The textbook as conversational partner

Abstract

Undergraduate teaching in psychology relies heavily on textbooks. Once the text-book has been selected, lecturers tend to relax. Modern textbooks include ready-made slides and test banks. All the information the student needs to know is thus packaged, illustrated, colourful and ready. This article questions whether learning is a mere transfer of the contents of the textbook to the student’s mind. It would be more benefical if academics could view knowledge and learning from a postmodern, social constructionist perspective. This would imply a view of learning as a conversation rather than a linear process. This article proposes to take the ‘text’ out of the textbook and to engage with it together with other texts such as tests, class material and conversations in a larger context.