Language is central to education, being the core medium of instruction. Researchers and practitioners have long used manual methods to analyze instructional language like classroom discourse and instructional texts, with the goal of facilitating student-centered instruction. In this dissertation, I offer three studies demonstrating how natural…

It is thoroughly agreed that English language textbooks stand amongst the foremost components in any language classrooms worldwide, being referred to as valid, beneficial and labor-saving tools to fulfill an extensive range of needs. An ELT textbook is not merely a set of sheets of paper fastened together to hinge at one side, but is the beating…

This article draws upon the author's experiences with designing and teaching a lower-level undergraduate course, Geography and Gender. It is proposed that there is a relative lack of resources available for conducting geography courses on gender, feminism, and/or sexuality and as such, this article addresses issues of text selection, course…

This article examines the process by which college-level foreign language programs evaluate and select instructional materials for beginning level courses. A review of the relevant literature reveals an ambivalent relationship with textbooks, often the default curriculum for language courses. Despite textbooks' apparent key role in language…

Using short-term pilot programs to evaluate textbooks can lead to unreliable results and interfere with effective education. Alternative methods for evaluating textbook-based programs include obtaining documented analyses of competitors' products from sales agents, visiting districts using programs being considered, and examining publishers' own…

Suggestions are made for each step in the process of selecting textbooks to support classroom instruction of hearing-impaired students. Steps include conducting a needs assessment, locating potential materials, defining roles of selection committee members, and developing evaluation criteria. An evaluation form and a timeline for the selection…

This article is designed to help textbook selection committees and personnel make better choices of instructional materials. It outlines the types of information selectors will need about their own districts' curriculum and characteristics and presents a chart for design analysis of this data which can be used in textbook evaluation. (SJL)

Describes the Instructional Strategy Diagnostic Profile (ISDP)--an analytic tool that facilitates the evaluation and revision of existing instruction and the design of new instruction--and recounts its use in comparing two textbooks to determine the most appropriate for an organic chemistry course. (JEG)

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: Choosing the textbook for an introductory course can be a frustrating, haphazard, and time-consuming process. This year, members of the sociology department at Mercy College tried a selection process that eliminated at least the first two of those three problems. To begin, the department sent…

A three-part review process is proposed as an aid to textbook selection for college courses. After an introductory discussion of the importance of developing standards and criteria for selecting course texts, the three-phase process is presented. The initial phase involves the establishment of departmental criteria for textbooks, which may be…

The author focuses on two areas of textbook evaluation: the appropriateness of content for the course for which it is intended and the effectiveness of the book's content organization or layout as a stimulus to student interest and learning. She discusses the table of contents, introductory paragraphs, photographs and diagrams, and terminology.…

The "skills trace" is a textbook evaluation process by which an evaluator isolates one skill and reads every reference listed in the index of the teacher's manual. The evaluator then observes how that skill is introduced, taught, practiced, and tested throughout the grades. (Author/DCS)

Recognizing that textbook adoption procedures and evaluation criteria vary from state to state or district to district, the authors present some general guidelines on screening and evaluation that should prove helpful to any elementary textbook adoption committee. (Author/SJL)

This paper discusses six factors which can be used to successfully examine, evaluate, and select reading instructional materials; it also examines the appropriate characteristics of an objective evaluation instrument. Evaluation of reading instructional materials should be based on a sound philosophy of reading instruction as practiced in the…

Describes an evaluation process for choosing high school journalism textbooks involving three stages: (1) identifying needs; (2) text ratings; and (3) actual book selection. (SRT)