Reducing "Text Anxiety"

As any A&P instructor can tell you, our students are NOT eager to open their textbooks and dive in. And yet, when and if they do dive in, they'll find all kinds of help in understanding the basic principles of the course.  What causes such "text anxiety" in our students?  What can be done to reduce it?

I'm convinced that one trigger (of many) for text anxiety is that many textbooks present information in large, solid masses that are simply too daunting for most readers. More students with poor reading skills seem to be in our courses, but even excellent and eager readers can be put off by a large, dense chapter rife with five-dollar words and technical language.

So that's why I've fully committed to the "chunking" approach to teaching and textbook writing. It's well known among educators and those who study the science of reading and learning that breaking large amounts of information into smaller chunks increases the ease and efficiency of reading—thus improving overall comprehension of the material.  And it seems to reduce text anxiety by presenting material in easily digestible, bite-sized chunks.

Anatomy & Physiology has already seen the splitting of chapters and sections over previous editions, giving it the largest number of chapters of any 2-semester A&P textbook.  The 8th edition has 37 chapters versus the usual 20-something chapters—with about the same number of pages among all the books.  Student feedback and expert recommendations have nudged us to take chunking a step further in the 9th edition (available in January 2015). 

As the chart below shows by colored pairs in the right column, I've split the eleven largest chapters.  This increases the total number of chapters from 37 to 48 chapters.  Although the number of chapters is much higher than in the previous edition, the total page count is almost exactly the same—because the material was chunked, not expanded.

Besides the chunking of whole chapters, I also chunked many of the denser sections within chapters—adding helpful subheadings to aid reading comprehension in expert and challenged readers alike. Even longer paragraphs and sentences were split to improve reading efficiency.

I also took the opportunity to simplify chapter titles (marked with an asterisk in the chart), headings, and the titles of tables and illustrations.  

All of these simple changes maintain the same finely-tuned depth of coverage and quality of the content, but greatly reduce text anxiety among our A&P students!

Units	9th ed	8th ed	9th ed Chapter titles
The Body as a Whole	1	1	Organization of the Body
	2	1	Homeostasis
	3	2	Chemical Basis  of Life
	4	2	Biomolecules
	5	3	Cell Structure*
	6	4	Cell Function*
	7	5	Cell Growth & Development*
	8	6	Introduction to Tissues
	9	6	Tissue Types
Support and Movement	10	7	Skin*
	11	8	Skeletal Tissues
	12	9	Axial Skeleton
	13	9	Appendicular Skeleton
	14	10	Articulations
	15	11	Axial Muscles
	16	11	Appendicular Muscles
	17	12	Muscle Contraction*
Communication, Control, and Integration	18	13	Nervous System Cells
	19	13	Nerve Signaling
	20	14	Central Nervous System
	21	15	Peripheral Nervous System
	22	16	Autonomic Nervous System
	23	17	General Senses
	24	17	Special Senses
	25	18	Endocrine Regulation
	26	19	Endocrine Glands
Transportation and Defense	27	20	Blood
	28	21	Heart
	29	21	Blood Vessels
	30	22	Circulation of Blood*
	31	23	Lymphatic System
	32	24	Innate Immunity
	33	24	Adaptive Immunity
	34	25	Stress
Respiration, Nutrition, and Excretion	35	26	Respiratory Tract*
	36	27	Ventilation
	37	27	Gas Exchange & Transport
	38	28	Upper Digestive Tract
	39	28	Lower Digestive Tract
	40	29	Digestion and Absorption*
	41	30	Nutrition and Metabolism
	42	31	Urinary System
	43	32	Fluid & Electrolyte Balance
	44	33	Acid-Base Balance
Reproduction and Development	45	34	Male Reproductive System
	46	35	Female Reproductive System
	47	36	Growth and Development
	48	37	Genetics and Heredity

* Simplified-clarified chapter titles
Split chapters are highlighted in same color