The use of illustrations in textbooks is reviewed and seven functions of explicative illustrations are presented--descriptive, expressive, constructional, functional, logico-mathematical, algorithmic, and data-display. (RAO)

Describes the relationship of the textbook author to its illustrator and proposes that either the educational technologist, the author, or the designer begin to systematically consider illustrative strategies which will enhance learning. The attentional, explicative, and retentional roles of illustrations and the need to coordinate them are…

Discusses the results of a three-year instructional research and theory-construction project which identified six basic areas which influence the quality of instruction, specify aspects of quality in each area, and prescribe specific methods for teachers and textbook writers to use in increasing their instructional quality. (RAO)

Describes a textbook production project in a Central American country whose goal was the improvement of primary education. Disparities between educational opportunities in developed nations and Third World nations are discussed, and problems with the project that prevented it from meeting its goal are described. (32 references) (LRW)