book-teaching

noun

Teaching from textbooks, rather than by hands-on experience.

Meanings

nounbook-teaching (countable and uncountable, plural book-teachings)

plural book-teachings · alternative bookteaching

  1. countableuncountableTeaching from textbooks, rather than by hands-on experience.

    A teacher who fails in one will fail in the other for the same reasons,—through lack of knowledge of where science impinges upon the child's interests and experience,—and book-teaching rather than teaching with the object itself.

    1918, The Nature-study Review, volumes 14-15
    1 more example

    […] and they are offered to the Student, in the hope that he may be encouraged to fill in the details from actual observation, and thereby cultivate a habit of self-reliance, instead of depending too much on book-teaching in his early studies.

    1872, Frederick Le Gros CLARK (F.R.S.), Outlines of Surgery and Surgical Pathology

Origin

  1. Old Englishbōctǣċing
  2. Englishbook-teaching

From book + teaching. Perhaps continuing Old English bōctǣċing.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

book-teaching. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/book-teaching

MLA

“book-teaching.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/book-teaching. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “book-teaching,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/book-teaching.

Source: book-teaching on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.