This article examines discourses of cultural knowledge and ideology in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. Within the framework of critical curriculum theory and using critical discourse analysis, this article critically investigates how discourses of cultural knowledge are constructed and…

Exercises and problems about functions found in 24 middle-school textbooks from 15 countries were analysed using an adaptation of Balacheff's theory of conceptions and Biehler's notion of the prototypical domain of application of concepts in order to describe the practices associated with the notion of function. The analysis yielded five different…

The paper explores changes in technology that have implications for the teaching and learning of school mathematics. To this end, it examines aspects of interactive mathematical textbooks; specifically it analyzes functions authors may intend to be carried out by embedded interactive diagrams. The paper analyzes theoretical as well as practical…

The learning difficulties described by students in statistics courses continue to engage researchers from several disciplines. One source of difficulty for graduate students in educational statistics courses is the reading difficulty of the textbook. Instructors making decisions about a textbook typically have little information about the reading…

The major problem in history education at the precollegiate level is that the history that is typically taught is based on an impoverished idea--or model--that history is recollected facts. There is an enormous discrepancy between "school history" as represented in textbooks and its use in classrooms, and "academic history" as…

A study examined the English vocabulary of English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools to distinguish differences between the vocabulary of the textbooks and modern, everyday English as represented by newspapers, books and the colloquial language. Fifty-six books were included in the sample. In the selection process, account was made…

The method presented is a means of determining the communality of the content of two or more texts in the same knowledge domain. The discipline studied was physics. Undergraduate curricula at 59 colleges were studied to determine consensus among the textbooks with respect to general program requirements and specific course offerings. Chapter…

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,…

"The Later Middle Ages: Civilization Reborn" in Ginn's "Our World," a chapter from a sixth grade social studies textbook, was assessed by the author, who used specific evaluation criteria. Although four strengths were indicated, the author dealt primarily with weaknesses of the text and made many suggestions for improvement.…

Textbooks play a greater role in students' learning than is usually recognized, and teachers should examine textbook materials more carefully to assess their value for different learners with different cognitive styles. A new, more student-centered model of teaching and learning, the Annehurst Curriculum Classification System (ACCS), focuses on…

A field test evaluated "Auto Mechanics I" curriculum materials developed and published by the Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center, Oklahoma State Department of Vocational and Technical Education. The results and conclusions reported relate to student achievement and teacher evaluation and comments for each of the 23 units of…

The literary merit of American History textbooks is explored with emphasis on inspiring and motivating students. Expert panelists reviewed books from fifth, eighth, and eleventh grades. They criticized the following elements: (1) size/weight; (2) prose style; (3) coverage; (4) group consciousness; and (5) format/graphics. (VM)

Report on efforts to provide course-integrated library instruction module for older student populations who commute to use library facilities highlights development of programed text and evaluation of effectiveness of instructional program, using test scores to determine whether students' library skills would improve as result of instruction.…

Parts 1 and 2 (SE 524 424 and 527 089) described Flesch readability for determining a text's reading level and results of applying the test to astronomy/physics textbooks. This part presents results for a new sample of texts, including calculus-level texts. A comparison with high school physics texts is provided. (JM)

A survey designed to investigate how challenges to school library materials relate to the overall selection process found that (1) the number of challenges increased steadily with increasing grade level; (2) local challenges were more restrictive than state challenges; and (3) active challenges affected administrators' selection, making them more…