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Textbooks are a vital component in many higher education contexts. Increasing textbook prices, coupled with general rising costs of higher education have led some instructors to experiment with substituting open educational resources (OER) for commercial textbooks as their primary class curriculum. This article synthesizes the results of 16 studies that examine either (1) the influence of OER on student learning outcomes in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER. Results across multiple studies indicate that students generally achieve the same learning outcomes when OER are utilized and simultaneously save significant amounts of money. Studies across a variety of settings indicate that both students and faculty are generally positive regarding OER.

This study explores how English education developed in North Korea by analyzing the characteristics of secondary English textbooks published in the pre– and post–Kim Jong Un eras. We performed comparative analyses of textbooks for six secondary schools—three each for the junior middle and senior middle schools—published before and after Kim Jong Un’s rule. The comparative analyses adopted Cunningsworth’s textbook evaluation framework to examine the textbooks’ composition and content: (1) aims and approaches, (2) design and organization, and (3) topic variety. The results showed significant changes in listening materials and activities, among others, as well as concurrent developments in teaching methods. Additionally, each unit significantly reduced the number of topics associated with the idolization of the Kim family and the deliberate vilification of capitalist countries and instead increased the integration of other subjects such as mathematics, science, and technology. This study showed that despite various changes, the aim of English education in North Korea continues to be the maintenance and further development of the socialist system through the improvement of students’ English proficiency. This study also discusses the coexistence of different perspectives such as liberal ideas in English textbooks while emphasizing ideology education and its possible ramifications on the future of English education in North Korea.

This book presents a new and comprehensive framework for the analysis of representations of culture, society and the world in textbooks for foreign and second language learning. The framework is transferable to other kinds of learning materials and to other subjects. The framework distinguishes between five approaches: national studies, citizenship education studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and transnational studies. In a series of concrete analyses, the book illustrates how one can describe and uncover representations of the world in textbooks for English, German, French, Spanish, Danish and Esperanto. Each analysis is accompanied by suggestions of possible supplements and changes. The book points to the need for language learning materials to deal seriously with knowledge about the world, including its diversities and problems.

This study analyzes the inclusion of binary and non‐binary gender‐just language in US first‐year college German textbooks. The analysis covers eight textbooks, evaluating their use of gender‐just forms such as the gender star and neopronouns, which explicitly represent non‐binary positionalities, as well as “neutral” or binary gender‐inclusive forms such as neutralization and the co‐naming of masculine and feminine forms. Findings indicate significant variation in inclusivity, with most textbooks integrating binary inclusivity, some textbooks integrating non‐binary inclusive language to some extent and only one predominantly using the generic masculine. Results suggest that while most textbooks incorporate gender‐just language, linguistic inclusivity often remains binary and tokenistic. The study concludes that while available teaching materials do significantly incorporate gender‐just language, holistic evaluation of gender‐just language in context is necessary to support pedagogies of care for transgender and gender non‐conforming students.

This article describes TextEvaluator, a comprehensive text-analysis system designed to help teachers, textbook publishers, test developers, and literacy researchers select reading materials that are consistent with the text-complexity goals outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Three particular aspects of the TextEvaluator measurement approach are highlighted: (1) attending to relevant reader and task considerations, (2) expanding construct coverage beyond the two dimensions of text variation traditionally assessed by readability metrics, and (3) addressing two potential threats to tool validity: genre bias and blueprint bias. We argue that systems that are attentive to these particular measurement issues may be more effective at helping users achieve a key goal of the new Standards: ensuring that students are challenged to read texts at steadily increasing complexity levels as they progress through school, so that all students acquire the advanced reading skills needed for success in college and careers.

We examined widely used popular calculus textbooks to explore opportunities to learn the limit concept. Definitions, worked problems, and exercise problems were coded to examine if these tasks allow students to use informal thinking to coordinate domain and range processes to understand the infinite process of limit. Results revealed many exercise problems are step 1 tasks in genetic decomposition, where students only need to evaluate a function at one point. Such tasks prevent students from using their informal thinking productively. Recommendations and implications to calculus students and instructors are also mentioned.

Developing students’ understanding of and about science is an important educational goal. Learning the nature of science (NOS) has been recognized as a critical component of science literacy, affecting how students (our future citizens) make informed decisions. Textbooks can be useful teaching materials if the content presented aligns with curriculum guidelines, but they may not completely satisfy students’ learning needs. The reconceptualized FRA to NOS (RFN) offers a framework for teachers and students seeking to unpack and construct a comprehensive understanding of NOS. The present research analysed how NOS was represented in three chapters addressing magnetism and electricity in three high school textbooks published in South Africa. Using the 11 RFN categories and four levels of information explicitness criteria as analytical tools, we found that scientific practices, scientific knowledge, and social values were the three most frequently used NOS representations. Textbook excerpts representing these three RFN categories at different levels of information explicitness were also discussed in order to show how the target RFN were represented on this topic. Chronological diagrams were employed to denote how NOS representations interacted with one another, as well as reveal the level of information explicitness. Finally, the identified learning goals proposed by the textbooks were analysed to see how the NOS-related content aligned with the learning goals from the RFN perspective.

This study examined the comprehension skills and strategies presented in current reading textbooks used within the United States as a means of describing a contributor to the ecological component of reading. The ways in which comprehension skills and strategies are distributed across genres as well as connected to the National Reading Panel recommendations were also examined. Reading textbooks for grades 3, 4, and 5 from the Journeys (Scope and sequence grades K-6. https://www.hmhco.com/programs/journeys/about, 2017), SRA Open Court (Scope and sequence grades 3-5. https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/program/open-court-reading-20162016/MKTSP-THA14M0.html, 2016), Reading Street (Afflerbach et al. in Reading Street (Grade 3, vol 1). Pearson, Glenview, 2011a, Reading Street (Grade 3, vol 2). Pearson, Glenview, 2011b, Reading Street (Grade 4, vol 1). Pearson, Glenview, 2011c, Reading Street (Grade 4, vol 2). Pearson, Glenview, 2011d, Reading Street (Grade 5, vol 1). Pearson, Glenview, 2011e, Reading Street (Grade 5, vol 2). Pearson, Glenview, 2011f), Reach (Frey et al. in Reach (Grade 3). Hampton-Brown, Jefferson City, 2011a, Reach (Grade 4). Hampton-Brown, Jefferson City, 2011b, Reach (Grade 5). Hampton-Brown, Jefferson City, 2011c), and Wonders (Scope and sequence grades 3, 4, and 5. https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/program/microsites/MKTSP-BGA07M0/wonders.html, 2020) series were analyzed for the comprehension skills and strategies covered in each lesson. Analysis revealed a lack of coverage of comprehension skills and strategies across most textbooks. Further, comprehension skill and strategy instruction by genre was very sporadic and strategies recommended by the NRP were often inadequately addressed by the textbooks examined. Findings of this study point to the need for educators to critically examine the textbooks used for reading instruction within their classrooms.

With regard to current controversial public discussions about the credibility of scientific knowledge, it seems particularly important that students possess adequate ideas about the tentativeness of scientific knowledge, which is a key aspect of nature of science. However, international studies show that many pre-service science teachers tend to have naïve conceptions about the tentativeness and these conceptions turn out to be resistant to change. So far, no research was done, on the conceptions of German pre-service chemistry teachers about tentativeness. Therefore, two empirical, qualitative research studies were conducted. The first study with 50 participants was to investigate, which conceptions about tentativeness German pre-service chemistry teachers possess, what the origins of these conceptions are and if they are resistant to change. In a second study with 56 participants, it was examined how a more adequate and functional understanding could be promoted. Data were collected by using different methods, such as open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The participants’ views about tentativeness were assigned to different categories. Results show that most participants held inconsistent or only partially informed views on tentativeness. The views turn out to be resistant to change, and many participants are not able to explain their ideas. And if so, their explanations are mostly restricted to scientific theories. Additionally, dealing with tentativeness unsettles some participants. To promote an adequate understanding, new approaches were developed, like the BlackTube activity. Additionally, instructions should focus on the durability of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, a differentiated reflection on different types of scientific knowledge seems necessary.

The nature and extent of reasoning and proof in the written (i.e., intended) curriculum of 20 contemporary high school mathematics textbooks were explored. Both the narrative and exercise sets in lessons dealing with the topics of exponents, logarithms, and polynomials were examined. The extent of proof-related reasoning varied by topic and textbook. Overall, about 50% of the identified properties in the 3 topic areas were justified, with about 30% of the addressed properties justified with a general argument and about 20% justified with an argument about a specific case.