Learned without Book: English Grammar Schools and the Place of Textbooks in Early Modern Education
William Shakespeare, like many other Elizabethans, took note of the fundamental change in the use of schoolbooks during the sixteenth century: from being rare teachers’ copies in the Middle Ages, schoolbooks became the common learning tools of schoolboys in early modernity. This article examines the...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
2022
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In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 2022, Volume: 53, Issue: 1, Pages: 169-194 |
RelBib Classification: | KBF British Isles TE Middle Ages TJ Modern history ZF Education ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies |
Further subjects: | B
Learning
B HISTORY of education B REIGN of Elizabeth I, England, 1558-1603 B SECONDARY school students B BRITISH history B Secondary schools B Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 B Textbooks |
Summary: | William Shakespeare, like many other Elizabethans, took note of the fundamental change in the use of schoolbooks during the sixteenth century: from being rare teachers’ copies in the Middle Ages, schoolbooks became the common learning tools of schoolboys in early modernity. This article examines the timing of this change, its causes, and its far-reaching implications. Taking a book-history approach, this article argues that English grammar-school pupils started to learn with their own books in a gradual process taking place between 1510 and 1540. Following this process from edition to edition exposes the interplay of the material, intellectual, and commercial factors that shaped early modern education. Once every schoolboy sat in school with book in hand, the structure of schooling, the role of the teacher, the course of the lesson, and the cognitive aspects of learning went through deep shifts. This in turn affected early modern culture in profound, often surprising ways. |
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ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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