Textbooks are not a "warehouse" of all knowledge for students to memorize, and they cannot compete with the huge amount of information being updated every day.
In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the race to impose more knowledge into textbooks is becoming increasingly outdated.
In the era of AI and digital learning materials, students have more channels to access information than before. Therefore, the role of textbooks is not to compete on the amount of information, but to help learners build a foundation, thinking methods and the ability to verify knowledge.
But that does not mean that students do not need to learn. On the contrary, the more AI there is, the more it is necessary to learn how to think.
AI can give answers very quickly but not always correctly.
Therefore, what the school needs to build is not a student who knows how to memorize a lot, but a student who knows how to ask questions, knows how to search, analyze, verify and knows how to apply knowledge to solve problems.
That is also the reason why it is necessary to clarify "increasing practice" in textbooks.
Practice cannot just be adding a few questions at the end of the lesson or asking students to do a sample exercise.
Students studying about the environment must know how to observe water sources, classify waste, measure, record and propose solutions.
Learning math must know how to calculate the cost of a trip, make simple budgets, read charts, and process life data.
Learning physics must know how to apply knowledge to explain a familiar device.
Learning history not only requires remembering dates but also knowing how to read materials, compare sources and identify different interpretations.
Learning literature is not only about finding "the right meaning" in sample essays, but also about knowing how to think, argue and express your views.
Practice must bring knowledge out of the paper and put it into life, this is a point that new textbooks need to do better.
Reducing academic standards does not mean lowering academic requirements, basic knowledge must still be solid. Core concepts must still be taught seriously.
Knowledge that is too specialized, heavily academic but of little value to the majority of students needs to be considered. The expansion can be designed in the direction of digital learning materials, electronic libraries, and online resources.
Thus, textbooks do not lose knowledge, but shift from the goal of "containing a lot" to choosing the right thing to learn and paving the way for self-study.
In the AI era, students are not lacking in information, what needs to be addressed is to develop the ability to distinguish right and wrong information and turn information into their own understanding.
Textbooks do not need to say everything, but help students know how to learn everything.
