A selection of seven articles on teaching reading to high school students is presented in this report. The topics discussed are: (1) a structured approach to reading expository prose, (2) the effectiveness of sustained silent reading, (3) readability variations in secondary remedial high interest books, (4) the effects of previewing difficult…

The primary purpose of this project was to develop model evaluation procedures that could be applied to large educational undertakings in Indonesia. Three programs underway in Indonesia were selected for the development of evaluation models: the Textbook-Teacher Upgrading Project, the Development School Project, and the Examinations (Item Bank)…

This study was concerned with the validation of the Oklahoma Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center (CIMC) Home Economics I Manual. Validation was obtained by examining student achievement on randomly selected unit tests. Satisfactory performance on the unit tests indicated that the students were achieving the objectives, which in turn…

Evaluation of college-level Spanish-language textbooks to determine depiction of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban culture found inaccuracies, oversimplifications, and omissions about the ethnic groups. Foreign language educators should establish criteria for evaluating foreign-language textbooks to assure accurate representations of cultures and…

Illustrates how a five-phase theory based on a new scholarship in women's history can evaluate curricular change about women present in high school history texts. Also suggests what textbook authors might include and an evaluation of 12 recent texts. Concludes that texts must eliminate stereotypic thinking about women. (TRS)

Examination of textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) reveals a hidden agenda in many: globalization of a Western-styled consumer culture. Despite attempts to make textbooks more culturally inclusive, they still reflect ethnocentrism and conformity. Both sexism and heterocentrism are overt. Concurrently, among native English…

A content analysis of selected German translations of six Chinese primary school textbooks, used from 1963 to 1982, assessed the socializing functions of qualification, integration, and identification. Categories involved include professional, moral, cultural, family, school, associations, China as a unified nation, China's achievements, and…

Reports on a review of nine elementary social studies textbooks for their treatment of African-American history and culture. Finds that the West African origins and culture of African Americans is largely ignored. Determines that textbooks present a biased and incomplete picture of slavery in early U.S. history. (CFR)

This paper examines how the United States is portrayed in Norwegian textbooks. U.S. history receives rather brief treatment in most Norwegian history textbooks. Norwegian students learn about the United States largely in their studies of English. A chapter-by-chapter examination of the treatment of the United States in two English textbooks…

Contemporary children must deal with many family problems that children 20 years ago never had to face, including divorce, parental separation, death, working mothers, and economic status. To determine how well current basal reading series reflect the changing American family, the stories of four basal reading series for grades four, five, and six…

An analysis of the lexical content of four recently published textbooks for college-level introductory German is presented. The study investigated the extent to which the materials prepare students for the intermediate level, as cited in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' (ACTFL's) proficiency guidelines. The lexical items…

The final report of the project that concentrated on the expository language found in content-area textbooks begins with an overview of the project, including rationale, significance, and goals. These goals were to (1) describe how high school students and their teachers used their textbooks, (2) describe and analyze the nature of expository…

Working on the theory that intonation miscues caused by confusion over punctuation and other phrase boundaries will make the apprehension of text more difficult than necessary for young developing readers, a study reviewed the research and literature relevant to the effects of location of punctuation, phrasing, and line breaks in text and on the…

Students from 16 different vocational/technical areas of study in seven postsecondary complexes in Mississippi (representing a cross-section of all junior colleges in the State) were administered the Nelson-Denny Reading Test to identify reading levels. The FORCAST readability formula (Klare, 1974) was used to determine the readability level of…

Techniques are provided for distinguishing explanative information from other types of information in science prose, including the structural method, the logical method, and the empirical method. Research is then provided concerning techniques which increase the subjects' recall of explanative information, and thus the subject's problem solving…