Textbook Quality

This book is about textbooks, textbook quality and quality standards of textbooks. From a theoretical point of view, in the light of Bahtin's theory of speech genres, school textbooks are seen as a specific, complex genre, defined by the addressee. At the same time, this approach requires us to see textbooks as a cultural product. From an educational point of view, textbooks are, according to Vygotsky's theory of cultural development, a key socio-cultural aid to cognitive development in school years. Forty-three quality standards are operationally defined and explained. They can be used for compiling textbooks, for textbook accreditations, for textbook evaluation and for selection by teachers.

Ivan Ivic is Full Professor of Developmental Psychology within the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. He is a leading developmental psychologist and educational expert in Serbia and contributes his expertise to international organisations (OECD, OMEP, UNICEF).