Brittany Hausner
October 12, 2014
EDUC 301
Final Paper

Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of teaching mathematics without a textbook.
When teaching math the lessons are often based and guided around a textbook. But what if a teacher decided to teach math without using a textbook? While textbooks can be a great tool to help organize a teacher’s lessons and units of study, there are benefits to teaching without a textbook. However, just as there are advantages to teaching without a textbook there are disadvantages as well.
Advantages
Traditionally math has always been taught using a textbook to guide units and lessons. As our world is moving forward and discovering new methods to teach with, the textbook does not always fit in with the new methods. Students have many different learning styles and much research has shown that teaching in one way or style is a disadvantage to students because not all of them will fully understand the concept taught the one way. Textbooks typically approach a problem or concept by showing only one technique to solve it. One study showed that sixty-one percent of the students surveyed rated a math textbook as the least liked text because it was hard to understand (Lester & Cheek, 1998). When a textbook is difficult to understand students learning needs may not be met.
The techniques that are often shown typically encourage repetition and memorization in order to pass a test rather than multiple approaches that ensure understanding that will last beyond the taking of a test. Students are not learning the significance of what they are doing. Now if a class were to be taught without a textbook the teacher would be showing multiple methods or perspectives on a topic and students can choose which one is most useful for themselves. Without a textbook teachers can promote independent thinking and