Selecting course reading materials is not necessarily an easy process. This article discusses selection concerns such as cost, inclusivity and options ranging from traditional textbooks to course packs. A review of literature finds extensive information about adoption of OER materials. Additionally, articles referring to difficulties in course…

Common elements amongst all educational institutions are varying processes of selecting educational materials ("Choosing Blindly Instructional Materials", 2016). Whether they be textbooks, curriculum, access to internet-based platforms or other ancillary materials every educational institution participates in some manner of cyclic…

Finding culturally relevant informational books for a classroom library can be difficult. However, expanding the definition of informational text to include procedural forms, specifically cookbooks, can enhance the cultural relevance, range, and number of books available for students to read. Reasons for placing cookbooks in the classroom library…

There is increasing momentum behind the idea that curriculum materials, including textbooks, represent a powerful lever for education reform. As funders are lining up and state leaders are increasing their policy attention on curriculum materials, this report discusses the very real challenges of this effort. The report draws on my experience over…

Open educational resources (OER) can make educational resources widely available to all students and educators for free; however, OER are still untried in many academic programmes in higher education. This article reports a case of adoption of an open access textbook for an introductory information systems course and discusses the process and…

Strong instructional materials are crucial to realizing the promise of the Common Core State Standards. Research suggests that the choice of instructional materials can have an impact as large as or larger than the impact of teacher quality. Unfortunately, many popular textbooks are not aligned to the new standards, leaving educators scrambling.…

Textbook evaluation means development of textbook that is based on rigorous research. In Pakistan text books are designed on communicative language teaching which focuses on communication. Morley (1991) has asserted that listening has a critical role in communication and in language acquisition because the better the students understand, the…

While much has been written about the use of instructional materials in the field of language education, very few studies have actually studied the impact of the context in the use of materials in teachers' practices. This work shows the findings of a study about the contextual factors that a group of experienced Mexican teachers believe shaped…

Technological innovation is driving fundamental changes in all aspects of our lives. This is especially true of digital content, as our use of e-books, downloadable music, streaming television and movies, and online social networks has exploded. However, the explosive growth in our use of digital content seems so far to have eluded many of the 50…

The DeFrancis Chinese texts and texts from the People's Republic of China are compared, regarding instructional value, character use and cost. (CHK)

This investigation attempted to determine how pupil attitudes toward mathematics might be changed by introducing the new Laidlaw Series in the Moscow Elementary School during the academic year of 1965-66. The Kansas Arithmetic Inventory for Elementary Pupils was administered as a pretest prior to the introduction of the new text and a post-test…

Discussed are criteria for selecting instructional materials. Also examined are the role of materials in classroom instruction and ideas related to the question, When should instructional materials be selected?" (CT)

Listed in this catalog of instructional materials in English and the use of dictionaries are those materials adopted by the California State Board of Education for use in public schools from 1983 to 1985. Materials listed include those published by (1) Allyn and Bacon; (2) Bowmar/Noble; (3) Ginn and Company; (4) Glencoe; (5) Harcourt, Brace…