This study explores how faculty members select and use the educational materials employed in their courses. The primary sample represents all teaching faculty across all types of degree-granting higher education institution in the United States. Two subgroups of faculty are called out for detailed examination: those teaching large-enrollment…

In this article, the author looks at several popular international relations textbooks in light of his experience teaching students in the Middle East. He finds that, for their many strengths, most of the books lack some key features that would make them more useful for students abroad.

Elucidates general principles that need to undergird economics textbooks. States that they should at least provide a combination of data and theory, where the theory explains the data which, in turn, illustrates the theory. Concludes that texts should transmit real knowledge of complex systems and economies so that future disastrous mistakes might…

Texts in educational psychology have been criticized because they allegedly fail to define the subject matter domain of the field, because they are written for instructors rather than students, and because no consistent theoretical position is taken. The fact that different texts stress different sets of data does not mean they fail to define the…

Describes the process of preparing an innovative textbook on English history. The textbook stresses richness of England's history and society in addition to politics and foreign affairs. For journal availability, see so 506 696. (DB)

Many things are wrong with college level economics textbooks. For example, they are too ahistorical, too particularist, or unsystematically eclectic. The requirements of a good college economics textbook are examined. (RM)

Presents a few illustrations of physics areas such as capacitors, free fall, vectors, and waves, to show that methods of presentation of specific topics, in some physics textbooks, produce in the average student the wrong impression and ignorance of important scientific facts. (GA)

Discusses the concepts involved in constructing a meaningful free energy plot for a chemical reaction and how these concepts are sometimes insufficiently represented in textbooks. (MLH)

The issue of readability vs academic standards in college textbooks is addressed. Problems in balancing both needs and other problems involving textbooks and the publishing industry, including textbook resales and routine revisions of texts, are discussed. (JMD)

Shows that little overlap between books of psychological readings exists, and that little agreement exists between articles cited in textbooks and articles presented in readings books. (RL)

Examines the evolution of Spanish textbooks qualitatively using computerized pedagogical data. Results show distinct generational text style trends from 1860 to 1998 which chronicle a common engine of change and conflict in standardization movements and the production of generational text styles. Summarizes 20th-century textbook generations and…

Assesses extent and nature of cutss made in the version of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" used in a 1980 Harcourt, Brace and World anthology. Suggests that rather than serving to shorten or clarify the play as claimed by the editor, cuts were actually made to clean up the text and eliminate any passages with a sexual connotation. (RBW)

Various perspectives on the highly complex textbook debate are presented in this book, which includes essays by educators, publishers, policymakers, and scholars. Currently, the advocates of higher academic standards, coherence, and quality occupy the strongest position in the debate. Part 1 looks at textbooks from a historical perspective. The…

A STUDY OF THE NATURE AND UTILITY OF TYPES OF ESSAY ANTHOLOGIES DESIGNED FOR FRESHMAN COMPOSITION COURSES WAS CONDUCTED IN ORDER TO DETERMINE (1) WHAT ARE THE RATIONALES, ORGANIZATION, CONTENT, AND INSTRUCTIONAL APPARATUS OF THE MOST WIDELY ADOPTED READERS, (2) HAVE THE RATIONALES FOR THEIR USE VARIED SINCE SUCH TEXTS APPEARED, AND (3) IS THE…

Textbooks designed to serve the needs of non-native speakers of English are needed in the field of English for science and technology public communication. Suitably modified language textbooks using the Aristotelian approach to oral presentations are readily available. However, for professional speaking practice, discipline-specific texts are…