Students may not get the whole story when the professor who teaches their class also wrote their textbook.
With a large number of professors assigning their own textbooks, some University officials, professors and students say that this practice could limit students’ understanding to only a single professor’s point of view.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Lorraine Davis said she sometimes worries that students are cheated out of a variety of viewpoints in these situations.
“You would hope that any professor would provide opportunities to allow students to consider things with considerations other than their own,” she said, adding that if professors use their own material they should provide “other perspectives on the matter.”
That’s exactly what journalism Professor Janet Wasko, who wrote a book for her Understanding Disney class, decided to do. She said most of the topics she teaches involve different perspectives, which is why she assigns other books to accompany her own.
“If someone is only using a book that they’ve written, that could be perhaps problematic,” Wasko said. “I don’t know what other professors do, but I use a book that I’ve written. I always use a lot of other readings because I think that’s an important point that there should be a lot of perspectives presented. I never just use my own book.”
Philosophy Professor Mark Johnson, who has studied and taught ethics, explained that teachers constantly deal with the issue of presenting a full range of issues, which is difficult in a 10-week course. Professors who do issue their own materials have a responsibility to point out the work’s objections or counterpoints, he added.
Assistant Professor of journalism Kim Sheehan said she wrote a book for her Advertising and Society class primarily because “a lot of books are very critical of advertising and don’t present a very balanced look at why the advertisers do what they do.
“What I tried to do in my book was provide a lot of different angles,” she said. “I agree that if I wrote a book about my opinion and lectured on it, it wouldn’t be valuable for students. That’s one of the reasons I wrote the book, is because I think students need to hear other opinions.”
Journalism Associate Professor Tom Wheeler wrote a textbook for a class on manipulating media photos because he said there was very little published on the subject.
He added that it is good for professors to let students know when information is his or her opinion and when their opinions are in agreement or disagreement with others in the field. Wheeler said professors can expose students to differing viewpoints by bringing in guest lecturers.
Despite the concerns about professors using their own texts, some instructors and students say there are advantages to this practice.
Davis said that when professors write books for their classes, it helps build their credibility in the student’s eyes. Also, it means the text will perfectly suit the class.
Associate Professor in visual communications Julie Newton said by publishing her book she’s able to ensure that students get the information she thinks is important.
“The other advantage is that many of us on the faculty are doing cutting edge work and the only option for getting that cutting edge thinking to students is to … write our own book,” she said.
Students had a variety of perspectives on the issue.
Sophomore Dirk Von Schneidemesser said he’s had his instructors write parts of the reading material for class.
“If you had a class where you studied nothing but the teacher’s material that’d be kind of shady, if you ask me,” he said. “If it’s some theory that the teacher made up they’re trying to get the students to understand, obviously the teacher’s materials are going to be appropriate.”
Sophomore psychology student Ryan Davis said it doesn’t really matter whose text they assign because choosing the text is a product of the professor’s opinion anyway.
“I think it might actually be good that they teach their own textbook,” he said, explaining that they would thoroughly understand what’s in it.
Claire Hugo, a senior studying psychology and business, said it’s beneficial to have a textbook written by another author because it opens a student’s mind to other perspectives. On the other hand, she’s had classes with discrepancies between the lectures and reading, she said.
“The positive side to that is the text and the lectures would correlate perfectly,” she said.