This research study provides a comparative understanding of instructional design e-practice in an Australian and an American university. This comparative study identifies information relating to the current status of instructional design e-practice that will be of assistance to Australian universities to improve their existing online programs. The…

This practitioner research study examined students at an ethnically and economically diverse high school and the impact of replacing the corporate-produced textbook with teacher-created reading packets and questions that asked students to take a critical stance on historical events in United States history. Using critical theories of education as…

This keynote address will discuss the findings and implications stemming from a study of what literacy means for a group of 12 teachers and teacher educators. It will also discuss the factors that have caused the ongoing evolution of these ideas about literacy. Relying on the idea of a "permeable literacy continuum," which uses five…

Language educators argue that foreign language learning in the United States should increase students' intercultural competence (IC), which will allow them to see relationships among different cultures, mediate across cultures, and critically analyze cultures including their own. Qualitative research investigating students experiences with such…

This paper examines cultural differences between Japan and the United States and presents materials designed to help learners of Japanese understand patterns of behavior in that country through realistic episodes and situations. Understanding status differences is important for effective social and business communication with the Japanese. Status…

An analysis of eight current government publications on citizenship for immigrants to the United States and results of a survey investigating immigration education correspondence courses are provided. In the first part, subjective evaluations of eight textbooks, based on seven designated criteria (copyright, readability, subject matter,…

Library use instruction is seen by most librarians in Britain and the United States to be an essential component of an academic library's overall operation, with the expressed or implied aim of enabling students to achieve maximum utilization of library resources and services. Having passed through a long history of cyclical popularity dating back…

A study examined teachers' actual use of media and pictures in their teaching of geography in the secondary schools of five countries (a previous study focused on representations). About 180 teachers from Australia, Greece, Japan, Sweden, and the United States responded to a questionnaire concerning how often they used various types of media or…

Starting with the observation that unless young people begin reading the newspaper for information rather than entertainment they are not likely to sustain a newspaper reading habit into adulthood, this paper goes on to describe a national movement that has begun in the United States to take the newspaper into the public schools. An estimated 600…

A study was conducted to examine the procedures and requirements of a formative evaluation when it is carried out for instructional materials that have been designed for a U.S. target audience, but which also have potential use by a population of another country, e.g., Brazil. The study concentrated on determining whether different formative…

A project to develop English reading texts for Japanese college students is described. Goals were to develop materials that will: (1) give students information about the United States, (2) interest students in reading English, (3) help students improve their reading skills, and (4) expose students to a variety of literary forms. Fifty important…

The literature concerning the corporate culture of the United States is a starting point for comparing the institutions of different cultures. However, teaching about the cultural context of business is not simply a matter of describing non-American companies in American terms, and American-born language teachers usually have little experience…

Recent developments and trends in the field of native language instruction among language minority groups in Britain and the United States support the growing attitude that a multicultural curriculum reflecting children's cultural experiences is appropriate, and the development of multilingual materials and classroom strategies has taken priority.…

The construction of an intermediate course in Mandarin Chinese for business purposes is discussed. Following an introduction in part one, part two considers the progress of trade relations between Taiwan, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the United States. Part three gives a brief review of materials already in print that might help in…

This document contains 35 papers from the program development section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following are among the papers included: "Using Quality Indicators to Create World-Class Curricula: From Concept to Application" (Curtis Finch,…