experience as both a public and private school parent is that the book gets filled in. That's just the way it is, in all subjects, so it's not surprising that it applies to ESL, too. For any textbooks that weren't filled in during the year as they worked through the curriculum, there is a book-filling marathon at the end of the year.

In pages where there are no written exercises to fill in, the pictures had to be coloured, as a sign, I suppose, that the lesson wasn't skipped. (At least at the primaria and secundaria levels.)