Using a sample issue of the "Journal of Communication" as a point of comparison, a study examined the content of 10 introductory textbooks for the field of communication. Results indicated that textbooks scarcely ever acknowledge methodological pluralism, and when they do, they simply cite it as an existing factor in the field of communication and…

This literature review and annotated bibliography addresses teaching portfolios, utilized by teachers to improve and demonstrate their knowledge and skills in teaching. The document, organized into three sections, discusses several key issues related to teaching portfolios. The first section on issues in portfolio design and implementation…

Congress, using Public Law 94-482 entitled Education Amendments of 1976, instructed the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to develop, implement, and operate the Vocational Education Data System (VEDS). As mandated by legislation, the primary purpose of VEDS is to provide a national reporting system to generate uniform data from the…

Focusing on knowledge of four public affairs issues important to residents of a Midwestern inner-city neighborhood, a study examined the relative contributions to knowledge made by two neighborhood newspapers and by organized community group activities. A sample of 239 residents was asked open-ended questions about housing, crime, economic…

An exploratory study examined gender differences in writing in the essays of five male and five female freshman composition students. The findings suggest parallels between the writing and speaking behaviors of men and women students and between student writing and the work of male and female professional writers. The male students made few…

Reliability data suggest that, although there are many problems, it is feasible to systematically evaluate a student's analytic and persuasive competence in free oral argumentation. The first part of the paper describes the contexts within which the evaluation project took place. Specifically discussed are the five areas of analysis on which the…

Because students often come to a literary text without the prerequisite knowledge to understand or explicate it fully, they can be thought of as outsiders, needing the help of insiders, or experts in literature, to "learn the text's secrets." Moreover, students often do not fully comprehend how much of literature rests on symbolism that demands…

What references, if any, do some of the major educational reform reports make about the American Indian? Reform reports were reviewed to determine their content regarding minorities in general and American Indians in particular. With the exception of the Carnegie Forum report and possibly the National Governors' Association report, very little was…

The purpose of this study was to identify alternative life and physical science concepts possessed by preservice elementary science teachers (n=49). Science textbooks used in grades 5 and 6 were surveyed and a literature review of alternative life and physical science concepts was conducted. Results of the survey and literature review resulted in…

The foreign and international media studies section of the proceedings includes the following 11 papers: "The Contemporary Pacific Islands Press" (Suzanna Layton); "Cultural Domination and Sovereignty: The Development of European TV Quotas, 1981-89" (Ulf Jonas Bjork); "A Content Analysis of TV News in Saudi Arabia and…

Five commonly used educational psychology textbooks were reviewed in terms of the accuracy and comprehensiveness of their coverage of three controversial topics: Piagetian theory; self-fulfilling prophecy; and learning styles. Although textbook coverages were accurate as written, they often failed to convey the degree of controversy that exists…

Since current research and theory question many of the traditional methods and techniques of teaching vocabulary, a study was made to determine the content of 55 college vocabulary texts and the extent to which the content was consistent with empirical evidence. The study investigated the techniques used to teach word knowledge and whether they…

A study examined children's comprehension of and preferences for basal reader stories with differing levels of coherence. The subjects were 58 second grade students who each read orally three stories judged to differ substantially on the number of incoherences in the text. Incoherences were defined as confusing referents, unclear relationships…

The contexts and purposes for civic writing may influence the composition process as well as text features, and an analysis of the purposes and audiences for civic writing might yield an insight into the way that such writing stimulates the personal and moral development of both its readers and writers. An examination of two related pieces written…

A study investigated the differences between television news programming in Canada and the United States in three areas: ownership (public versus private), language (French versus English), and nation of origin (Canada versus the United States), in order to determine basic differences in network TV news content Canadian viewers may experience,…