What is the matter with VCE science textbooks?

[zsteve]

I've been quite disappointed with the style that VCE science textbooks (Chem and Physics, and presumably Bio as well) are written in.
For example, this year I've been using Jacaranda Chemistry Year 11 and Heinemann Physics 1.
Both textbooks exhibit somewhat obscure reasoning which appears to the student as 'jumping to conclusions', hence requiring the student to ask the teacher, a considerably time-consuming process.

But my major pet peeve with the VCE textbooks I have come in contact with in my admittedly limited amount of experience is that they contain TOO MANY STUPID PHOTOS!

Take Jacaranda StudyON Chemistry, for instance. There are photos that are only vaguely related to the subject matter on virtually every page. For example, in the chapter on chemical equations, where it explains combustion, we have a photo of a gas burner. Duh. Seeing a gas burner in no way enhances the student's capacity to learn. On the contrary, I find this extremely distracting, not to mention a complete waste of time, paper, and ink.

Another example is in the Acid/Base chapter. Here, an entire page is wasted on displaying the picture of an athlete having a cramp (which is due to acidity in the muscles, so the blurb says). Further down the page, we have a photo of oranges ... with due reference to Vitamin C/ascorbic acid.

Another outrageous example is in the Polymers chapter - here we have another pointless full-page photo of two basketball players. Ok, so what does basketball players have to do with polymers? The textbook says that "the basketball competitors rely on the strength and durability of custom-designed polymers ...."

So what IS the point of all this? These virtually unrelated photos add nothing to our knowledge. I agree, it should be mentioned that oranges contain citric and ascorbic acid, that polymers have many uses, blah blah blah, but do we need photos to help us?

I believe that we, as students, have been grossly belittled by this outrageous dumbing-down of our textbooks. Nor is this the norm across other countries - while I was still being home-educated, we used textbooks from Singapore. These were the real thing - the subject matter was not only more in-depth and comprehensive, but completely printed in black-and-white, with simple line diagrams to help to bring the concept across (like vector force diagrams in Physics, or molecule/atom/etc. diagrams in Chemistry). These were, in my opinion at least, many times better than the books I have to cope with now.

Check this for comparison: http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Books/11/Std11-BioChem-EM.pdf
Note this is year 11. Although I never had the opportunity to study these textbooks (Wish I did, maybe in my gap year  , I am still very impressed by the ambiance created by the black and white text.

Anyway, that's a load off my brains. I'd be interested if anyone shares my sentiments on this topic

[asterio]

I partly agree with you as the VCE science text books are really bad for self study, this is why I NEVER READ VCE science text books because it makes me rage. They almost never explain "the hard thing" and somehow expected you to know the answer to every hard question, to make things worse, they add pages of useless paragraphs that further consume your time for no good reason. It takes people at least few days to read through that junk, and not even been able to understand much in the end.

This became obvious after I started to teach physics, I had students who worked really hard and studied at home, but they literally can't explain any physics concept because they never did understand it to begin with.
One example is modulation process in Physics, the textbook literally explained no shit. It was not until 2nd year of Engineering, that I finally understood what modulation process really is, it is so simple that makes me wonder why can't they explain it in high school.
It usually takes me 2 to 4 hours to teach 1 AREA (about 100 pages worth of textbook contents), and I can confidently guarantee that without ever touching the textbook for the entire year, my student will always beat other textbook study students in the test. ALWAYS.

This creates a HUGE disadvantage to students who cannot afford tutoring or/and having no access to reliable teacher in school.
It is funny how many times my student has to teach the teacher, it is also sad at the same time.
I remember how much I struggled in high school, was always like "HOW DA FK DID THEY GOT TO THIS CONCLUSION?? IS THIS EVEN RIGHT??"
If I never had that engineering friend who helped me throughout the whole year, I don't think I will ever make it this far.

However, after all these complaining, I would like to make some positive comments.

VCE science text books are by far the most reader-friendly book I have ever seen, the colors and pictures/photos and layouts DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
You will be surprised how many students around the world wished they could have a textbook like the ones that we had in VCE, it will encourage them so much compare to the black and white textbook.
It helps a lot when different sections and key points are separated with different colors, and pictures/photos do help with memories and understanding.
The only thing they have done wrong regarding to the pictures/photos is that they never fully explained how these pictures/photos happened/related to the concept that we are learning.

I really wish they could enhance the textbook, make it less off-topic, and more detailed explanations.

[grannysmith]

That's why my teachers always provide us with condensed, nothing-you-don't-need PowerPoint slides. :p

Call it "spoon-feeding" but in all seriousness, I find textbooks too much of a hassle and get put off because of that.

[Sense]

I agree, it mainly goes:
Useless paragraph
Useless picture
Useless paragraph
Meaningful paragraph that doesn't elaborate enough
Useless paragraph
Useless paragraph
Useless picture

Repeat.