[Ecoed] Results of textbook survey

[Jennifer Riem]

Hello all--
 
A lot of people were interested in the results of the informal textbook poll, so here they are. I posted the question "What textbooks are people using to teach general or introductory ecology?" to the Education listserv (ecoed at ecoed.net) and ECOLOG before the winter holidays. I'm posting the results to both lists.
 
Some people mentioned several textbooks, either all used together currently or including both current and recently used texts. I counted all books mentioned. Several people mentioned supplementing textbooks with primary literature in general and/or specific ESA publications (Frontiers and "History of Ecology" articles from the ESA Bulletin). 
 
Here is the frequency of use for each textbook mentioned:
 
26 Molles (Ecology: Concepts and Applications)
7 Townsend, Begon, and Harper (Essentials of Ecology)
6 Ricklefs (Economy of Nature)
4 Smith & Smith (Elements of Ecology)
3 Smith & Smith (Ecology and Field Biology)
1 Smith and Smith (no title)
3 Ricklefs & Miller (Ecology)
3 Krebs (Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance)
3 Peter Stiling (Ecology: Theory and Applications)
1 Gotelli (Primer of Ecology)
1 Eric Pianka (Evolutionary Ecology)
1 Gould & Gould (BioStats Basics)
1 Rose and Mueller (Evolution and Ecology of the Organism)
1 Odum (Fundamentals of Ecology (Spanish))
1 R Margaleff (Ecología)
1 Campbell (ecology chapters of Biology) plus primary lit and Frontiers
1 Gurevitch, Scheiner, and Fox (Ecology of Plants)
1 books specific to regions of Indonesia (Ecology of Java, Ecology of Sumatra, Sulawesi)
1 none (students examine the approaches taken by several different textbooks covering same concepts)

Although I didn't ask for reviews, I received quiet a few. I'll share the overall impressions for the two textbooks I got the most comments on, but please keep in mind that only a subset of responses included comments.
 
More than a third of people who answered are using Molles. Several people commented that they find that it's student-friendly. Several people also commented that it oversimplifies some material. Two people mentioned that they supplement it with other materials for this reason.
 
It was commented that Townsend, Begon, and Harper is a more complex treatment of concepts (vs Molles). Two people suggested that it might be more appropriate for a two-semester introductory course or an upper-level course rather than a single semester introduction to ecology.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my question!
 
Jennifer
<http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/access/Pearson_Default/1663/1703422/login.html>  
Jennifer Riem
Education Coordinator
Ecological Society of America
301.588.3873 ext. 314
 
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