The purpose of my graduate thesis creative project, Girl Is a Four-Letter Word: Gender Biased Imaqe and Language is to call attention to the subliminal messages about stereotypical female qualities and female role expectations transmitted through the use of our language. My focus is on classroom visuals and reading textbooks used in the 1950s and 1960s, which illustrate very separate paths of gender social development. I have created a series of twenty-two paintings, in which I have juxtaposed images inspired from old textbooks and mild four-letter words to illustrate double-entendre associations and implied sexual innuendoes in everyday language.The creative project began with extensive research to find examples of textbooks from the 1950s, to review the textbooks in the historical context of America's educational goals and to study artists who have investigated themes of language and meaning of images in their work. Specific artists researched who have explored these ideas historically include Rene Magritte, Jasper Johns and Barbara Kruger. The actual artworks of several abstract expressionists were examined closely because of a similarity in painting technique and style.The paintings produced for this thesis project were executed with oil paint on recycled stretched canvases. Thick paints were applied straight from the tube and layered in thick impasto. The composition of all paintings include a vignetted image or isolated object in the center of the canvas with a label placed below, similar to the format of flashcards used for learning to read. The image and words together create a relationship pointing out blatant gender-biased associations, displayed with tongue-in-cheek humor. / Department of Art

The purpose of this study was to compare the environmental literacy of 11th and 12th graders who participated in an eighteen-week environmental education program using trade books versus 11th- and 12th-graders who participated in an eighteen-week, traditional environmental education program without the use of trade books. This study was conducted using a quasi-experimental research technique. Four high school aquatic science classes at two suburban high schools were used in the research. One teacher at each high school taught one control class and one experimental class of aquatic science. In the experimental classes, four trade books were read to the classes during the eighteen-week semester. These four books were selected by the participating teachers before the semester began. The books used were A Home by the Sea, Sea Otter Rescue, There's a Hair in My Dirt, and The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo. The instrument used to measure environmental literacy was the Children's Environmental Attitude and Knowledge Scale. This test was given at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. The scores at the end of the semester were analyzed by 2 X 2 mixed model ANOVA with the teacher as the random effect and the condition (trade books) as the fixed effect. The statistical analysis of this study showed that the students in the experimental classes did not score higher than the control classes on the Children's Environmental Attitude and Knowledge Scale or on a subset of "water" questions. Several limitations were placed on this research. These limitations included the following: (1) a small number of classes and a small number of teachers, (2) change from the original plan of using environmental science classes to aquatic science classes, (3) possible indifference of the students, and (4) restrictive teaching strategies of the teachers.

The present thesis investigates to what extent contemporary ELT textbooks include reading materials as well as what types of texts are being used and what reading strategies they seemingly promote. Additionally, the study analyzes whether there is a noticeable discrepancy in teaching materials designed for the vocational and university preparatory and considers whether the design of the current textbook is representative of the current view of reading as a teaching tool as reflected in official policy documents. Through the means of a content analysis of a total of six in use ELT textbooks, the study discovers that few ELT textbooks include a satisfactory amount of reading materials and that there is a significant discrepancy between teaching materials intended for the separate orientations of upper secondary school in Sweden. It is also discovered that the set of textbooks largely reflect the current view of language teaching. The study concludes that the current practice of language teaching is ill-suited to counter the development of declining reading literacy and suggests an alternative methodology in extensive reading.

Research has shown that the mathematics textbooks are the most widely used in Swedish schools, compared to textbooks in other subjects. At the same time, studies have shown that the content of the textbooks do not fulfil the goals presented in the national education steering documents regarding problem solving in math. The purpose of this study is to analyze textbooks and corresponding teacher’s guide in mathematics for the second grade. Starting from a didactic perspective as an approach to problem solving in order to analyze the teaching material, I decided to use the analytical model constructed by Ann Kristin Larsen. In order to conduct the study, the following questions have been used in this study: In what way the problem solving has been presented in the textbooks? Which problem solving strategies are presented in respective teaching material based on didactic perspective? What types of problem solving tasks are presented in respective teaching material?  In what way the concept problem solving is presented in the teacher’s guide? In conclusion, the result of the study shows that there are both similarities and differences between the two instructional materials that have been studied in the way they presented problem solving. The study shows that the teaching material is not compatible with Charles and Lester’s (1982) criteria. As for the teacher's guide and the support it provides, the investigation shows that different textbooks give different support and guidance to teachers.

Comment la période nazie et la Shoah ont-elles été présentées dans les manuels d’histoire de fin de premier cycle de l’enseignement secondaire, publiés de 1950 à nos jours, en Allemagne, au Royaume-Uni, en Belgique francophone et en France ? Une étude comparative de leur contenu sera proposée, en accordant une place centrale à l’évolution de celui-ci et à l’apport, tant de la recherche historique que des différents événements ayant composé l’actualité de ces sujets depuis plus de cinquante ans. Alors que l’opinion publique européenne évoque fréquemment le profond mutisme sur la période nazie et la Shoah jusqu’à la fin des années quatre-vingts, les manuels d’histoire offrent, dès les années cinquante, un ensemble d’informations aux élèves de 14 à 16 ans, en Allemagne en particulier. Ces éléments de connaissance, certes lacunaires et imparfaits au départ, apparurent donc très tôt, rompant le silence, avant d’être considérablement augmentés et précisés à la fin du vingtième siècle. À l’échelle de notre étude, une nette différence quantitative et qualitative se dessine entre le solide contenu des manuels allemands et français, à un degré moindre toutefois, et les ouvrages britanniques, nettement plus limités sur notre sujet, les publications scolaires wallonnes ayant été très rares durant le dernier quart du vingtième siècle. / We can wonder how the nazi period and the Shoah have been presented in the history textbooks for secondary schools which have been published since 1950 in Germany, in the United Kingdom, in French-speaking Belgium and in France.We will compare their contents, by underlining the evolution of this content and the influence of the historic researches as well as the various events which have been topical over the last fifty years. Whilst the European public opinion often mentions the deep silence about this nazi period and the Shoah up to the late nineties, German textbooks provided pupils, aged 14 to 16, with important information, from the fifties. Although incomplete and imperfect at the beginning, this knowledge was quickly offered and broke the silence before being dramatically increased and more precise at the turn of the century. As far as quantity and quality are concerned, there is a sharp contrast between the German and French textbooks and the British ones which deal much less with this topic. As for Walloon textbooks, they were scarce from the seventies to 2000.

Ethics is overall an important subject in school education but distinguishes in religious education compared to other school subjects. I have chosen this subject in the light of the fact that there’s not been done much research about the didactics of ethics. The aim of this study is to analyze three textbooks on religious education to see what didactic choices are made within the subject of ethics. The purpose is to investigate the space ethics is given in the books, what topics are discussed and how the content is described. The purpose of this study will be answered by the following questions: How much space is given to the subject of ethics in the textbooks? What topics from the curriculum are concerned and which ones are excluded? In what context is the subject of ethics attended and how is the content described?  The study was approached through a quantitative and qualitative text analysis. The theoretical framework is based on the term selective tradition by Raymond Williams and Basil Bernstein’s concept of classification. Selective traditions refer to patterns within different subjects and thus helps me analyze the patterns I encounter in the textbooks. Classification refers to the relation between subjects which helps me analyze the relation between ethics and religion. Results show like previous research that ethics is not prioritized in none of the textbooks as it is given very little space. Furthermore it turns out that only one out of the three books concerns most of the topics from the curriculum. The results also show that two out of the three books describes ethics in a religious context thus emphasizing the importance people’s beliefs have on their morality.

The problem of this study m a an analysis of the relationship between a group who received a certain kind of programed instruction in English grammar and a group who received instruction by conventional teaching procedures. The purposes of the study were: 1. To determine the effects of the use of English 3200 on total group performance in achieving an improved understanding of English grammar at the twelfth-grade level. 2. To determine the effects of the programed textbook on sub-group achievement when total groups were divided into three levels according to achievement test scores. 3. To determine the effects of the programed textbook on the progress of the total groups and on the progress of the sub-groups in achieving an improved understanding of English grammar at the twelfth-grade level as measured by tests over individual units within English 3200. 4. To determine the effects of the programed textbook on group performance in the retention of grammar skills. 5. To determine the effects of the programed textbook in improving written composition. 6. To determine the effects of teacher supervision on the progress of the total groups and on the progress of the sub-groups in achieving an improved understanding of English grammar. 7. To determine relationships between such factors as intelligence, reading comprehension ability, and sex with achievement in English grammar in the groups involved.

It is the author's purpose, after a thorough study of published theory books, to present a proposed textbook in music theory to meet the needs of the average high school student.

The legacies of World War I in British culture are often explained by terms such as disillusionment and futility or by the understanding that the war shattered nineteenth century ideas of progress. These were not, however, the images of the war offered by the nation’s public and state sponsored secondary schools during the interwar years. By examining the categories of commemoration and curriculum, this study explores how British educational institutions mobilized the memory of the war in order to avoid cynicism and promote traditional forms of national, class, and gender identity. The first two chapters focus on how school memorials grew out of wartime communication within extended school communities in a way that privileged a heroic and traditional language of “high diction,” a concept developed by Paul Fussell. The following two chapters explore the ways in which discussions of how and why to teach history created a rhetoric of non-revolutionary citizenship and shaped portrayals of the war itself in a variety of British textbooks. Both processes elevated ideas including national and imperial patriotism, sportsmanship, self-sacrifice, personal and international leadership, and a continued faith in progress. This was initially accomplished by the exclusion of other possible narratives of the war, but the success of this interwar educational narrative was, in turn, undermined by subsequent economic and political events.

Les auteurs antiques sont à l’origine de la réception de la bataille d’Alésia qui a eu lieu en 52 avant J.-C. et dont la mémoire se maintient jusqu’à la redécouverte archéologique du site, au XIXe siècle, au moment où les Gaulois et Vercingétorix apparaissent au grand jour. Cependant les nombreux vestiges, pas plus que les textes anciens, ne suffisent pas à dépasser les « mythes » nationaux et les querelles concernant la localisation du site. Cette recherche, après avoir rappelé l’importance d’Alésia depuis l’Antiquité, consiste à observer comment la conquête des Gaules et en particulier l’événement « Alésia », épisode de l’histoire gauloise qui n’est abordé dans l’enseignement secondaire en France que dans le cadre de l’histoire romaine, a été présenté à plusieurs générations d’élèves. L’enquête s’appuie sur l’analyse d’une centaine de manuels d’histoire et d’une cinquantaine de cahiers d’élèves de collège, datés de 1880 à nos jours. Les manuels sont ici envisagés comme des témoignages de la transmission des savoirs, inscrits dans un processus qui trouve sa source dans les préconisations officielles du ministère et son aboutissement dans les cahiers d’élèves. Les auteurs de manuels jouent un rôle essentiel dans la réception de cet épisode de l’histoire romaine dans la mesure où ils appartiennent à la fois au monde de la recherche et à celui de l’enseignement secondaire. Jules Toutain, universitaire spécialiste de la Tunisie antique et d’Alésia mais aussi acteur de la colonisation et auteur de manuels, en est l’illustration et permet d’esquisser des parallèles entre la conquête romaine et la colonisation de l’Afrique du Nord. / Ancient authors are the starting point of the reception of the battle of Alesia in 52 B.C. the memory of which has lived on until the archaeological rediscovery of the site during the 19th century, when Gauls and Vercingetorix became one of the foremost topics of historical discussion. Nevertheless neither archaeological remains nor classical sources enable the historian to dispel nationalist myths and disputes about the localization of the site. Underlining the importance of Alesia from antiquity onwards, this study aims at analyzing the way the conquest of Gaul and more particularly the battle of Alesia – a historical event which has long been presented, within French secondary education, only as a chapter of roman history – were taught to generations of pupils. It is based on the close examination of about a hundred textbooks and fifty pupils’ notebooks, dating from 1880 to present times. Textbooks are here regarded as testimonies of the transmission of knowledge, within a process originating from the Ministry’s official recommendations and leading ultimately to pupils’ notebooks. Textbook authors play a decisive role in the reception of this historical episode, since they belong both to the realm of academic research and secondary education. The case of Jules Toutain – a specialist in ancient Tunisian and Gallo-roman history, but also a supporter of colonization and a textbook author – exemplifies this observation and permits us to draw parallels between the Roman conquest and the colonization of North Africa.