Why do some professors not recommend any text books for a course?

Question

I took a semester where a professor was teaching Statistics. He gave out no lecture materials nor the name of any text books.

When I asked him for a text book name, he gave me a name of a 900+ pages' book. I could not find anything relevant in the text book which matches his lectures. Finally, I quit the course.

The same thing happened whilst undertaking my Numerical Analysis course.

See this YouTube video named Introduction to Computer Graphics at 16:31. This is okay may be for 3D computer graphics. But, I guess, not good for math.

Why don't some professors recommend a text book for a course?

Could you clarify “I could not find anything relevant in the text book which matches his lectures”? If the professor was teaching Statistics, presumably he was lecturing on statistics, and if the text book was on statistics, presumably it also contains statistics. While it is possible (and likely) that the organization and presentation of material is very different (e.g. the professor uses different notation, different order, etc), it would be strange if the actual content has absolutely no overlap (though possibly you need to learn “statistics”, say the entire textbook, before realizing it). — ShreevatsaR, Sep 16 '18 at 18:02
@ShreevatsaR, he was solving a number of maths which exactly match Hwei P. Hsu. But, he referred me Douglas C. Montgomery. — , Sep 16 '18 at 18:32
@ShreevatsaR, he had a list of his own maths designed by himself. — , Sep 16 '18 at 18:39
Thanks for clarifying; that makes it clearer. At least in the case of the two books, though they are clearly very different in the presentation, their content does have some overlap (even more than I'd have expected): you can see a close match between "Chapter 1. Probability" and "Chapter 2. Probability", similarly Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, or Chapter 7 and Chapter 7. So is the question about why the lectures did not closely match any textbook? — ShreevatsaR, Sep 16 '18 at 18:42
@ShreevatsaR, So is the question about why the lectures did not closely match any textbook? --- No. — , Sep 16 '18 at 19:07
@JalapenoNachos I've had like 2 lectures in my entire life that followed a textbook. Not sure why it's such a big holdup for many people. — Cubic, Sep 16 '18 at 23:08
Finding relevant information in books is an essential skill in academy. It looks like you need to develop this skill. — IMil, Sep 17 '18 at 02:08
During my first semester at university, many of my classmates complained that the lecturer was following the textbook "too closely" and that it was a waste of time since "we could also read the textbook on our own". Many wanted to have the professor's perspective and personal take on the material. (It was a maths lecture) — Taladris, Sep 17 '18 at 04:55
You make it sound like you dropped the course as a "punishment" to the lecturer. I bet that was effective. — David Richerby, Sep 17 '18 at 13:54
I'm confused by your bolded "no lecture materials". It is your responsibility to take notes from the lecture that you are able to use later, was there some reason this was not possible? — Jack Aidley, Sep 17 '18 at 14:26
@JackAidley, taking notes were not enough for various reasons including, among others, fast talking, complicated method of lecture delivery, too much expectation from students, and so on. — , Sep 17 '18 at 14:28
I’m with @Cubic here. If a professor saw no benefit from requiring a book, then why would anyone try to find an excuse to spend money on one? In a world of electronic learning materials, this question seems to lack a core concern. — , Sep 17 '18 at 15:38
I believe you simply took a course that was too advanced for you, either due to the material studied or for the effort required by the professor. Some courses cannot be taken lightly and require actual effort to complete. College is not just memorizing a book or set of notes written and organized by others. You actually need to be able to understand the material, what's important and what not, how to record and organize it efficiently and exercise the theory to problems including ones that you did not see during a lecture. If you don't do that you are doing college wrong. — Bakuriu, Sep 17 '18 at 18:29
@yahoo.com He might see how to find sources part of what you learn in the lecture. An also recognizing the problem by yourself. To me, that partly defines the difference between school and university. — Volker Siegel, Sep 19 '18 at 00:38
@yahoo.com And statistics is really hard to understand in many parts. — Volker Siegel, Sep 19 '18 at 00:40
Everyone has a different experience or preferences, but I have always relied heavily on textbooks, in fact I usually browsed several on the subject and used them together with the lecture notes. Especially in the math-heavy fields. Now my professor prepares excerpts from many sourses so his students can compare how various authors describe the same subjects (physics-related). I find it very useful, and I have been assisting him for years now. Of course, we have never asked students to buy a book, or even take one from the library. The material we prepare ourselves is usually enough — Yuriy S, Sep 19 '18 at 08:19

score 129 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 15:35

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Reasons why I do not use textbooks:

Most textbooks in my experience are bad.
Most students do not read them (probably because they are bad).
They are expensive.
They do not align with how I want to teach the course.
I can provide the relevant subset of content myself.

I can't see a reason to use a textbook in my courses other than for supplemental material (even then, I would much rather point them to some free PDFs/slides from various faculty that are online).

answered Sep 16 '18 at 15:35

Austin Henley

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I can't speak for everyone, but I think the reason why a lot of students don't read textbooks is because they are just a chore to read. One of my professors once recorded his lectures and gave us the videos. It was very helpful in understanding the material and my personal opinion is that if he just gave everyone a textbook recommendation, people would not have learned nearly as much. – MechMK1 Sep 16 '18 at 16:14
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Weird. In college (40yrs ago) I read every single textbook that my professor assigned and required and so did the vast majority of my classmates. To this day I still have them and frequently reference them. – RBarryYoung Sep 16 '18 at 19:57
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@RBarryYoung: It might vary based on your field (and on your interest in learning/academia in general), but I would suggest that your experience does not reflect those of most others. Some courses are heavily dependent on reading the textbook; many others barely touch on the "required" reading. – Sep 16 '18 at 22:53
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@V2Blast The 40 years ago part of Barry's comment is relevant. Attitudes and methods of both teachers and students have changed noticeably in the last half century. One big reason is that 40+ years ago you didn't have near-instantaneous access to the sum total of human knowledge in your pocket. The book assigned for the course was not really optional then (for both sides, really). Today I can find entire textbooks, solution manuals, youtube video courses, etc. online with limited fuss. – zibadawa timmy Sep 17 '18 at 01:45
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@zibadawatimmy That is very true. – Sep 17 '18 at 02:13
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IMHO and without any intention of sounding disrespectful, these are not really great reasons. (1) Most != all; pick a good one (2) Most != all; all students' needs should be catered for if at all possible (3) It is a very minor cost compared to the overall cost of being a student, and the textbook need not be compulsory (4) The priority should be the student's needs, not the lecturer's wants, (5) Learning method is as important as content and not all students find lectures as effective as reading; see point 2. The last sentence is reasonable if in fact free alternative sources are provided. – JBentley Sep 17 '18 at 03:17
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Could you expand on your first point? Since textbooks are written by academics, one would expect that the average textbook would be as good as the average lecturer. Moreover, since editors pick experimented lecturers to write textbooks, or since actual lecturers evaluate books and recommend good books to their students, bad books are eventually eliminated from the market. So one could assume textbooks are actually better. Are textbooks inherently flawed? – Taladris Sep 17 '18 at 05:06
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@Taladris Textbook authors are not picked uniformly at random from the population of (fluent) professors. There's a selection bias; many great lecturers will never consider writing a text. So there's no such expectation. The production of textbooks for common classes (calculus, say) is also a profit-oriented venture of mass consumption; it's not motivated by educational efficacy. I think you also overestimate the amount of time the typical professor/lecturer is willing to put into evaluating a text and actively encouraging or discouraging its use. – zibadawa timmy Sep 17 '18 at 06:38
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@Taladris Could be the Dunning–Kruger effect. Could be that because teaching and research are different skills many textbooks are less than ideal. Maybe there should be more collaborations between research- and teaching-dominant scholars. But I think point four of this answer could be the most common reason: it's just not how you'd teach it. – curiousdannii Sep 17 '18 at 06:41
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Good luck teaching quantum mechanics (or similar) without a textbook. – gented Sep 17 '18 at 08:55
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In my experience of textbooks from 20 years ago, my physics text was written by the professor. He was bad at teaching and if you couldn't understand his lectures, the book was worse. For a digital electronics course I had, I only ever opened the front cover to see how to draw the shapes. The course was very easy for me and not worth the $110 for the book. Because of how bad most textbooks are, I've quit trying to read them. They either are way too detailed and get lost in the details, or they don't have any detail to explain anything. Sometimes they are both. – computercarguy Sep 17 '18 at 14:49
@JBentley sure, “most does not equal all”, but on the flip side, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, especially in large audience academic theaters. – Sep 17 '18 at 15:41
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@JBentley books are not a “minor cost” for many students, especially if not included in their tuition assistance. – Sep 17 '18 at 15:42
@JBentley one can assume that the lecturers wants to meet the needs of the students, so those two do not necessarily conflict. – Sep 17 '18 at 15:43
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I wonder if this is also culture-specific as well as field specific: the textbook was a complete waste of a very great deal of money ($100~$200 USD per) in all of my (US) non-technical classes and an arguable waste of money in about half of the technical ones. Curious if students from other countries feel the same? – Jared Smith Sep 17 '18 at 19:00
Right. The only think I need from a math text is a list of problems. So when I had the freedom, I always chose Schaum's outline or something similar. $12 on Amazon, tons of worked out examples, plenty of practice problems. – B. Goddard Sep 17 '18 at 20:26
Sounds like you should write your own textbook, based on your course perhaps. – einpoklum Sep 17 '18 at 21:05
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@DoritoStyle I think you missed my point. You can provide a textbook without any detriment to the needs of the many. It is not a binary choice, so there is no outweighing. You can provide a learning environment that enables students to access the full content via lectures or via reading, and leave them the choice over which style they prefer. If a textbook is expensive for some students, you haven't hurt them by offering them it as an option. And yes, it is minor relative to the other costs (food, accommodation, tuition fees, etc.). – JBentley Sep 17 '18 at 23:04
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@JBentley check your privilege – Sep 18 '18 at 04:23
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@JBentley That's a misleading argument. For many students, most of tuition is deferred till after they graduate (usually with interest). My yearly immediate costs for my undergrad averaged around $4k in tuition and fees, $5k in rent and utilities, $1k in food, and $800 in used textbooks (after exhausting free/borrowing options). Like clockwork, it was this giant lump sum due at the beginning of every semester -- sucking an extra 2 hours of work a week on top of 18-25 credits. Is 7-8% "minor"? Maybe, but I won't admit to not having felt a burden. – Hans Musgrave Sep 18 '18 at 05:43
I've studied COSC, and in my experience none of them require textbooks, half of them don't even recommend them. Part of that could be the material, a lot of COSC moves faster then textbooks, or are too specific for a single textbook. I've also studied a few other courses, such as biology. These ones recommend textbooks more, though I haven't yet found one that would cause me to fail if I didn't buy the textbook.
We also have lecture notes available, they'll usually refer to a chapter or section of a textbook for more detail, but the material in the lecture notes is usually enough to pass.
– Programmdude Sep 18 '18 at 05:44
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@curiousdannii: I am always cautious of the Dunning-Kruger effect, as it is often misused. Sure there are textbooks written by incompetent lecturers that didn't acknowledge their lack of skill, but there are probably lecturers that over-estimate their teaching skills and would benefit from using a textbook. – Taladris Sep 19 '18 at 00:12
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@RBarryYoung It's not too strange. I was in a differential equations course that had an assigned textbook, newest 2016 edition, really expensive and the works. I was struggling with the course, and a friend of mine at work (who is also 30ish years older than me) said that he had a differential equations book from his days in college, and loaned it to me, and I started reading that book instead. Turns out differential equations haven't really changed in 30 years, and his book was loads better (and cheap, I later bought my own copy on Amazon for $5). And then I started passing the class. – Davy M Sep 19 '18 at 05:05
@RBarryYoung 40 yrs ago, they were worth reading. – Trusly Sep 19 '18 at 22:22
@DavyM i had much same experience, (except i didnt buy the book because it was allready in the family). After that I realized that you the student need to find a book that suits your need. – joojaa Sep 20 '18 at 13:36

score 44 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 16:55

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Regardless of any perceived advantages of textbooks, they usually have many disadvantages for the student. By some decision-making process, your professor has decided that no combination of textbooks has enough advantages to outweigh the disadvantages.

They're expensive.
They take a kitchen sink approach to have a wider market.
They're difficult to read.
- Often lacking explanations, intuitions, and visuals for the complicated concepts they're spouting as obvious and important.
They take time away from homework, reviewing and consolidating your lecture notes, discussions with peers, attending office hours, and other things that are generally much more beneficial to your learning and career.
They're outdated in many fields. Parts of statistics and numerical analysis are advancing rapidly and have been for years.
They're difficult to use correctly when they don't map perfectly to the lectures.
- As a bit of an aside, some of the greatest value from a textbook is gained when they don't map perfectly to lectures. It allows you to supplement the lectures with a completely different perspective.
They're inflexible. For any given textbook, some students won't learn well from it. A professor can tailor their approach to a degree, but a textbook is fixed. That presents a risk in choosing a book.

answered Sep 16 '18 at 16:55

Hans Musgrave

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I chose a book for one of my courses, the students all complained bitterly that there were no examples. The next year I chose a different book (triggering complaints that they couldn't get used ones) with examples; they all complained bitterly that it had no theory or rules, just endless examples and case studies. I put in hours of work to finally track down a book with both and in addition to the "we can't get used from last year" I was told it was too long, too heavy and too expensive. I switched to printing my lecture notes. – Kate Gregory Sep 17 '18 at 17:50
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They're not expensive if you borrow them from the library or download them. 2. They are intended for teachers to make a partial selection from the "kitchen sink" of all chapters together 3. They're usually easier to read than one's classmates' lecture notes 4. Let the students decide how best to approach the course. Tell them you recommend following the lectures without consulting the book, for example, but also mention a book 5. Unless it's an advanced course, you're typically teaching basics, which change rarely enough to be well-covered by books.

einpoklum

Sep 17 '18 at 21:10

(cont.) 6. They may not map perfectly to lectures, but they have their own narrative flow. 7. They're more flexible if you direct the students to a subset of chapters. And as a bottom line - if there's no good textbook, consider writing one yourself. – einpoklum Sep 17 '18 at 21:11

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@einpoklum I'm not quite sure who's misunderstanding whom, but there seems to be a bit of a disconnect here. I rather like books myself and think they have a place in most courses, but OP didn't seem to be asking for positives. We can't just wave away the negatives because they can be partially mitigated or don't exist in every imaginable circumstance. Taking cost as an example, for my undergraduate I had to buy 4+ books each semester even after downloading/borrowing any I could find for free. Even used, that came to $300+. – Hans Musgrave Sep 18 '18 at 02:10

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@einpoklum you can’t honestly expect every student taking a course to be able to borrow textbooks from the library – Sep 18 '18 at 14:14

@DoritoStyle: 1. In my alma mater, an on-campus book store had an arrangement in which essentially every student in each of the faculty-wide basic courses could have a copy of the textbook, at the same time. Sure, they were a bit worn out and some had pencil markings (or worse), but we had our books. 2. You can download the book (this is legal in most countries, and probably-illegal-but-never-pursued in almost all countries). 3. You can scan a library copy for self-study. – einpoklum Sep 18 '18 at 21:01

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@einpoklum that sounds like an excellent program, but in my experience it’s an exception to the rule! – Sep 18 '18 at 21:33

Buffy · Answer 3 · 2018-09-16T14:21:04.357

For individual courses and professors you need to ask the professor. However, there are a number of reasons why someone might want to make no recommendation.

Least likely is that the prof feels that any book is as good as any other.

A bit more likely is that the prof feels that any book is as bad as any other.

Up the scale a bit is the sense (possibly misplaced) that the prof's lectures are all the student will need. If this is the case, the student's are strongly advised to attend every lecture and take lots of notes. For some this is a valid position if the professor also puts extensive materials online or otherwise makes them available. However, it can also be a trap if the professor thinks that lectures deliver the needed information and skills perfectly to every student. That is a serious error of judgement.

Another reason is that the prof wants the students to actually seek out answers to questions online or in the (gasp) library. Some professors don't answer questions with answers but with a strategy for finding the answer. This, of course, disadvantages lazy students.

Still higher on the (my) list is that the course is intended to use active learning and so more passive approaches (reading, watching, listening) are discouraged and the student is expected to do most of his or her learning by doing exercises and projects. For Statistics and Numerical Analysis, this seems to me to be a worthy goal. I find it useful also in much of computer science.

Given that one learns by practice and reinforcement, this last strategy can be very effective. Active learning gives you an operational knowledge of a subject that reading (or even reading and underlining) a book won't.

I have, on occasion, "recommended" a book, not for help on the things in the course, but for things that won't be covered. There was no obligation to buy the book. I've also made such recommendations about a pair of quite different books for the same reason.

I totally agree with the "active learning" bit and that is how I work my course (demonstration of method with detail and lots of practise after). plus one from me just for that. — Solar Mike, Sep 16 '18 at 14:53
+1 for point #3: ultimately, the point of university is to become an independent learner. At some point as professionals there won’t be a textbook telling us how to solve a particular problem. Doubly so if your aim is to become an academic. Sometimes you are just have to find and evaluate primary material for yourself. — Jimmy Breck-McKye, Sep 18 '18 at 19:30

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 19:38

It might also be cultural. I studied (mostly math) in France. I have never been given a textbook to read for any higher education class. It just isn't done, and I think the idea of paying for a book would have been a non-starter for me and most of my classmates. Now that I teach myself, recommending a textbook isn't even something that crosses my mind, and I know it's the same for many of my colleagues. (Some do; but it's never required for the students to even glance at the list... And there may be a few copies in the university library, but they certainly won't buy it.)

What is done in some courses is that the teacher will have written (or inherited) some lecture notes – colloquially known as a polycopié or poly – and hand it out for students or even just post on a webpage. Of course, when the notes keep being passed on from prof to prof, they basically become an unpublished textbook. Some of them are of the highest quality. But it's always understood that it's a mere memory aid and that was is important is what's said in class. And there usually is no claim of completeness like the word "textbook" implies (I think).

Similar here in Germany. I have bought some textbooks. Always after the course when I knew enough from the course (and the various books in the library) to be able to decide which textbook I want. — cbeleites unhappy with SX, Sep 17 '18 at 18:38

score 12 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 17:47

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I took a class in kinematic astronomy where the first thing the professor asked was, "Do any of you read German?" Sometimes a field is so highly specialized that there just isn't a good textbook available that covers everything the professor plans to discuss.

answered Sep 16 '18 at 17:47

G. Allen

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From the OPs comment, this was an introductory statistics class. There are plenty of those textbooks available. – De Novo Sep 19 '18 at 16:35

score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 14:09

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Reasons could be anything, down to personality preference. If you had an advanced statistic course, there might not be a book that covers your materials.

But this is 2018. You have Google, digital library, Amazon... Why can't you do some searching yourself?

answered Sep 16 '18 at 14:09

SmallChess

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The perspective of an expert is valuable in selecting a textbook -- especially when purchasing them online so that you can't easily examine them and get a sense of their quality or how they relate to what you already know. – Hans Musgrave Sep 16 '18 at 16:37

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 18 '18 at 08:57

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Probably there is no text book for his course.

I would think, probably he actually used the 900 page book and cherry picked the topics for his course.

Probably not last month, but over the years he held the lecture. Recommending any text book would mean that it contains stuff you do not need (for the course) and may lack topics covered by the course, so he cannot recommend any book. Any but the 900 page book, which is not suitable for reading, but contains the topics which will be covered together with a lot of others.

So to satisfy you demand, he would need to write a book covering his course. Some professors do so sooner or later, but many do not. Others may use an existing book, but not everyone agrees with the existing books on the topics which are important for the lecture.

answered Sep 18 '18 at 08:57

allo

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which is not true at all. he was solving a number of maths which exactly match Hwei P. Hsu. But, he referred me Douglas C. Montgomery. – Sep 18 '18 at 09:38
When you know the right text book, use it. Maybe he had reasons to mention another, maybe he confused it with the other one, maybe something else. You stated in your question, that you did not know the right text book. I do not know the books, so I have no idea. It isn't that unlikely that he just thought of the wrong book in the moment, when the other book really matches the course. – allo Sep 18 '18 at 11:27
by the time I found the correct book, the semester was over. – Sep 18 '18 at 13:04

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 19 '18 at 12:20

In my opinion, the reason is that most professors wish that students attend the lessons, in order to capture some particular explanations, and technical details you can't find in any book. My statistics professor, when we asked her what where the reference books on which to study for the examinations, answered us: "Would you like to know what are the reference books?? Follow the course!!!!".

score -1 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 16 '18 at 15:42

I think it is the idea that they want to design the exact content (topics covered).

I disagree with this stance because I think that many different courses can have benefit and that the biggest issue is not the exact topic list but how well you learn. And I think textbooks are an excellent pedagogical aid (and also helpful for future reference, since you studied THAT book). I think almost all courses would be better off picking a text and sticking closely to it. But obviously some people disagree with me.

Why do some professors not recommend any text books for a course?

9 Answers9