Innovative and on pupils' level: Winners of the Textbook of the Year Award 2021

The Georg Eckert Institute has presented the ‘Textbook of the Year’ award annually since 2012. With its partners the bpd (Federal Agency for Civic Education) and the Didacta Association, the Institute is able, through this award, to recognise and honour publishers and authors who have developed and implemented innovative textbooks, which remain an elemental component of educational media in schools. The award is under the patronage of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the German Länder.

Textbooks for primary schools, lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools are targeted in turn in a three-year cycle. This year’s prize focusses on textbooks for lower secondary level. The winning publications are selected by a jury of experts and cover the subjects: languages, society and STEM.

First place in the ‘languages’ category is awarded to ‘À plus!’, a French textbook published by Cornelsen. ‘”À plus!” works well all-round as a textbook that implements many current foreign-language teaching practices, is clearly laid out with a modern design and focusses on connecting with the pupils. Its strengths lie particularly in its orientation towards pupils and the interactive (oral) exercises,’ explains the chair of the jury for languages, Professor Claudia Schlaak from the University of Kassel. The jury were particularly impressed by the inclusion of creative and dramatic exercises, which demonstrate that languages are more than vocabulary and grammar, but are also about culture and communication.

The expert jury in the ‘Society’ category declared ‘EUROPA – UnsereGeschichte’ from Eduversum Verlag to be the winner. Jury chair, Professor Karl Heinrich Pohl from Christian Albrechts University Kiel, stated: ‘This textbook, developed by Polish and German historians and educators to depict European history from the perspective of both countries constitutes a novel idea. Overall it is a new kind of book that is innovative yet also instructive, and which superbly fulfils the didactic and subject-specific requirements while also potentially being politically ground breaking’.

In the ‘STEM’ category, Professor Carolin Retzlaff-Fürst from the University of Rostock announced the winner to be: ‘connected 3’ from Lehrmittelverlag Zürich. Her verdict was that the book provided ‘attractive and appropriate exercises with many stimuli for discovery learning and cooperation that promote the acquisition of skills. The innovative approach lifts the book above the mass of other teaching materials available for the subject of programming’. The clear references to the everyday lives of year 7 pupils in the computer studies textbook also impressed the jury, as did the way it encourages pupils to think about the subject beyond the school gates.

‘We are delighted to have been able to honour such outstanding textbooks this year and would like to thank the many publishing houses that sent us nominations. As the awards ceremony can only take place virtually we have produced a video to honour all the winners,’ said Professor Eckhardt Fuchs, chair of the panel and director of the GEI.

The video of the awards ceremony can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY0zPSkiArU

A comprehensive discussion of the nominees can be found here:
http://www.gei.de/preise/schulbuch-des-jahres/nominierungen/2021.html

More information on the Textbook of the Year Award can be found here:
www.gei.de/preise/schulbuch-des-jahres/preis.html