The main categories of textbooks

Textbooks which are organized in a systematically progressive fashion: these are educational texts which propose a structure, an order and a progression in the teaching-learning process:

- instruction is structured, organized in chapters and in units;

- the content of learning (information, explanations, comments, practical exercises, summaries, evaluation) is presented in an order;

- there is systematic progression of learning towards the acquisition of new knowledge and learning new concepts, based on known items of knowledge.

These textbooks are real working tools for the teacher and the pupil. Whilst teacher's guides do enter into this category, they are intended only for the teacher and their structure, organization and content differs from textbooks for pupils.

Books for Reference or Consultation. These are texts containing a body of information in a certain field for the purposes of reference or consultation as and when needed. Neither their organisation, nor structure is specifically applicable to the learning process.