The Place of Workbooks in Primary School

The reason usually given as to the purpose of having a workbook was for the students to work in independence of the teachers to follow-up and practice each lesson that was covered inside the classroom, so that the limited time in the classroom can focus on 'mastery'.

This view has it's pros and cons. If students are expected to use the workbooks at home, then it might increase the burden of the children.  However, if the child wants to work independently at school or at home, then workbook are a really wonderful resource to further and supplement the classroom learning.

We also want our students to continously engage with their learning and stay connected, in that sense, workbooks serve an important role. And making our workbook colourful and attactive enhanced students desire to be engaged with it. But as mentioned above, it should not be forced or else it become a burden.

Workbook are really useful for some contents that focus on practice and mastery, especially mathematics. While workbook can also be effectively used for enhancing learning in social sciences and language, engaging them in a real life experience is a much more effective pedagogy for most children to learn language and the social sciences.

Saying that, the whole purpose of having a workbook is to supplement the limitation of the classroom...so a workbook should avoid repeating what is already in the textbook. Even if it's repeated, then it should take a step further.

And for workbook writer and designer, your focus is on making learning vibrant enough so that children would rather engage with the workbook in the face of the various activities available to them.  Make the workbook attactive, vibrant, and interesting -it has to be more interesting than the textbook. Know and organize the competencies you want to focus-on to make life easier for the teachers. And please, by all means, remember that workbooks are not meant to be a replacement of a teacher, so don't prepare the worksheets expected of the teachers.

And dear teachers, workbook are meant for your students to work independently at home (with or without support of parents) or when you're busy in the classroom especially when you're teaching multi-grade. Please prepare your own worksheet and remember, workbook can never replace a well-prepared lesson plan from you. Afterall, a workbook is just a book, while your lesson plan take into account your knowledge and understanding of your students which is the most valuable components of an effective teaching-learning process.