Improving the Textbook Adoption Process in Taiwan

Textbooks were centrally selected in Taiwan until 1996 when the government commissioned its Textbook Liberalization Reform. Although this policy received complements from scholars and the general public, it encounters many unexpected problems in its implementation. The aims of this research are thus to identify the major criteria used by elementary school teachers for textbook selection, to calculate the relative weights of the criteria, and to map the relative market positions of the major textbook publishers. Survey questionnaires were administered to 504 elementary school teachers. AHP, ANOVA, and correspondence analysis were adopted for analyses. The results show that accuracy of content and instruction methodologies are the two most emphasized criteria. Moreover, teachers of different backgrounds rank the criteria differently. Suggestions are given to teachers and textbook publishers for improving the textbook selection process in Taiwan.