The Disney film "Pocahontas" appears to be an attempt to respond to growing cultural diversity, calls for multiculturalism, and strong female role models in the United States. This paper provides an analysis of the film, examining how Disney's claims to the creation of positive, pro-social representations of women and Native Americans in…

A study assessed the readability of health education pamphlets and booklets distributed to local health department clients in North Carolina through their maternal health, child health, and family planning clinics. The materials analyzed came from various vendors, but excluded materials developed by local and state public health staff. The sample…

Using a quantitative content analysis approach, a study examined the literature on self direction, or self-directed learning (SDL), that appeared in 14 mainstream adult education journals between 1980-98. The procedure involved classifying, entering, and tallying information on each article through use of an Internet-based program. Results…

Currently all non-exempt television shows are given one of six "age-based" ratings, such as TV-14. The industry also agreed to add "content descriptors" to the age-based ratings in certain instances, letting parents know when some programs contain particular types of content such as violence, sex, or adult language. The ratings…

Have quality newspapers incorporated what scholars have learned over the last quarter century about making news more useful as a resource for civic participation? A year-long analysis of reporting about youth violence in three California newspapers provides a schizophrenic conclusion: After the Columbine massacre, newspapers provided rich context,…

Current history textbooks include Christianity when discussing U.S. history. A study systematically examined the content of 10 secondary U.S. history textbooks to evaluate how Christianity is portrayed. Selection of the textbooks was based upon information supplied by the Texas Education Agency and the American Textbook Council and represented the…

After reading Larry Kennedy's "Problems and Progress in Junior High Reading Programs" in NASSP's Bulletin, December 1972, the writer began to write what he believed to be a sequel. This is it. (Editor)

Discusses difficulties of teaching thermodynamics at the secondary school level, including misconceptions about entropy, teachers' insufficient preparation, and the physical and mathematical nature of the subject. Concludes that thermodynamics has to be reserved for university teaching since it is a "non-pictorial theory" in physical science. (CC)

Describes arguments against teaching thermodynamics at the secondary school level as an argument against teaching it in a certain way. Concludes that an honest and simple presentation of thermodynamic ideas is possible after special steps have been taken to help teachers in understanding the subject. (CC)

A definition and brief history of the learner analysis function as it relates to instructional development. (HB)

A transformational model offers a way to eliminate the middleman (programmer) in acccessing a computerized data base. It provides a basis for the algorithms which analyze the input query. The linguistic analysis of the sentence string is translated into system terms and the required operations are carried out. (28 references) (Author/NH)