Argues for a system of quality control that discovers errors and communicates them to textbook users (students and teachers), and a system that keeps the worst textbooks off the market. (WRM)

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…

This project developed a checklist for examining college texts for adoption in situations in which several instructors use the same text to teach a large introductory, multi-sectioned college course. Fifteen students from Brenau College (Georgia) and 33 faculty members from several Georgia colleges were interviewed. Four computer software dealers…

Designed to assess how people read and comprehend information presented in picture-text amalgams in procedural texts, this instrument presents various combinations of text information and illustrative information on slides. Subjects are assigned to one of four conditions and directed to follow the instructions presented on the slides. Videotapes…

A survey was made of 112 readers earmarked for students ranging from the beginning level in the secondary school to the intermediate level in college. The readers intended to be read by beginning and intermediate students are described, following a brief discussion of what reading involves. (Author/RM)

A report is given of a study conducted to create a basis for necessary decision-making in the revision of a secondary methods course at Seattle Pacific University. A review of literature was conducted covering studies about secondary education, suggested practices and materials, and teacher effectiveness research on instruction, classroom…

Based on data from a longitudinal study of preservice teacher education conducted at a large midwestern university, this paper describes and appraises what prospective elementary teachers in two different teacher preparation programs were taught about textbooks, what they learned, and what they did with these lessons during student teaching. It is…

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…

To determine the extent to which current theories of persuasion are used or advocated by homileticians (i.e., preachers), this study examines 21 frequently used homiletics textbooks for their treatment of persuasion. After describing the characteristics of classical, premodern, humanistic, and rhetorical models, the study suggests that these…

The survey step in the SQ3R study reading strategy consists of scanning the reading material and its organizational features to establish the nature/magnitude of the reading task and to formulate guidelines for accomplishing that task. When the chapters of six history textbooks were examined for the presence, absence, and number of organizational…

This quarterly journal reviews books in different science fields which could be used by teachers in elementary school, secondary school, and in the first two years of college. Not only are the textbooks reviewed, but trade books and reference works in pure and applied sciences are included. Annotations are listed in order of Dewey Decimal…

Contends that communications textbooks uncritically accept and teach conformity, political passivity, and acceptance of the status quo. (JH)

Discusses the difficulty of determining the readability of textual material. (MKM)

Reports on teacher assessment of the "Speak English" series of textbooks for English as a second language used in France. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Narrates an imaginary dream in which an instructor, newly crowned King of Composition, institutes, while providing rationales based on current research, these changes in the composition program: (1) have all teaching done in conference; (2) eliminate textbooks; (3) do not require grammatical and mechanical correctness; and (4) make writing part of…