Elmasri‎,‎ Levine‎,‎ and Carrick‎'‎s ‎'‎spiral approach‎'‎ to teaching operating systems develops student understanding of various OS components early on and helps students approach the more difficult aspects of operating systems with confidence‎.‎ While operating systems have changed dramatically over the years‎,‎ most OS books use a linear approach that covers each individual OS component in‎-depth‎,‎ which is difficult for students to follow and requires instructors to constantly put materials in context‎.‎ Elmasri‎,‎ Levine‎,‎ and Carrick do things differently by following an integrative or ‎'‎spiral‎'‎ approach to explaining operating systems‎.‎ The spiral approach alleviates the need for an instructor to ‎'‎jump ahead‎'‎ when explaining processes by helping students ‎'‎completely‎'‎ understand a simple‎,‎ working‎,‎ functional system as a whole in the very beginning‎.‎ This is more effective pedagogically‎,‎ and it inspires students to continue exploring more advanced concepts with confidence‎.‎