That´s how I use the book : Four Social studies´teachers´views on and usage of the textbook

Abstract This degree project focuses on the questions how teachers´ within the four socially oriented subjects’ history, geography, religion and social science use the textbook, and their attitudes towards textbooks. The method used in this project was interviews with teachers. Previous research shows that teachers use the textbook to a great extent. Studies also show that teachers’ way of educating depends upon their individual educational attitudes. Further more studies show that students find difficulty in understanding the texts in educational books in a wider context. The answer to how the teachers in this study use the textbooks is that they use it to a great extent, but that they use it in different ways. The majority of the interviewed teachers use the textbook as their main teaching aid. The teachers’ views on the textbook are mainly positive, with the exception that they often find the text hard to understand. Positive opinions about textbooks given by the interviewed teachers were that the books are an important support for the students, and that they are written to suit their age group. Keywords: social studies’ teachers’, textbooks, attitudes, understanding text