Focusing on research from the mid-1920s to the mid-1980s, a study examined the published content analyses of college reading texts from the standpoints of methodology employed by various writers, specific information presented in respective content analyses, and observed trends in content presentation that have emerged since the mid-1920s.…

Guided readers are written so students of English as a second language (ESL) can read them without supervision, and graded for different levels of reading competence. A superlative guided reader allows the student to read with such comfort and assurance that he will forget English is not his native language, be willing to guess, and become…

Current U.S. policies toward Central American nations motivated this examination of the presentation of the region in 12 social studies textbooks. In order to determine if each text's treatment of Central America was representative of the entire book, three regions, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean were selected for comparison purposes. The…

This booklet addresses the question of what is wrong with textbooks and then shows how textbooks can be improved through the selection process. A conceptual scheme is proposed as the basis of the selection process. Specific attributes and features to look for when selecting textbooks, based on this conceptual scheme, are discussed. Five categories…

There has been much recent discussion concerning the content of the standard calculus course for students majoring in mathematics and the sciences. Some of this discussion has focused on the available textbooks. One weakness noted in some of these books involves the definitions of limit and continuity for functions of several variables. A…

The characteristics and components of scientific literacy are reviewed and analyzed in this report. Perspectives are given on textbook use, content, emphases and applications of the dimensions of scientific literacy. The distinctive features of the curriculum reform projects of the l960's and l970's are also discussed and their impacts are…

Although there are many college freshman writing textbooks on the market, the selection of a textbook can be made simpler by following a number of guidelines. Teachers should examine textbooks they consider using to make certain the books contain the following elements: (1) appropriate readability for users; (2) textual features, such as self-help…

A study was conducted to determine the treatment of intrapersonal communication in basic communication course texts published in the last 10 years. Only 29 of the 77 textbooks surveyed covered the topic at all, and many of those treated it in a superficial manner. After being divided into two categories according to subject matter, public speaking…

As a pilot effort to match research and development information and products with textual materials being used by schools in the northwest region of the United States, this catalog focuses on materials for writing instruction at grades six through nine. The first section lists products and materials in alphabetical arrangement by title. For each…

To assist California school district personnel in their selection of state-adopted instructional materials, this catalog of literature materials consists of four parts. The first, an annotated index of instructional materials identified as basic materials, gives pertinent information about each literature program, including program title, year of…

Designed to examine the way that different ethnic groups are presented in South African secondary school history textbooks, this study gives special attention to the extent and nature of ethnic stereotyping in texts and the endorsement of particular social and political attitudes relevant to contemporary South Africa. By using a sociological…

How economics can be taught through a student-developed textbook is described. Having secondary students construct their own economics textbook can be an exciting process. During the initial six- or nine-week segment of a course, materials can be collected and organized to make a book that the class can study for the rest of the semester or year.…

Authors who write introductory business statistics texts do not agree on when to use a t distribution and when to use a Z distribution in both the construction of confidence intervals and the use of hypothesis testing. In a survey of textbooks written in the last 15 years, we found the decision rules to be contradictory and, at times, the…

This report contains three papers discussing skill hierarchy approaches to reading instruction. Jana Mason presents an historical and theoretical review of the notion of a reading skills hierarchy, relates it to three major types of reading programs currently in use, and argues that it is instructionally advantageous to construct a decoding…

The major purpose of this thesis was to show that it is possible to develop a theoretically sound and empirically based rationale for determining the systematic introduction and use of vocabulary in middle-grade reading instructional material. A major portion of the research for this thesis consisted of a content analysis of six current reading…