Recommends teaching suggestions which focus on three broad areas: (1) strategies for teaching textbook organization; (2) strategies for using graphics to organize the information covered in the text; and (3) the use of an integrated approach to content area teaching. Cites studies to support these recommendations. (MG)

Contends that social studies textbooks remain a basic source of information for students and they ascribe to texts the values of objectivity and truth. Concludes that, in spite of improvements in recent years, six major concerns about gender-related issues remain. (CFR)

Pima Community College produced self-paced individualized mediated drafting instruction to meet the needs of students with different skills, abilities, motivation, and experience. Areas of instructional information for skills of an introductory nature were divided into 13 units of instruction. These units were divided into areas of…

Presented is a compilation of papers focusing on new questions and new directions for research in science education. Papers are grouped into one of three related fields of research: (1) analysis of curriculum materials, especially science textbooks; (2) investigations of science understandings of students and experts; and (3) investigations of the…

This article surveys the teaching materials available in the United States for teaching Chinese at the college level. Suggestions are made for the improvement of existing materials and for the development of new ones. The main problems associated with the production and usefulness of language materials are that: (1) languages change through time…

An examination of 54 language arts textbooks (grades 3-6) was made to determine textbook content criteria and the amount and specific nature of the speech and listening contents. The results indicated that authors and publishers feel that language skills (1) are used primarily for communicating, for social compentency, and for thinking, (2) are…

Discusses recent changes in the system, status, function, content and methodology of English teaching in Czechoslovakian elementary and secondary schools and gives a short account of the experimental evaluation of the new system in secondary grammar schools. (Author/SED)

The impact of personalizing mathematical word problems and rewording them for explicitness was tested with 68 second and 59 fifth graders. Second graders benefited from personalization and rewording in combination; fifth graders benefited from personalization, not rewording. Personalization makes problems more motivating and easier to represent…

A collection of works on the role of cultural identity in second language learning and teaching includes: "Linguas estrangeiras e ideologia" (Roberto Ballalai); "Cultural Identity and Bilinguality" (Josiane F. Hamers, Michel Blanc); "Foreign Language Teaching and Cultural Identity" (Lakshmie K. Cumaranatunge);…

This framework gives direction for the development of mathematics programs in California schools. The introductory chapter discusses expectations and responsibilities: problem solving, calculator technology, computational skills, estimation and mental arithmetic, and computers in mathematics education; implementation of the recommended program,…

Intended for independent study directors, course authors, and directors of home based or distance learning projects, this collection of current, practical guides on correspondence course development contains fourteen chapters authored by practicing home study educators and experts in their field. From Theory to Practice lists steps in course…

A brief discussion of traditional Latin textbooks is followed by a survey of the first attempts at new materials (emphasizing integration of audiovisual aids and texts) at the William Penn Charter School and at the University of Michigan. The body of the article considers the structural approach, using "Latin: A Structural Approach"…

Language laboratory practices, as they have developed during the 1960's, are examined with emphasis on the potential improvement of laboratory software. Convinced that weaknesses in the design of materials have led to the misuse and decline of the language laboratory, as well as to student boredom, the author offers alternative approaches in…

Dr. Simon Belasco's paper "Programmed Instruction and the Psychology of Second Language Learning" explores basic assumptions held by curriculum designers and teachers concerning the possibility of second language acquisition in an artificial, unicultural, and contrived classroom environment. Concepts relating to scope and sequence, New Key…

The vocabularies of five- to eight-year-old blind children were sampled to help develop a graded series of braille reading books. Lists of words in alphabetic and frequency order are presented. (See TM 504 595 for availability). (Author/CTM)