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Donnie Schmidt
Dr. Bell
TED 3690
February 10th 2019
Text Analysis- Thinking About Psychology
Introduction
The text being analyzed within this assignment is a psychology book used in the high
school classrooms of Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs. The book covers all
everything about psychology in different sections. The students in this psychology course learn
about many of the topics explored in the book. Mr. Liebenthal, the teacher of the class, uses this
text to supplement his other materials. He lectures, provides activities, and shows videos to
connect the learning to real-life examples. He does not focus on the text as the main source of
learning in the classroom. He instead turns to the text to provide additional details and useful
graphics to help students better understand the material being presented.
The material he was working on when I arrived and helped assist him with was about the
nervous system and endocrine system. The chapter/ module begins by introducing what makes
up those systems, at the smallest level. It describes what a neuron is, what parts make up a
neuron, how neurons communicate with each other, and what types of neurons exist. The chapter
then expands upon this knowledge by discussing the divisions and subdivisions of the nervous
system. (Central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system, autonomic, somatic systems).
The module then advances onward to the endocrine system before ending. This part of the text
fits into the greater scope of a psychology class because it dives deeper into how the body
functions. Psychology, as stated on the front of text being analyzed, is the study of the mind and
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behavior (Broeker & Ernst, 2008). For us to understand why people think and behave like they
do, we must first understand how the body operates. What systems contribute to our thoughts
and behaviors. How does damage/ deficiencies in those system affect our thinking and
behaviors? It is important to analyze the systems on a smaller level before zooming out and
analyzing the body and mind as a whole.
On page forty-five of the Tovani text, she lists many examples of what accessible texts
look like (Tovani, 2004). Some types of these texts are included in the psychology book. For
example, on page 98 of the Psychology Today textbook, there is a table that describes how a
neuron communicates with other neurons (Broeker & Ernst, 2008). On many of the pages of the
textbook, definitions of key vocabulary are placed off to the side of the main paragraphs, to help
students better understand key terms. On pages 102 and 103 of the text, an in-depth analysis of
the effects of neurotransmitters and drugs is presented. This takes the material a step further,
allowing students to learn more than basic information. The structure in each chapter/ module in
the book is set up in a similar way to the module explained above. There are main paragraphs
that explain the content, vocabulary terms off to the side, pictures and tables to help illustrate
certain ideas, and in-depth analysis of interesting concepts sprinkled throughout the modules. It
is clear to see that the organization and flow of the text is concise and well-done. Each chapter is
organized similarly and with a purpose. The flow is natural and easy to follow. From what I have
analyzed, there are no confusing areas of the text. With all of this being said, this text is a decent
example of what a high school text should look like. Throughout this analysis, I will look at
strengths and weaknesses of the text, assumptions of the text, and how I would teach this text.
This text is appropriate for high school students because it flows well, provides excellent tables
and figures, is not too dull, and covers content in a succinct and organized manner.
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Strengths
It is important to first examine the strengths of this text. Some of these strengths were
introduced previously, but will not be looked at more closely. The first strength that stood out to
me within this text was its balance between words on a page and tables and figures. It can be
hard to get through a textbook that uses few pictures and is word-heavy. As a student myself, I
have a tough time reading material that only has words in it and provides no maps, charts,
figures, etc. This book does an excellent job of providing examples of the content through more
than just words. It uses figures to describe how certain things look and provides definitions of
key vocabulary words. On page 97 of the Thinking About Psychology Text, there is an excellent
picture of the neuron and each of its parts. The parts are listed and defined as well, providing an
extra tool for students to visualize the concept of a neuron (Broeker & Ernst, 2008). This
illustration also provides a break in the text and allows to students to analyze something other
than words.
Another strength of this text is the use of in-depth coverage of material on certain pages
throughout each module. For example, as mentioned above, on pages 102 and 103, the concept
of neurons is taken a step further. On these pages, the author connects the neuron with bigger
picture ideas. The two pages explain how neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that travel
across neurons, affect the nervous system and body. Having too much of a certain
neurotransmitter, or not enough of a neurotransmitter, can lead to mental disorders like
schizophrenia or depression (Broeker & Ernst, 2008). On page 103 of the text, a picture is
shown to illustrate how neurotransmitter moves from one neuron to the next. These two pages
break away from the rest of the text and provide additional, important information to the student.
Weaknesses
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Although the text does a great job with providing useful illustrations and in-depth
analysis of certain topics, there is something missing. The biggest issue the text has is the lack of
more in-depth coverage of the content. The basic ideas of psychology are provided in each
module. Unfortunately, nothing else substantial is provided. For some reason, I kept a college
psychology textbook from my Sophomore year. Comparing the two texts, I quickly noticed a
huge difference. The college textbook (Discovering Psychology: The Science of the Mind) went
into more details and provided much better illustrations for the same material covered in the high
school textbook. The college textbook provided better definitions, better examples, and better
charts and graphs to help students learn better. For example, on the section covering the nervous
system within the college textbook, on page 111, a better graphic illustrating the central nervous
system is provided (Cacioppo & Freberg, 2012). The details given for each part of the central
nervous system are covered over multiple pages, whereas in the high school textbook, a
paragraph covers the central nervous system.
The high school textbook does an adequate job of presenting the material but, as
evidenced by the college textbook, there is more than can be added to make it a more complete
book. Understandably so, high school is different from college. Teachers have content that must
be taught and a strict curriculum to follow in high school. If they use books that have too much
detail, they will never be able to cover all the topics. In college, teachers can more in-depth with
students and choose what is more important to cover. Still, I wish the text being analyzed
provided more information.
The biggest challenge I faced in reading this textbook, and it is related to the lack of
details, was not understanding the content being taught. I think this ties in well with how high
school students would feel when trying to read the text. It is not a hard text to read through or
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take notes on. However, the text provides few details, so, for first time learners of the material, or
learners who need a refresher, like me, it is hard to grasp anything more than the basics without
using other resources. It is understandable why Mr. Liebenthal uses the text to supplement his
other materials. The lack of details in the book make it difficult to truly understand psychology
and make connections to the real world. This makes it harder for high schoolers to get through
the text as well as students like me.
The Modified Cognitive Model does an excellent job of expanding upon the point made
in the previous paragraph. My students will have a difficult time reading this text because of
their lack of vocabulary recognition and background knowledge (McKenna & Stahl, 2015).
These two important ideas are part of the bigger concept of language comprehension within the
MCM. Without language comprehension, students will have a hard time with reading the
material and understanding the concepts in the book. This is the biggest issue with this text. The
lack of details make it nearly impossible to help learners dive deeper into the material.
Assumptions
The first assumption the text makes is that American students, who speak English, will be
reading the book. There are no alternative language versions of the book offered in the
classroom. The book assumes that every student will have a firm grasp on English. For ESL
students, this book would be hard to follow. They would have to know the words to headings,
what certain vocabulary terms mean, and what the descriptions of pictures actually mean. It
would be difficult to teach the text to anyone who cannot speak or read English.
This textbook does not seem to discriminate based on race or gender, or at least not in the
module being analyzed. There are relatively few pictures of actual humans in the text so there are
no gender or racial biases presented. There are also no socio-economic biases presented within
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the part of the text that was analyzed. The biggest bias was ethnicity and culture. This book is
written for American students who speak English. It is not intended for students that come from
different areas of the world or students who speak a language different from English.
Teaching
The way I would teach this text is how Mr. Liebenthal has been teaching it. It is not a text
through which a teacher can use as a primary source. There is not enough information to use it to
teach the entirety of the content. It is better to use this text as well as additional materials,
articles, and documents to teach a thorough lesson of psychology.
With this text, and many other texts, I would use the double-entry diary strategy to help
teach this text. The double-entry diary strategy, as defined by Tovani on page 12, is an “access
tool that students can use to hold their thinking” (Tovani, 2004). I believe this strategy would be
useful for students because it would help them think beyond the definitions and basic ideas about
psychology. They would be able to connect real life examples that affect their own lives to the
material and explain why it is important. The class I have been working with, in particular,
enjoys bringing their own lives into the lesson and relating the ideas to something that matters to
them.
This strategy would be easy to implement within the classroom I am working in at
Thomas Jefferson. They use a Google Chromebook one-to-one program and have instant access
to class materials in Google Classroom. I would put this strategy up in Google Classroom and
have students go to it after I assign some reading from the analyzed text and other articles. I
would model how to do it, showing the students my thought process as I read through the
material. After modeling the material, I would work on one with them to see if students are
understanding the material. After doing this, I would allow students to work together in groups
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or alone and complete the rest of the double-entry diary assignment. If this strategy worked well
for the students, I would use it again. If it does not work, I would do something differently.
Conclusion
I generally assumed teachers choose texts based on administrators and curriculum. I did
not believe they had free will to provide their own, unique materials to their students. After doing
the text analysis, I better understand the process of choosing a text for classes. It has to be
something that describes the correct concepts, it cannot be too difficult, it must be approved by
administrators, and accessible to a diverse student body. It can extremely difficult to please all of
these groups with one text and so compromises are most likely made. These compromises are
made with the best intentions for students but still may be difficult for some students to
comprehend. The most difficult aspect I faced as a new learned of the material was the lack of
content knowledge. High school students face the same issues as they start new classes and learn
new ideas. It is important to help all students comprehend the material. Relying on one book to
reach all students is not enough. Multiple texts for different readers are essential for a successful
classroom. Finally, after doing this text analysis, I now understand how hard it is to work with
administrators on text choices while providing multiple options for students. As a future
educator, I now better understand the importance of closely working with administrators decide
what texts are used in my classroom.
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Reference
Blair-Broeker, C. & Ernst, R. (2008). Thinking About Psychology: The Science of Mind and
Behavior (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Cacioppo, J. & Freberg, L. (2012). Discovering Psychology: The Science of the Mind (1st ed.).
Cengage.
McKenna, M. C. & Stahl, K. A. D. (2015). Assessment for reading instruction (3rd ed.). New
York, NY: The Guilford Press.
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Tovani, C. (2004). Do I Really Have to Teach Reading?. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.