Notes that educators agree that writing a textbook for any course connected with reading instruction is a challenging endeavor, but a very rewarding one if "you manage to travel all the way from an idea to a bound book." Suggests writing an article containing ideas for a textbook proposal before submitting a textbook proposal to a publisher. (SG)

These are the times that try practitioners' educational bottom lines. Thomas Paine, an American revolutionary and pamphleteer of the eighteenth century, found that the revolution through which his writings steered America's colonial ancestors put both their souls and his on trial. However, even after being vilified by his former countrymen, this…

The aim of this paper is to consider some issues in the historical international development of science education making comparisons between the educational systems of Britain and the United States of America. The author's particular interest relates to the role of the textbook in science education, so this is area on which this study will…

These are the reflections of a textbook author in the course of revising a secondary school textbook. While the average life of a textbook is five years, many stay in schools for much longer. A textbook author or editor must therefore attempt to produce a book that will be relevant and meaningful for children years in the future. This involves the…

Designed for braille transcribers and teachers of the visually handicapped, this document presents three short articles about literary braille. The first article discusses common pitfalls that occur on trial manuscripts, such as misformed characters, missing and added dots, incorrect title pages, and incorrect word divisions. The second article…

The relationship of contextual background to comprehension of written texts is discussed with reference to instruction in English as a second language (ESL). A theory advanced by Kerry Stewart Robichaux proposes six possible relationships between a text and its cultural "frame." Applications of the six text-frame relationships to foreign…

Article discussed the obstacles one must hurdle in order to produce an effective textbook. (RK)

This paper discusses the needs of high school students and teachers that writers and publishers of psychology materials and textbooks should keep in mind. To take students' needs into consideration, publishers should stress practical application and relevance of subject matter, provide opportunities for interaction with peers, aim reading…

In the past 30 or 40 years there has been much discussion about what factors contribute to readability in texts. In an attempt to characterize factors not measurable by current objective readability formulas, four texts that were adapted for younger readers were compared with their originals to see what kinds of changes adaptors had made and to…

A READING PROJECT WAS INITIATED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA TO (1) PRODUCE TEXTBOOKS AND WORKBOOKS, FIELD TEST THE BOOKS, AND TRAIN TEACHERS TO USE THEM, (2) PRODUCE TEACHERS MANUALS, (3) CONSTRUCT FIRST-GRADE TESTS, (4) CONSTRUCT ACHIEVEMENT TESTS, AND (5) PRODUCE THESE BOOKS IN HINDI. THE ENSUING GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO WRITE AND…

THIS VOLUME, PART OF A TWO-VOLUME SET, PROVIDES AUTOINSTRUCTION IN PHYSICS. THE MATERIAL COVERS UNITS ON (1) STATIC ELECTRICITY AND ELECTRICAL CHARGES, (2) COULOMB'S LAW, (3) DISTRIBUTION OF CHARGE AND FLOW OF CURRENT, (4) DIFFERENCE OF POTENTIAL, (5) BATTERIES AND CIRCUITS, (6) RESISTANCE AND RESISTORS, (7) POTENTIAL DIVIDER AND WHEATSTONE…

THIS VOLUME 2 OF A TWO-VOLUME SET PROVIDES AUTOINSTRUCTION IN PHYSICS. THE UNITS COVERED IN THIS VOLUME ARE (1) REFLECTION OF LIGHT, (2) PHOTOMETRY, (3) POLARIZATION, (4) REFRACTION OF LIGHT, (5) SNELL'S LAW, (6) LENSES, FOCUS, AND FOCAL POINTS, (7) IMAGE FORMATION, AND (8) ABERRATIONS, THE EYE, AND MAGNIFICATION. THE INTRODUCTION AND UNITS ON…

Unfortunately, textbooks of the elementary and junior high school levels receive very little of the honest, critical evaluation which is given trade books in children's literature. One vivid example of this fact was seen in the recent arduous but successful attempt to include "Beowul" in a fourth-grade literature text which was being…

The research objective was to examine the development and diffusion of a field of knowledge related to education as reflected in textbooks published in the United States, England and Canada. Using a scheme derived from invention-diffusion theory, over 150 textbooks in educational sociology (including sociology of education and social foundations…

The present is a critical period in the existence of many academic publishers and especially among those developing textbooks and related educational materials for the college market. The drop in college enrollments combined with the increased costs of publishing and the amount of educational materials flooding the market in an unstructured manner…