Asserts that the move to create more challenging textbooks abandons the lower-ability students, resulting in high dropout rates. Cautions that all students will not naturally gravitate toward higher academic levels simply because standards and expectations are upgraded. (MM)

How relevant are some textbooks when professors, even in the same department, teach similar courses in different ways? Are there methods by which textbook companies can receive realistic, substantive feedback concerning the quality of communication textbook offerings? This paper details the methods by which its author/educator became a textbook…

Good citizens need good communication skills, and the task is left to departments of communication to give students the communicative skills they need to take part effectively in a participative democracy. This paper presents a short discussion of the pedagogical issue that is of supreme importance for the citizens of democracies--the issue of how…

Too frequently textbooks used in class are criticized heavily by educators. In and of itself, a textbook is neither good nor bad. If the text has been carefully chosen, there may be reasons for criticizing its use. Textbooks should always be carefully evaluated when new basals are chosen so that the very best one(s) are selected for a class.…

Examines academic freedom focusing on the role of school textbooks which are often logical focal points for exercise of control or supervision. Society's values, education and thought control, lobbying, history texts, and the creationism vs. evolution controversy are discussed in relation to the censorship controversy. References are provided.…

Argues that reading materials should fit the criteria of relevance, interest, and usefulness if children are to get maximum benefits from reading instruction. (FL)

The textbooks of a nation are generally a reflection of the values, goals, and essential priorities of that particular society. Therefore, teachers, parents, administrators, school boards, and publishers must ensure that the best thinking of various groups and of textbook critics is incorporated in the development of more effective textbooks.…

Advice on selecting a reference book for the writing class and particular writing students. A classification of recommended, good, fair, and not recommended handbooks. (RL)

Offers suggestions, in the form of a rating questionnaire, that members of textbook selection committees can use to assure that textbooks are analyzed systematically and compared fairly. (RL)

Discusses whether public college and university faculty have the right to choose the textbooks for their courses or whether the choice can be dictated by administrative decree. Concludes that tenured professors should have an absolute right to choose the texts for their courses, as long as the text assists in fulfilling the stated institutional…

Charts the battles over public school textbooks and the current targets of textbook protests, particularly secular humanism, new age thinking, and globalism. (SK)

While college composition theory/pedagogy courses are standard offerings in composition and rhetoric graduate programs, specialized basic writing graduate courses lag behind. At the same time, there is a pressing need for highly qualified teachers of nontraditional adult students, especially in community college and adult literacy education…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: Conflicts over schools in general and curriculum and materials in particular have increased in recent years. A contributing factor is that organized groups, determined to reform society by imposing their values on others, insist that textbooks and other educational materials reflect their views.…

Describes the nature and form of knowledge that should be in social studies textbooks. Argues that substantial knowledge can be used by academic reviewers and teachers as a framework for analysis of social studies texts and to encourage dialogue about the purpose and structure of social studies lessons. (BSR)

The author recounts his experiences in the textbook adoption process during his tenure on the California State Board of Education from 1975 to 1981. The focus on legal criteria (such as the reflection of cultural or racial diversity or print and page size), he argues, too often overrides concern with quality of the books' contents. (GC)