This book is the first comprehensive investigation of interlanguage pragmatic issues in a primary school context that is based on both primary school teachers' statements on their own teaching realities, views and preferences, and a thorough investigation of materials used by teachers and recommended by teacher educators in the state the primary…

Curriculum materials are among the most pervasive and powerful influences on school mathematics. In many mathematics classes, student assignments, the questions the teacher asks, the ways students are grouped, the forms of assessment, and much more originate in curriculum materials. At the same time, teachers have considerable latitude in how they…

The attribute-function relationships of visual illustrations used in educational textbooks were tested in a study of the effectiveness of illustrations providing either analogical or literal representation in serving two specific instructional functions. Subjects were 180 randomly selected undergraduate college students, who read two passages, one…

Reported are the results of a study of organic chemistry courses at 33 different undergraduate colleges and universities. Details of the site visits including lecture and laboratory components of the courses are provided. (CW)

Contends that the use of commercial published curricula, particularly textbooks and teacher's guides, is widespread in U.S. church-sponsored programs of religious education. Reports on case studies of five church-school teachers on their curriculum development and lesson-planning procedures. (CFR)

Describes a study that explored and inductively classified analogies in 26 science textbooks, ranging from elementary to postsecondary level, to provide a systematic description of the phenomenon and generate prescriptive principles for their use in instruction. Classification categories include analogical relationship, presentation format,…

Discussed is the importance or unimportance of including visuals and illustrations in science textbooks. Characteristics of visuals, misconceptions, individual student differences, publishers views, and recommendations to science teachers when choosing science texts are included. (KR)

Social studies teachers utilized outmoded textbooks to assign, discuss, and test a model that allowed little time for integration of other resources besides the text. With training, the teachers began to incorporate other instructional strategies. A questionnaire administered to six social studies teachers showed that five out of the six teachers…

This report describes a research study for the Ontario Ministry of Education that addresses the issues of policy, expenditure levels, and patterns of use related to textbooks, library books, and other classroom-based learning materials in Ontario schools. The research is based on a survey of public and Roman Catholic separate school boards…

In the past, science textbooks have been the target of criticism by educators and feminists in studies of sex bias in education. The purpose of this study was to develop a useful tool that could be used in formative or summative evaluation of the level of sexism in science textbooks and as a research tool to study the effect of sexist…

Most secondary science courses in North America are designed to use textbooks as the primary or exclusive source of information about the content or processes of science, and most science teachers focus their instruction on a single text. Although there are many serious issues raised by the overwhelming reliance on text-based teaching/learning in…

Examines aspects of the introductory psychology textbook market through a publishing house survey. Aspects covered are the current and future number of introductory texts, fewer textbook publishers, custom publishing, changing content, and computer technologies. Discusses the results of the publishers' responses and provides statistical tables of…

Compared were the results of a 1973 study with the results of a similarly analyzed sample of recent textbooks with respect to gender fairness. Illustrations of named and unnamed figures both adult and young were analyzed in seven recent textbooks. (KR)

Examines 25 introductory sociology textbooks to ascertain patterns of race-ethnic coverage. Discovers coverage to be fairly extensive but focused around a limited set of sociological topics (stratification, education, health). Coverage in other areas (age, politics, religion) was significantly lower. Discusses implications for course development…

A survey of recent trends in geographic education, this book contains a series of papers by West German experts in the field, and is intended to provide for the international community of geographical educators an account of the state of the art in their country. The seven papers are: (1) "Handbooks for the Teaching of Geography" (H.…