If Christian schools desire students to achieve higher-level thinking, then the textbooks that teachers use should reflect such thinking. Using Risner's (1987) methodology, raters classified questions from two Christian publishers' fifth grade reading textbooks based on the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). The questions in the A…

Since language and culture are closely interwoven, the integration of culture into textbooks used for teaching English as a second/foreign language has become a widely accepted phenomenon. This study investigates the cultural elements in locally published English textbooks used for Turkish primary schools following two major curriculum innovations…

This paper compared the Math ISTEP scores of third graders before the implementation of the Saxon Math program to the math ISTEP scores of the same group of students in sixth grade after implementation. Ex post factor research was used to compare data from the comparison year to the treatment year. Data collected was in the form of ISTEP math…

Four elementary social studies textbook series are reviewed and compared with particular attention paid to the extent to which the textbooks are globally oriented. The trend of emphasizing global education in the social studies also is discussed. As used in this paper, "global education" includes the study of world geography, world…

A description and analysis of the content of an elementary level student textbook which uses archaelogical research to study the Maritime Archaic Indians of Newfoundland is provided. (DE)

Critiques an elementary social studies program by analyzing commercially available curriculum materials. Discusses goals, content selection, organization and sequencing, and explication in the text. Suggests that publishers should (1) shift from content coverage objectives to more general social education purposes; (2) connect information in…

Based on data from a longitudinal study of preservice teacher education conducted at a large midwestern university, this paper describes and appraises what prospective elementary teachers in two different teacher preparation programs were taught about textbooks, what they learned, and what they did with these lessons during student teaching. It is…

Three sets of instructional materials are discussed. They are: "Mathematics for Schools"; "Nuffield Maths 5-11"; and "SMP7-13." (MK)

An analysis and critique of two elementary textbook series: "Discover Art" by Davis Publications and "World of Music" published by Silver Burdett & Ginn are presented. "Whose content, context, and culture?" is an ideological question that assumes that equitable social relations and diverse ways of knowing ought to…

This booklet shows teachers and administrators how their school districts can use the Reading Authority List of the Reading Information System I (I-RIS), an analytic process for making decisions about language arts curriculum materials. Following an outline of I-RIS, pages of the Reading Authority List are accompanied by guidelines for using the…

National Evaluation Systems, Inc., has developed curriculum evaluation techniques, in terms of learner verification, which may be used to help the curriculum-development efforts of publishing companies, state education departments, and universities. This document includes a summary of the learner-verification approach, with data collected about a…

This paper is based on a portion of the curriculum analysis of elementary science textbooks that was conducted as part of a larger Elementary Subjects Center study of curriculum materials used in literature, mathematics, science, social studies, and the arts. A commonly used elementary science curriculum series, Silver Burdett and Ginn's…

THIS GUIDE TO THE STUDY OF MUSIC IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL EMPHASIZES THE CENTRALITY OF INTELLECTUAL APPREHENSION IN THE MUSIC EDUCATION PROGRAM. THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING A GENUINE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ART OF MUSIC IS EMPHASIZED. AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER PROVIDES A DISCUSSION OF A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO MUSIC LEARNING AND NAMES AND DEFINES THE…

This report summarizes and compares findings of researchers' and teachers' opinions in six subject areas (literature, social studies, science, mathematics, music, and art) about ideal and actual elementary school curricula. Three researchers and three teachers participated in each subject area. Participants were asked to write detailed responses…

The objective of this manual is to provide analyses of curriculum materials that will allow administrators, curriculum coordinators, methods teachers, and classroom teachers to select materials which are appropriate to their needs and situation. Materials included here reflect the three major categories of innovative social studies curriculum…