The degree to which Canadian history and social science textbooks inform and sensitize Canadian students to the events of the Holocaust is examined. Evaluated by a panel of independent judges and presented in comparative perspectives, 72 history and social science textbooks authorized for use in Canada's secondary schools were found to have…

Discusses current research about the teaching of Italian as a foreign language. A form designed for the evaluation of textbooks for Italian as a foreign language is presented, and eight textbooks for the teaching of Italian as a foreign language are evaluated according to this form. (CFM)

The article discusses a study to measure the readability of eight junior high school American history textbooks including "American History for Today" (Ginn and Company, 1977), "America! America" (Scott, Foresman, 1980), "Quest for Liberty: Investigating United States History" (Addison-Wesley, 1974), and "The American Adventure" (Allyn and Bacon,…

Suggests that current economic events should be incorporated into simple textbook models. As an example, shows how some of the major aspects of the debate on macroeconomic policy can be dealt with by using a simple Keynesian expenditure model. (Author/DB)

Reports on two studies that assessed the interchangeability of logical and empirical estimates of readability and human interest for college-level introductory psychology texts published between 1977 and 1988. Uses Flesch's procedures to obtain logical scores and student ratings to obtain empirical scores. Finds that correlations are too low to…

By getting hold of the dominating verbal structures, political correctness has tried (according to Paul Berman) to "get everyone to abandon certain previously unanalyzed phrases that contain the entire structure of oppressive social domination." Unfortunately, "political correctness" has become a pejorative term used to…

This review of instructional materials currently used in secondary school remedial reading programs provides rating sheets for magazines, commercially published reading programs, paperback library books, specific skill sets, multimedia materials, workbooks, supplementary materials, and book sets. Each rating sheet analyzes the material's…

The Fry Readability Graph was used to determine the validity of the publisher's recommended grade usage for four reading series at the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade levels. Three samples were analyzed from each text, and these results were compared with the publisher's stated grade levels. The majority of the basals investigated had an average…

Six behavioral statistics textbooks listed by their publishers as "bestsellers" during 1982 were reviewed by the author. The intent was to detect the presence of and to discuss the nature of some theoretical inferential inaccuracies, misinterpretations and errors. (Author/LMO)

Examined 55 speech communication textbooks published since 1980 and found few that consider the issue of sexism in language. Explores reasons for this neglect, focusing on one area of change: masculine generics. (PD)

Discusses a study in which 50 introductory college-level sociology textbooks were examined to determine how the concept of power was treated. Findings indicated that power is generally presented as a macro-level phenomenon, with emphasis on institutionalized and legitimated forms of power. (Author/DB)

Analyzes information in social studies textbooks in the United States regarding the history of the USSR. Identifies major problems, including failure to take the work of Soviet scholars into account, political bias, oversimplification, distortion of the truth and failure to highlight achievements of Russian culture, science, and sociopolitical…

Presents a historical, critical story of directing textbooks that aims to identify major shifts in directing pedagogy at mid-century in the United States, when the debates over the goals of theatre education became a catalyst for change. (SG)

Reports a study to assess the professional productivity of the primary and secondary authors of the 10 available elementary science textbook series as 1 criterion in evaluating textbooks for adoption by school districts. Professional productivity based on presentations at professional meetings and articles published in professional journals was…

In this excerpt from the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me," sociology professor James Loewen asserts that textbooks used in American history classes are boring and predictable and full of irrelevant details and errors. The textbook publishing industry is cited for concern about profit rather than the quality of their products. (MLF)