Why Exercise Books Still Have a Place in Modern Education

In our increasingly digital world, you’d be forgiven for thinking that traditional educational practices are on their way out. While it’s true that some aspects of teaching have benefited from going digital, bringing increased accessibility and more personalised education and resources to many, there are some teaching methods and tools that remain firmly offline – the humble exercise book is one offline tool that won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

Exercise books have remained a cornerstone of modern education despite the ongoing digital revolution, and it’s not hard to see why when you dig into the myriad of benefits for both teachers and pupils.

Exercise books foster better pupil engagement

There’s no substitute for the hands-on learning experience that exercise books can provide. The act of writing or drawing by hand fully engages pupils’ senses improving both understanding and retention of material.

Read our recent blog on ‘The Resurgence of Handwriting in Education’ for more on this.

Exercise books help pupils develop important skills

From organisational skills to note-taking and handwriting, exercise books develop skills that cannot be taught online. In fact, the very act of writing helps to improve fine motor skills, understanding and memory, building pupil’s innate abilities at the same time as their skills.

Exercise books record pupil progress

The use of exercise books in schools gives teachers an accurate and tangible record of a student’s development over time, allowing them to adjust their learning plans if needed and provide individualised feedback directly to pupils.

Exercise books are versatile

Exercise books can be used for a huge range of activities, from note-taking and rough working through to handwriting practice, storytelling, mathematics and recording science experiments. Many teachers are clocking onto the fact that pupils don’t all have to use exercise books in the same way either – what works for one student, may not work for the next – and the good old exercise book is flexible enough to easily allow for such individual variation in learning approaches.

Exercise books are useful for revision

Just as exercise books provide a record for teachers, they also provide a record for the students that use them. Everything they’ve been taught is written up inside, making them an excellent source of revision notes for tests and exams. What’s more, the act of writing will have helped that information stay front of mind when they sit their test!

Exercise books showcase work for teacher assessments

Exercise books provide that all-important tangible evidence of learning for teacher assessments and inspections. There’s no substitute for real work completed in class when it comes to looking at how a teacher is performing day to day. Online tools tend to evidence how many questions or exercises a student got right, not what learning they’ve done to get there.

Exercise books are easily tailored to different needs

We all know that exercise books can be tailored for different subjects right? These days there are more and more options for different learning needs too. Whether it’s exercise books with tinted paper for neurodivergent students, or A3+ exercise books ideal for collaborative learning, there are so many ways to enhance learning for all students with the huge variety of exercise books available.

Personalised exercise books promote a sense of belonging and inclusion

Many schools are seeing the benefits of customising their exercise books with the school logo or crest and name as a way of nurturing school spirit and encouraging a sense of inclusion without breaking the school budget.

So, there we have it - the exercise book has so many more benefits than at first appear! While the digital transformation continues on apace, there’ll always be a need for exercise books in schools – without them, the chance to build vital skills and all the benefits for teachers and pupils alike, could be lost.

Browse RHINO's full range of high-quality, budget-friendly exercise books for schools here, or order your sample pack, here.