Assisting students with difficult textbooks: Teacher perceptions and practices

Abstract

The primary purpose of this investigation was to examine teachers' perceptions and practices pertaining to textbook adaptations and instructional strategies to facilitate understanding of textual material. Subjects included 20 elementary, 20 middle, and 20 high school teachers. Each teacher completed the Textbook Adaptation Evaluation Instrument, a Likert‐type scale that consists of 31 textbook adaptations. Teachers rated each adaptation in respect to desirability, feasibility, and use. Analyses provided a comparison of teachers' overall rankings of desirability, feasibility, and use for each of the three grade groups (elementary, middle, and high). Findings are discussed in respect to types of adaptations preferred, grade grouping differences, and implications for future research.