Indeed, as a professor and, for eight years, chairman of a medical school biochemistry department, I have experienced discomfort and uncertainty in selecting textbooks. And I have sensed the same in my colleagues. Although we are scientists and should know better, our actual decisions are predominantly capricious. Couldn't we do better?
The key to improvement in this matter, it seems to me, is that--long before selecting a textbook--we must identify and analyze our teaching goals, rather than allow a particular text to determine the substance and pattern of our teaching.
Too many instructors, I fear, equate teaching with the dispensation of information for memorization. This practice is so common that our students tend to function as stenographers, intent on note-taking but making very little effort at comprehension or thoughtful appreciation of what they are being told. They may laugh at our jokes, but experience very little interest, excitement, or awe ...
