Reveals that only three structures--confrontation, episodic, and plotless--accounted for 87 percent of the story selections in six basal reader series. (FL)

The primary concern was the extent to which life science concepts occurred in selected secondary-school life science textbooks. Ecology concepts were the most widely and evenly distributed in junior high textbooks, and physiology terms were the most frequently occurring for senior high books. (MP)

Pictorial humorous illustrations were found to have (1) no effects on information acquisition and on motivation, (2) positive effects on appeal, and (3) negative effects on persuasiveness. (PD)

Analyzes the five most widely used sets of adult basic education materials. An inquiry into socioeconomic class focuses on four ideological concepts: the "harmony of interests,""blaming the victim,""individualims," and "the happy consciousness" of society as a rational provider of people with satisfying lives. (Author/JM)

Examines think-aloud protocols of experts from three disciplines generated as they revised mismatched text/illustration combinations from biology textbooks; 14 biology students also gave protocols as they read and interpreted the combinations. Indicates that the experts worked in similar ways, but many were not able to predict the…

Finds that the secondary-school textbook vision of society is homogenized and sanitized to reduce the risk of controversy. Reveals three domains of control that influence textbook visual content: industrial (how the image world of a textbook is created); commercial (marketing pressures); and social (interest groups that influence the visual…

Contrasts the traditional method of teaching college reading, which is based on behaviorist theory, with the modern model, which is based on psycholinguistic theory. Categorizes 20 current, popular reading textbooks as traditional, modern, or mixed. Argues that psycholinguistic theory will dominate in the next century, not only as a theory for…

Compares two social studies textbooks for second graders, one standard curriculum (SC) text and the other from the Core Knowledge Curriculum (CKC). It argues that the SC textbook is boring and overly simplified, while the CKC textbook is interesting and considerably more informative. It suggests that elementary school students are fully capable of…

Explores the literary themes present in the stories in the "Texts for Nine-Year Compulsory Education: Chinese," grade 1-3. Notes that these textbooks are currently used in Shanghai public elementary schools in the People's Republic of China (PRC) for instruction in the Mandarin dialect of the Chinese language. Concludes that the themes…

Describes religious illiteracy among undergraduate students. Examines high school textbooks in United States and world history, economics, home economics, and biology. Finds religion almost completely ignored. Argues that the religious neutrality mandated by the Supreme Court effectively eradicates religion from the curriculum. Suggests a new test…

Examines nine science textbooks intended for use in British lower secondary schools from an analytical approach and through an analysis of lesson-units. Finds that the authors were inclined to use practical activities as a vehicle for concept acquisition. Indicates also that science teachers have inadequate notions of a process-based approach. (KO)

Examines the instructional effectiveness of abstract diagrams on recall of sequential relations in social science textbooks. Concludes that diagrams assist significantly the recall of sequential relations in a text and decrease significantly the rate of order mistakes. (RS)

Examines the status of women as reflected by 60 college-level public relations textbooks. Finds a paucity of references to women in these texts, and notes that the representation of women in public relations textbooks does not reflect the status of women in society and in the public relations industry. (MM)

Examines 11 randomly selected English handbooks to determine the currently published guidelines for avoiding sexist language. Reveals that major differences exist among these handbooks when dealing with equality in language and suggests that feminist teachers exert leadership when selecting handbooks. Ranks five handbooks from offensive to…

Examines 25 contemporary public speaking textbooks to determine how the subject of communication apprehension (CA) is addressed. Finds that textbooks present accurate information about CA; however, much of the material presented in the texts is dated, and frequently derived from nonacademic sources. (MS)