Another textbook of paediatrics finds its way to market, to take its place alongside those already in print. In their introduction, Haddad et al write that they have written this for undergraduates and junior doctors undertaking their first paediatric post. The underlying concepts arise from prior collaborative work undertaken by departments of Child Health in Scottish Universities in response to the GMC guidelines contained in “Tomorrow's Doctor”. This work, reported in Medical Education,¹ provides a structure that gives uniformity of approach for each organ system and indeed the textbook is clearly and consistently laid out.

As with many other authors of textbooks, the authors start with an assumption that the layout of texts will influence learning. It is difficult to find any supportive evidence in educational literature and any research suggests that it is assessment rather than …