This paper presents a writing exercise that the author uses in his technical writing courses. The purpose of the exercise is to: (1) convince students that their ideas have value; and (2) teach higher order thinking skills--specifically, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The author relates his own college experience, noting the fact that only…

The Minorities and Communication Division of the proceedings contains the following 7 papers: "The Race Card and Ethical Reasoning: The Importance of Race to Journalistic Decision Making" (Renita Coleman); "Jesse Owens, A Black Pearl Amidst an Ocean of Fury: A Case Study of Press Coverage on The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games"…

The purpose of this study was to explore and discover whether there are any differences in credentials required or preferred for academic library positions which offer faculty status, compared with those which do not include this designation. A content analysis was done using announcements for 451 nationally publicized openings. In the area of…

At the beginning of the spring 2000 semester, 19 sophomores enrolled in the Principles of Teaching class at Heidelberg College (Ohio) were asked to complete weekly e-mail journal entries about the course. At the end of the semester, they were asked to give their perceptions regarding journal use. Sixteen students completed this particular entry,…

The way in which public examinations influence teaching and learning is commonly described as "washback" or backwash. This study examined the nature and scope of the impact of a public examination on English teaching in Taiwan to add to the existing literature on testing washback in an English-as-a-second-language context. The relational…

Straightforward and engaging in style, this book presents 10 essays that provide concrete, step-by-step examples of how to conduct studies of the impact of television on behavior from quantitative perspectives, qualitative perspectives, and an integrated approach, making the volume useful for both undergraduate and graduate students. Its…

A study examined geography texts to evaluate their adequacy for meeting the diverse needs of students and to recommend modifications that will address specific deficits. Four geography textbooks were selected based on consultations with publishers, teachers, and school administrators to be representative of geography textbooks adopted in the…

Research on popularity during childhood and early adolescence suggests that children who are perceived as popular by peers are not necessarily the same children who are sociometrically popular. This study extended previous research on popularity by examining children's perceptions of popularity. The study used open-ended questions instead of peer…

This preliminary study of 20 contemporary realistic fiction books for youth, in middle school and above, analyzed images of poverty using a framework adapted from the work of Robert Leahy. Findings are related to demographics, images of poverty and emerging themes. Results indicate that, as a whole, the sample of books rely on concrete images of…

This study investigates how teachers and students assess the textbooks they use in history courses at the high school level in Turkey. The study included 61 high schools in 23 provinces representing the 7 geographic regions of Turkey. Through a survey questionnaire, teachers and students were asked their perceptions of the textbooks. Then a…

This pamphlet summarizes the key findings of a two-part study that investigated the messages that young women (age 10 to 17) get from the media. A content analysis examined messages to girls across a range of media most heavily used by adolescent girls: television, movies, magazines, music videos, television commercials, and magazine…

This paper reports the perceptions of inservice teachers participating in a World Wide Web-based university course. The pedagogical soundness of distance education courses that model constructivist learning theory and that are available to learners at times and places convenient to them are also examined. Qualitative methods were used to collect…

This study looks at how the media used in online discussion can affect the learning outcomes for students involved in distance learning activities. Online discussion within any learning environment can provide the opportunity for students to engage in thoughtful, content-based conversations about the topic under study, which may result in deeper…

This article reports a study examining the presence of environmental issues in ELT coursebooks published since 1990. Seventeen randomly-selected coursebooks were analysed in order to find the percentage of activities related to environmental issues. Such activities were then examined to establish whether they involved participation in…

Reports briefly on research concerning (1) network television coverage of the Iranian hostage crisis, (2) puffery and readership of magazine advertisements, (3) television role models and anticipated social interaction, (4) portrayals of the elderly in magazine advertisements, and (5) British broadcast coverage of the Soviet invasion of…