This action study investigated the effects of a textbook and gender upon the acquisition of exceptionalities content knowledge in an undergraduate teacher education course. In a course where teacher education content, tests and testing procedures, and grading procedures for assignments were held constant across three teaching conditions, the absence of a textbook was most disadvantageous for males. The difference between having or not having the textbook in the course amount to a slight difference in total points for females but enough points of difference for a letter grade for males. For content that is highly verbal, additionally using the textbook instead of relying solely on Power Point or lecture notes instead is recommended for males. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)