The purpose of this study was to determine the compatibility of the reading level of students with the required power-mechanics textbooks used by senior industrial arts majors in the California State University and Colleges System. The data for this study were obtained from responses to the Schrammel-Gray High School and College Reading Test…

Identifies some specific difficulties which foreign student have traditionally found in studying American Government on the college level. This article enumerates various remedies for these problems, including special textbook selection, lighter reading load, modification of testing procedures, and creation of an international student section in…

It is recommended that undergraduate second language teaching include individualized instruction, cultural education, testing for mastery, and emphasis on communicative competence. Textbook selection is also discussed. (SW)

Notes the problems with obtaining literature texts to teach in basic writing courses and the fact that there is very little information on the subject. Offers a discussion of the texts and other information the author has found and concludes that there may be more support for such literature-based programs in the future. (JC)

Faculty collective bargaining contracts were analyzed at institutions of higher education that had a history of collective bargaining to determine whether contracts negotiated in 1975 significantly differed from those negotiated in 1985 with regard to academic items including employment decisions, teaching load, nonteaching responsibilities,…

Reports on a content analysis of 14 textbooks on endocrinology. Using thyrotoxicosis as the content maker, the study indicated major differences between books with regard to the information provided and the number of words devoted to the subject. Suggests that medical teachers selecting textbooks be aware of such differences. (TW)

This study identified curriculum materials and educational resources currently used in preservice teacher education programs in Israel and how these materials are employed. Great diversity was found in the types of materials in use. The need for development of specially designed curriculum materials is expressed. (PP)

Presents comments from a symposium at which scientists and science educators agreed that science education should focus more on problem solving and less on mastery of content. Also suggests ways to select textbooks that support a problem-solving approach. (DC)

Reports that introductory textbooks about special education used at the college level differ in readability and that the cloze procedure can be used as an objective measure to use in selecting these textbooks. (FL)

Examines the table of contents and the indexes of nine business communication and five technical writing textbooks for coverage of the skills that are needed by businesspeople and engineers. Concludes that technical writing texts are preferable for writing skills, whereas business communication texts are better for oral skills. Makes…

"Practical rhetoric" is a narrowing of classical rhetoric because it no longer shapes public opinion but is increasingly shaped by it, specifically by special interest groups formed around and geared to what a selected audience wants to hear. In the teaching of composition, this pluralism of rhetoric leads to fragmentation and specialization, and…

The "Garcia-Armstrong Matrix System" provides specific instructions for evaluating the way textbooks depict ethnic/minority groups. The matrix is formed by evaluating individual sentences for their references to the activity or passivity of the target group and to the status of the target group in relation to other groups named in the same…

The purpose of this study was to compare characteristics desired by college English teachers in a composition handbook with the characteristics actually found in those recently published in order to help teachers in the selection of this resource. Data were collected through a questionnaire sent to 200 members (170 responded) of the Conference on…

Study showed that undergraduate psychology teachers are actively involved in fashioning the discipline by selecting that which is taught. Teacher and institutional characteristics play an important part in determining the selection factors which affect what constitutes conceptual tradition in the field. (RM)

A survey of social studies professors in Australian colleges and universities showed that curriculum materials analysis is not a major emphasis in elementary methods courses. (RM)