Among a rich variety of studies in second language acquisition research, relatively few have investigated the role of textbooks for language teachers and learners, in spite of their nearly universal importance in language classrooms (Kramsch, 1988; Plews & Schmenk, 2013). This three-article dissertation examines this issue for the context of Hebrew as a less commonly taught language (LCTL), through considering the goals and identities of four types of teachers (Native, Ethnic Heritage Language [HL], Linguistic HL, and Foreign Language [FL]teachers)and three types of learners (Ethnic HL, Linguistic HL, and FL learners). In order to explore these diverse goals and identities, this research included a mixed-methods approach in three stages: (a) a nationally distributed survey that included 18 teachers and 36 students in first- and second-year Hebrew courses; (b) a case study involving surveys, observations, and select interviews with 65 students and 5 teachers at two universities in the US; and (c) an analysis of the content related to goals and identity within five commonly used Modern Hebrew textbooks. Due to this unique context and research focus, these instruments are partially homegrown and partially adapted from past related studies (e.g. Allen, 2008; Burns Al Masaeed, 2014; Ducar, 2006). The first article of this dissertation consisted of a general analysis of these Hebrew textbooks, the second article focused on portrayals of pronunciation within Hebrew textbook pronunciation guides and explanations, and the third article on multimedia that accompanies Hebrew textbooks. Each of these textbook areas was compared to the goals and identities of the Hebrew teachers and students involved in the study. Findings included a general consensus that Modern Hebrew textbooks were lacking in many ways as far as meeting these goals and identities, although diversity in motivations and backgrounds led to a range of responses. Results also present several implications to improve the contexts of Hebrew, LCTLs, and language teaching in general.

Researchers' and educators' recognition of the positive/negative effects of tests on teaching and learning activities goes back at least four decades. However, this phenomenon, referred to as “washback” in the applied linguistic literature, has been examined empirically by only a few studies in the field of language testing. Even fewer have based their investigation into washback on an a priori theory outlining the scope and design of the study. This study examines washback as a phenomenon relating those factors that directly affect the test to those areas most likely to be affected by the test. The goals of the study are: (i) to investigate the existence and nature of the washback phenomenon, (ii) to identify the areas directly/indirectly affected by washback, and (iii) to examine the role of test context, construct, task, and status in promoting beneficial washback. Theoretically, this study conceptualizes washback based on the current theory of validity proposed by Messick (1989, 1996). It is defined as a phenomenon related to the consequential aspect of the test's construct validity and thus achievable, to a large extent, through the test's design and administration. Given this assumption, a conceptual and methodological framework is proposed that identifies “needs”, “means”, and “consequences” as the major focus areas in the study of washback. While the model recognizes tests of language abilities as instrumental in bringing about washback effects, it highlights an analysis of the needs and objectives of the learners (and of the educational system) and their relationship with the areas influenced by washback as the starting point for any study of washback. Areas most likely to be affected by the test as well as major variables that can potentially promote or hinder the occurrence of washback, are also delineated by the model. This theoretical framework is examined empirically in this study through a long-term multi-phase investigation conducted in different educational contexts (EFL/ESL), at different levels of proficiency (advanced/intermediate), with different tasks (oral/written) and different groups of subjects. The stages in the experimental part of the study correspond to the different phases of the theoretical framework underlying the investigation. The approach to data collection is both quantitative and qualitative. The results of the study indicate that positive washback can in fact occur if test constructs and tasks are informed by the needs of both the learners and the educational context for which they are intended. The extent, directness, and depth of washback, however, are found to vary in different areas likely to be influenced by washback. The areas most influenced by washback are found to be those related to immediate classroom contexts: (i) teachers' choice of materials, (ii) teaching activities, (iii) learners' strategies, and (iv) learning outcomes. The study also reveals that non-test-related forces and factors operative in a given educational system might prevent or delay beneficial washback from happening. Based on the theoretical assumption underlying the definition of washback adopted in this study, such consequences which cannot be traced back to the construct of the test are outside the limits of a washback study. / Graduate

In this work I have been focusing on the educational use of textbooks, especially natural history textbooks, for sex education by the teachers of selected schools. First, I conducted a theoretical introduction to the issue of textbooks and teaching sex education. Then my interviews with teachers examined how sex education is taught and whether the teachers use their textbooks as teaching aid. I have thoroughly analysed these interviews, from which I then draw my conclusions: how textbooks are used as a teaching aid and the impact of the quality of textbooks on their use. Furthermore, I conducted my subjective evaluation of the textbooks that teachers said they use. I compared this review to the evaluation of teachers, so I could carry out a discussion of these views. As the result of my work I find that some of the teachers participating in my research use the textbook as teaching aid, some not. Their decision is not affected by the quality of the topic in the textbooks. Of much greater importance is the form of sex education the teacher chooses and how the topic is being explained. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

D.Phil. / History education is part of the intellectual project of high school education and its textbooks matter in terms of their educational brief. History textbooks have a significant role to play, especially in South African classrooms where many teachers have no access to any other media or subject knowledge. Moreover, textbooks represent a sample of a body of knowledge, which can be understood to pass on a sociocultural inheritance, encoded in language and images, as they record the education system's epistemological position in a 'slice in time' with the prevailing mindset in it. This mindset is partly captured in the curriculum, which can be interpreted to affirm that controlling the present and shaping the future rely to some extent on controlling the manner in which the past is presented. The study aims to find out how texts construct or encode this mindset, and how the strategy of their constructors can be recognised or decoded. This aim is realised through exploring a particular topic, namely that of theories of race and racism and their impact, in a set of 10 officially approved grade 11 history textbooks and their teacher guides. To fit the aim of this study, sociocultural theory was deemed as appropriate for the overall lens informing the methods of text analysis and the discussion of the findings. From such a theoretical perspective, instruction and accompanying semiotic tools are considered to be a major avenue for mediating students' /pupils' motives, cognition, and their social development, and hence textbooks, as instructional media, can be regarded as important mediating tools. To investigate this dynamic I pose two research questions: Firstly, how can an interdisciplinary approach to textual analysis be utilised to construct a model for textbook analysis? This question arises from a lack of theoretical, epistemological and ontological considerations of textbook research and addresses a gap in the literature. The second question is, how can such a model be demonstrated 'in action' to analyse one theme in a series of 10 grade 11 history textbooks? Given the historical theme of the impact of 19th century race theories leading to genocide, this research has a humanistic interest in the subject matter and this, in turn, defined the bounded case of this inquiry. The methods are my own hybrid of hermeneutic analysis, discourse analysis, visual analysis, question (pedagogic) analysis, critical analysis, and semiotic analysis. These are all interpretive methods, which are suitable for an inquiry into meaning-making. To realise the aim of constructing an interdisciplinary model for text analysis, I devised five categories or dimensions, namely "making own historical knowledge", "learning empathy", "positioning a textual community", "fashioning stories", and "orientating the reader". These five dimensions are explained in detail, both their deduction from theory and their induction into the research process. These dimensions, once stabilised, had become heuristic devices that guided not only the way I looked for 'answers' to the research questions, but also the overall structure of the thesis.

This study investigates the criteria teachers use when selecting and evaluating learning support material, in particular, English second language textbooks. The study seeks to determine what informs the criteria that teachers use for selection. The study is conducted against the backdrop of Curriculum 2005 (C2005) and outlines the C2005 revision process and the subsequent introduction of the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). Through a series of focus group interviews, the researcher explores the criteria teachers use for evaluation. Many of the teachers in this study did not have clearly articulated criteria; rather, they drew on implicit criteria and mentioned favoured qualities or attributes that they looked for in a textbook. In addition, the teachers in the focus groups used criteria that had been ‘told’ rather than ‘owned’ and had not developed their own sets of criteria. This research concludes that teachers are caught between two conflicting sets of criteria: those of their pre-service training and those of the new curriculum, which is currently being mediated to them through brief orientations. Drawing on recent literature, the researcher argues that in order to shift deep-seated literacy practices, teacher training needs to be prolonged, in-depth and ongoing.

This study examines gender roles, with a basis in the fundamental values of the Swedish curriculum. I analyse dialogues in two commonly used textbooks, Magic! Classbook 5 by Hedencrona, Smed-Gerdin and Watcyn-Jones (2009) and Happy textbook year 6 by Sutcliffe, Thunman and Mälström Timling (2011) for English, 4-6. The dialogues are analysed with a quantitative and a qualitative method. In the qualitative analysis, I investigate gender awareness, using levels from negligence to a high level of gender awareness. The result of this study shows that the dialogues in the two textbooks do not entirely correspond with the fundamental values in the curriculum as some stereotypes appears.

As the connections between textbooks and schools, student self-esteem, and educational success are further articulated, and the ramifications of deficient textbook material are more clearly understood, textbooks become increasingly a source of concern and contention. The purpose of this study is to investigate the representation of African Americans in grade 8 American history textbooks approved by the California State Board of Education in 2005. This study develops a critical approach to identifying embedded power relationships in the text employing five evaluative criteria. These five criteria are ethnocentrism, over-simplification, voice, absence, and inclusiveness. The findings of this study are that, while particular sections of each textbook may be inclusive of African American perspectives and are satisfactory in their representation according to the criteria used in this study, the overarching narrative of American history remains ethnocentric. This study raises pressing concerns regarding the role of teachers and textbooks in delivering an equitable and inclusive curriculum. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines how mental hygiene principles were adopted for a student audience through the elementary-level health textbooks series, Health and Personal Development, used in Ontario schools from 1952 until 1963. In particular, I explore the didactic messages pertaining to mental hygiene as they related to girls. The results of this analysis demonstrate that healthy mental hygiene and personal development for girls, according to the textbooks, meant becoming wives, mothers, and homemakers, as their own mothers model. While these roles required many skills and responsibilities, and provided women with a certain amount of agency in the female-dominated sphere, girls were represented in the textbooks as having a limited set of options in life: to emulate their mothers’ feminine domesticity, or to risk a life marred by poor mental hygiene.

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Mathematical connection has received increasing attention and become one major goal in mathematics education. Two types of connections are distinguished: (a) between-concept connection, which cuts across two concepts; and (b) within-concept connection, which links two representations of one concept. For example, from the theoretical probability to experimental probability is a between-concept connection; generate a graph of a circle from its equation is a within-concept connection. Based on the directionality, unidirectional and bidirectional connections are discerned. Bidirectional connection portrays a pair of a typical and a reverse connection. The benefits of connections, especially bidirectional connections, are widely endorsed. However, researchers indicated that students and even teachers usually make unidirectional connections, and underlying reasons may be the curriculum and cognitive aspects. Previous studies have reported differences in learning opportunities for bidirectional connections in U.S. and Chinese textbook problems, but few have explored the high school level. This study addressed this issue by comparing the directionality of mathematical connections and textbook-problem features in popular U.S. (the UCSMP series) and Chinese (the PEP-A series) high school mathematics textbook problems. The results indicated that the between-concept condition and unidirectional connections dominated textbook problems. Mathematical topic, contextual feature, and visual feature were most likely to contribute to different conditions of connections. Overall, problems dealing with quadratic relations from Chinese textbooks presented a vigorous network of more unique and total between-concept connections with balanced typical and reverse directions than the U.S. counterparts. Problems from U.S. textbooks showed a denser network of (a) within-concept connections in two topics and (b) between-concept connections in probability and combinatorics than the Chinese counterparts, but still exhibited an emphasis on specific concepts, representations, and directionality. The study reached a generalized statement that the new-to-prior knowledge direction was largely overlooked in textbook problems. The results have implications for adopting graph theory and Social Network Analysis to visualize and evaluate mathematical connections and informing mathematics teachers and textbook authors to pay attention to the new-to-prior knowledge connection.