Tuesday, May 11, 1976
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Profs see utility of writing texts
University Daily Kansan
By MARLENE NORDMAN
Staff Writer
Although the majority of University of Kansas instructors don't write the textbooks for their classes, many of those who are required with other textbooks that are available.
"No textbook satisfies a teacher perfectly so they try to write one of their, "Gift"
Kim Giffin, professor of speech and drama, has written eight textbooks, which also are used by other colleges across the country.
Mike Beahon, assistant manager of textbooks at the Kansas Union, said he knew of about 20-25 textbooks that were written by professors here and used in their classes.
Books may be published either by a major commercial publisher or by consignment. Beahon said books that would be used as textbooks by other colleges were published by major publishers. Consignments by other institutions are served by the KAU Primate Service or Lawrence's Kansas Key Press.
BOOKS ARE PUBLISHED by consignment mainly for the author's benefit, Beahon said, because the books are used only in the professor's classes here.
Beahon said that books published locally don't make very much profit. Professors who go to large publishing firms select the one most profitable to them, he said.
Ronald Olsen, chairman of the department of economics, and John Landgrebe, chairman of the department of chemistry, said their departments had no policy prohibiting professors from using their own textbooks.
Both chairmen said each professor decides what textbooks to use for his class.
Although an instructor may require a book for his course, no student is ever forced to buy a book, Beahon said. The book he bought was paid only for the number of books sold.
WHEN AN INSTRUCTOR has recommended but not required a book, the bookstore stocks only about 10-40 per cent of the estimated enrollment, he said. Professors' books that sell well are exceptions to that rule, he said.
Maynard Shelly, professor of psychology,
wrote a book for his course on the
psychology of satisfaction. He wrote the
book, he said, because the subject matter
was relatively new, and no books were
available on the subject.
Giffin said that writing his own textbook made teaching the course easier. An instructor can continually add new material not found in a textbook to the course and soon have enough material for his own book, he said.
OLESN, ALSO a professor of economics,
said few professors took the trouble to write
a book. He said he had never written a book
with finding time to write one was a
problem.
the teacher, who often has the problem of finding the right textbook for his courses. Olsen said. He said he compromised by using an artificial material through handouts and notes.
"It's not the most exciting thing in the world to do." he said.
Norma Wilson, instructor of journalism,
said that once a teacher wrote down the
material, teaching it became harder. The
reaction was a hard time not repeating the
text, she said.
Writing one's own textbook saves time for
SHELLY SAID that after a semester or two she has acquired and new material to present in lectures.
Giffin said that using his own book allowed him more time to spend with students on project work. Not much time is spent lecturing, he said, because the students get that information from the books.
Wilson, who teaches a course in editing, uses the textbook TEK by John B. Lewis as the TEXT for J.K. Rowling's *Harry Potter*.
"PERSONALLY, I feel "ITK" is the best of its kind information," she said. "I would use it in my business."
Shelly said that when a professor used his own book and continually updated the book every few years, the material presented in class tended to be current.
Some textbooks are written by KU professors and used in the classes of other
Wilson said she noticed that students tended to read a book more closely if they were taught to use a pointer.
instructor's personally comes through, and the reader enjoys the book more, she said.
Wilson said that she was aware of other universities requiring students to buy textbooks written by the instructor. She said she hadn't encountered the problem here although she had at the University of Iowa. She cited an example of a professor who was teaching in a textbook. The students had to have the book in hand in their assignments, she said.
Landgrebe a laboratory textbook a few years ago that is now used by other instructors here and at other universities. He said he made his book a permanent record of lab work because he thought it would make sense to remove the pages from the book.
Janet Maxwell, Topea senior, took a course in rehabilitative psychology from Beatrix Hall, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and text helped, but that there was one problem.
That made the publishers unhappy
books were published as a
result, be said.
The professors who were interviewed said the responses from students to their text-based questions were positive.
IT WAS TOUGHER for exams," Maxwell
material used in exams from the book.
and drama. Gekar said he found the course interesting, but did not approve of the in-
teresting material.
"The teacher would not tolerate opinions that disagreed with her own," he said. "She was very narrow-minded and disrespectful of the thoughts of others."
John Geier, Shawnee senior, took introduction to Rhetoric and Social influence courses at Indiana University.
GIFFN SAID one reason that professors wrote their textbooks was the desire for precision.
It isn't common for students to have professors who wrote their textbooks, but most students in his classes could not care less whether he wrote the textbook.
Wilson said that professors have the right to produce a book because it may be the best of their efforts.
"We have certain people on this campus who are experts in certain fields," she said. "I think it would be really cheating the students if he (the professor) didn't use it."
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