Matching Books to Readers?

So, following yet another tangent that probably won't help me with my thesis, I borrowed a book called Matching Books to Readers, which is actually aimed at teachers of lower primary classrooms - the K-3 set.

I tell myself there's some cross over because I am looking at reading programmes and language learning and there is always the suggestion that using the books/programmes children use to learn a first language can help with learning a second language (which is half true and half bunk - children have an advantage that SLL don't have, in that they already speak the language with some skill before they try reading it)...

Anyway, the thing that struck me about the book more than anything else was its design. It's a larger page size than most of the other books I've been using. The font is bigger and "softer". There are more pictures. Oh, and the vocabulary is simpler (something not really part of the design, but hey). The other book I've used which was aimed at primary school children was very similar in its design.

This reminds me of books I used to use when I was studying Education, and I've finally noticed something: books written for teachers of different levels are designed differently.

You go and take a look at a book that's intended for a primary school teacher - not for them to use in class, but for their own education. Then look at a book aimed at a high school teacher, and one aimed at a university lecturer. There's a definite change in look, tone and complexity of language across the levels.

This is interesting, because a 48 year old teacher is a 48 year old with at least one university level degree, right? It doesn't matter what year they teach, they're still an educated adult. Why would book designers assume one 48 year old university graduate needs bigger, prettier fonts and more pictures than another 48 year old university graduate, just because the students they teach are at different ages and stages of education?

Why does John Smith, Year 2 teacher, have a bigger page with a larger text size than John Smith, university lecturer?