In this work, we developed an ontological tool, based on the scientific realism of Mario Bunge, for the analysis of the presentation of natural processes in science textbooks. This tool was applied to analyze the presentation of the concept of osmosis in 16 chemistry and biology books at different educational levels. The results showed that more…

The authors evaluated principles of macroeconomics textbooks for readability using Coh-Metrix, a computational linguistics tool. Additionally, they conducted an experiment on Amazon's Mechanical Turk Web site in which participants ranked the readability of text samples. There was a wide range of scores on readability indexes both among…

Compares nine beginning textbooks for use in teaching English as a foreign language on the basis of their treatment of negation in English. (DD)

This report builds on the Textbook Report done in 1963 by the American Economic Association (AEA). The "new look" assumes three tasks: 1) to determine whether current texts show improvements; 2) to go beyond minimum type evaluative criteria in the AEA report and develop a standardized economics textbook evaluation procedure; and, 3) to identify…

Textbook evaluation guidelines are presented for the selection of health texts for use in elementary-secondary school classes. (MJB)

Reports that variation in textbook prices is not correlated with textbook quality as judged by instructors and that university faculty are less price conscious when selecting textbooks than are community college faculty. States that, if faculty had greater access to price information, textbook prices would decrease. Makes recommendations for…

While conclusive evidence of improvement of current elementary social studies textbooks does not exist at this moment, there is evidence of reform in the content, if not the readability of texts, used by disadvantaged students. (DM)

Defines textbook genre as the manner of presentation of material and implied relationship between the author and reader. Describes a method of objectively dividing textbooks into moves separated by shifts in emphasis, and gives a genre analysis of an exemplar textbook to demonstrate how the technique might be useful in evaluating textbooks for…

Eight college listening texts were selected and evaluated by the following criteria: organization, supporting material, and readability. Text organization was assessed by preface material, table of contents, index, and references. Text supporting material was evaluated by the use of hard data, soft data, visual aids, and bibliographies. Text…

Focuses on books, booklets, and position papers that would be useful reading for educators involved in making decisions about selecting materials for schools. Discusses guidelines for judging and selecting textbooks and studies and readings on textbooks. (PRA)

The most frequently chosen textbooks for introductory sociology courses are analyzed. The study reveals that sociology texts change through incrementation rather than through innovative thinking or by rational decisions as to the best way to present sociology to students. Sociology students are not considered in textbook selection; rather,…

Major investigations have shown that children care little for social studies as a school subject. Therefore, a closer look was taken at social studies textbooks in order to ascertain if the reading difficulty of the texts was an important cause behind the children's dislike. This study evaluated the reading levels of 41 social studies texts…

An experiment to test the effect of textbooks in a one year economic principles course at Temple University (1968-1969) is partially reported. Using the Test of Understanding College Economics (TUCE) as the dependent variable, no significant difference was found between classes using a variety of textbooks. (DB)

Presents criteria to help teachers choose textbooks for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition students, based on how well each text teaches users to write argumentative essays (a form foreign to many ESL students). Evaluates 14 textbooks using these criteria. (SR)

Because the state of Texas is the largest single market for secondary texts in the nation and because its state adoption process has drawn a small but well-organized group of protestors, the Texas textbook adoption process has begun to shape textbooks in use nationwide. A study was conducted to examine the arguments most recently used by citizens…