Promoting Deep Learning through the Use of Effective Textbooks

Marilyn J. Chambliss and Robert C. Calfee have asserted that "for instruction to go beyond rote citation, textbooks need to promote reflection, problem solving, and genuine understanding. Learning that is insightful and transferable comes not from passive reading of factoids but from engaging in the material at several levels: at the factual level but also at levels that lead students to question the facts, to search for broader implications, and to connect new information with prior knowledge so that they gain genuine ownership of concepts and skills." ¹

In this essay, I analyze textbook design in the context of how it affects comprehension. Specifically, I will apply the concept of deep learning to an assessment of the formal design of James Monaco's popular and well-known film studies textbook How to Read a Film. ² I will then focus on the link between design and comprehensibility. Text design is important only to the extent that it affects comprehension. Improving design should improve comprehension.

The concept of deep learning comes from education research and, according to the 1992 "MacFarlane Report," ³ has the following characteristics:

• intention to understand the material for oneself,
  
• interacting vigorously and critically with content,
  
• relating ideas to previous knowledge and experience,
  
• using organizing principles to integrate ideas, and examining the logic of the argument.

Deep learning is opposed to surface learning, which is characterized by

• intention simply to reproduce parts of the content,
  
• accepting ideas and information passively,
  
• concentrating only on assessment requirements,
  
• not reflecting on purpose or strategies in learning, [End Page 121
  
• memorizing facts and procedures routinely, and failing to recognize guiding principles and procedures.

The framework I am using here was developed by Chambliss and Calfee, who focus on three primary areas in their book Textbooks for Learning ⁴ : (1) comprehension (They argue that, to be comprehensible, textbooks should have a coherent design, present familiar material, and be interesting.); (2) curriculum (Textbooks should, more than anything else, convey the perspective of experts.); and (3) instruction (Textbooks should support student-centered learning). Chambliss and Calfee formulate each of these three areas under a key question: (1) How comprehensible is the text design? (2) How well does the design communicate the lens (or perspective) of a discipline expert? (3) How well does the text support student-centered learning? I shall outline each area in turn.

Comprehension. Chambliss and Calfee identify three main types of texts: those that inform, argue, or explain. Most textbooks fall into the "inform" category, which the authors divide into "descriptive text" and "sequential text." Furthermore, each category is associated with particular rhetorical structures: a descriptive text can be organized as a list, a topical net, a hierarchy, or a matrix. Sequential texts can be organized as a linear string, falling dominoes, or a branching tree.

Chambliss and Calfee define these terms in the following ways ⁵:

• List: An enumeration of objects and attributes (a primitive type of link)
  
• Topical net: A topic is connected to subtopics of details or attributes via association.
  
• Hierarchy: Objects and their attributes are linked by relations of sub- and superordination.
  
• Matrix: Attributes are compared and contrasted.
  
• Linear string: Sequential equivalent of a list, except that it contains a temporal dimension.
  
• Falling dominoes: Events are linked by cause and effect.
  
• Branching tree: Resembles a hierarchy but with a temporal dimension.

Argumentative and explanatory texts are not my concern here, so I shall simply offer Chambliss and Calfee's definitions: "An argument presents evidence for a claim," ⁶ and "an explanation 'fills the gaps' between a young reader's understanding of a phenomenon and the scientific explanation by presenting important information, metaphors, and analogies in tiers, or layers of sub-explanation." ⁷

These three types of texts can be arranged in the following way:

Curriculum. According to Chambliss and Calfee, "The goal of a course of study should not be the accumulation of facts, but the acquisition of a lens for viewing experience. . . . [This] means acquiring the expert...