Abstract

MORA, David. Characteristics of textbooks and other learning and teaching material First part. Rev. de Inv. Educ. [online]. 2012, vol.5, n.1, pp.13-57. ISSN 1997-4043.

This article presents a detailed description of the fundamental aspects that characterize textbooks and other material commonly used in the development of learning and teaching processes with an intra-and interdisdplinary focus. The work starts with a reflection about the predominant conception of textbooks studies and other didactic material, specifically with regard to the controversy about socio-political aspects that underly the three traditional tendencies in relation to textbooks: the universal, nationalist and multicultural conceptions. We forward a perspective centered in regionalism, critical interculturality and integration. In the second part, the article discusses with some detail the three main functions of textbooks and the six new functions in agreement with the pedagogic currents, curricula and didactic principies that informthe present work. Finally, we dedícate a part of the article to the description and analysis of the four great orientations of textbooks: textbooks designed for learning, teaching, complex exercises and the hybrids that currently dominate the world of textbooks. In the final part, we focus with more emphasis and detail on the topic of research in this important field of the education sciences, pedagogy, curriculum and didactic.

Keywords : textbooks; research about education material; critical conception of textbooks; function and characteristics of textbooks; model for the study of textbooks.