Textbook and teaching materials evaluation: A Top-down understanding

Abstract

Textbook evaluation and selection is not an easy activity. It asks for time, energy, experience, expertise and many other internal and external things. It involves many people especially those who are in charge of making decision. Textbook evaluation is a very important part of the professional activities of the teachers. The decision is usually made democratically. Autocratic decision is quick but risky. So, the whole process is a team effort. This article shows how a technique can be followed to select textbooks in such a way that everyone involved can contribute. It shows different criteria of selection as well as a structured form of selection and evaluation. It also shows how selection criteria can be established and weighted, and how textbooks can be selected using these criteria. A meaningful comparison/contrast between explicit and intuitive decision is also presented in this article.