The Role of Textbooks in Primary Education

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research with the objective of finding out what kind of influence textbooks have on teachers' decisions about the content and methods of their teaching, especially in comparison with other materials and factors. The research was particularly aimed at teachers of primary schools and textbooks and other teaching materials for social studies and sciences. The results show that even though the teachers believe that textbooks have a major influence on their teaching, they disagree with the idea that textbooks should determine the content and methods of teaching. The article will present you with some thoughts on how to overcome this contradiction.