Reviews current approaches to second-language syllabus design in the United Kingdom and proposes a model for planning a five-year course of study within the national curriculum framework that will take account of both the meanings a learner may wish to express and the grammatical knowledge needed, i.e., a model reconciling the semantic and…

Analyzed three fifth-grade textbook series and the teachers' editions for the distribution of artistic forms of representation and the social studies content with which those representations were associated. Found that visual art was the primary representational form and was used as evidence for students to perceive and respond to when studying…

Views critically a secondary English-as-a-Second-Language text series that is widely used in the United States and promoted as theoretically sound, and argues that the discourse presented in the text represents a limited view of second-language learners, what they are capable of, and the ways they will eventually use English. (11 references)…

Discussed is the importance or unimportance of including visuals and illustrations in science textbooks. Characteristics of visuals, misconceptions, individual student differences, publishers views, and recommendations to science teachers when choosing science texts are included. (KR)

Because instruction in library search strategies is often neglected in social work education, about 75 major social work and social science textbooks were reviewed and divided into 3 groups by the amount of coverage of library research skills. Strengths and weaknesses along with suggestions for a model orientation to library use are provided. (EAM)

Addresses the problem of graduate students' lack of analytical skills and inability to handle theory. Maintains that the problem is the atheoretical content of undergraduate textbooks. Surveys seven introductory political science textbooks, and finds no discussion on the current dominant modes of theoretical discourse in the field. (RW)

The production of science textbooks and the processes whereby both producers and consumers can work to improve them are described. Included are discussions of selection at the state level and a publishers perspective, and six textbook experiments at different levels from different publishers. (CW)

Describes an investigation to determine whether junior high school students generate important meanings from their social studies textbooks, and to assess the kind of information students derive from text when they have tests in mind. Indicates that adolescents isolate and particularize their reading to meet perceived test demands. (MG)

Examines differences in secondary students' vocabulary learning from original and revised contextual information. Finds that the revised passages generated significantly higher scores for both ability groups on the definition and importance measures but not on the indication of knowledge measure. (MG)

Discusses the debate over world history survey courses. Examines eight world history textbooks. Compares the treatment of the following topics: Hammurabi's Code, Buddhism, the fall of the Bastille, and the Korean War. Also reviews goals, use of maps, visuals, and skills involving analysis of primary and secondary sources. (RW)

Examines 11 elementary science texts in terms of conceptual structure and reasoning demands using concept maps. Reports that (1) the conceptual structures vary widely across texts; (2) most of the structures are well defined; and (3) the reasoning demands are above the developmental capabilities of most of primary-level children. (Author/YP)

Analyzes construction and use of analogies in social science texts and compares results to an earlier analysis of physical science texts. Results indicate that categories in the classification system for analogy construction were consistent across disciplines, although differences were revealed regarding how analogies are used in instructional…

Describes a method of ranking the concepts in science texts in terms of these criteria: importance to the curriculum and student interest; the development of the concept in the text; and the level of background knowledge expected of students. Argues that these ratings should guide instruction. (RS)

Discusses the dichotomy between traditional expectations of advanced courses and the actual capabilities of many of the present generation of language students. One result of this dichotomy has been the disappearance of medieval and philological studies from the teaching programs of most modern- language degree schemes in the United Kingdom. (CK)

The legacy of gender inequity in education continues underneath an appearance of equal access. In elementary school, girls perform better than boys in most areas, but their test scores decline steadily through college. Females continue to be excluded in the classroom, in textbooks, and in extracurricular activities. Strategies for change are…