Alternative Textbooks Research Articles

Analysis of content about sexuality and human reproduction in school textbooks in Spain

The spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) inadolescents and teenage pregnancy rates are increasing. A decrease in the average age of youth's first sexual experience has also been noted. Sexual education programmes in schools have an important role to play in addressing these issues. The objective of this study was to analyse the content of textbooks in the areas of sexuality and human reproduction in order to evaluate the extent to which these textbooks promote healthy reproductive lifestyles, as well as avoidance of risk behaviour among adolescent students. Descriptive study of the content of school textbooks. The study sample consisted of 12 textbooks (approximately 80% of all the textbooks used in Spanish secondary schools) which were edited in 2002. Content analysis evaluated the extent to which these books demonstrated reliable scientific information about: (a) condom effectiveness; (b) consequences, prevention and treatment of STIs; (c) family planning methods; (d) assisted reproductive technologies; and (e) the promotion of healthy reproductive lifestyles. All textbooks presented inaccurate information in the areas studied. One hundred and fifty one quotes were identified that facilitated incomplete perception of sexuality or risky behaviour. On average, 12.6 incorrect messages were identified in each textbook. The textbooks examined are neither appropriate nor sufficiently comprehensive for adolescent education on issues of sexuality. Results suggest a need for alternative textbooks based on better scientific evidence. It is essential that textbooks empower adolescents to make healthy decisions through the promotion of useful life skills that provide a more integrated concept of sexuality. There is a need for approaches to sexual education to integrate values commonly held by parents of the youth that use such texts.

Adams and Graham's Introduction to Neuropathology (3rd edition)

Adams and Graham's Introduction to Neuropathology (3rd edition)

A comparative analysis of the image of man and woman in illustrations of textbooks for first grade children

In the paper we present the results of comparative analyses of the image of man and woman in the series of various editions/versions of the textbooks The world around us for first grade children. One analysis was made in 1999, and analysis of three new alternative textbooks for first grade children was made 2005. The patriarchal model of genders existed in the old generation of textbooks. In the new generation of textbooks there is a much more balanced treatment of different genders. However, the social context and reality are very important for interpretation of the results.

Viral Infections of the Nervous System

2nd ed, by Richard T. Johnson, 527 pp, with illus, Philadelphia, Pa, Lippincott-Raven Publishers, 1998.Viral Infections of the Nervous System (2nd edition) represents an excellent resource and leading reference in neurovirology. Professor Richard T. Johnson has updated this important textbook (published in 1998) and assimilated new findings and information following a 16-year interval since the 1st edition. As a single-author textbook, this work is easily readable, with continuity and a unified structure difficult to realize with multiauthored works. Professor Johnson's personal insights are interspersed throughout the book, insights that stem from his lifetime of investigations with multiple viral pathogens and provide valuable perspectives regarding the historical background of important discoveries. This reviewer strongly recommends this work as a highly readable and compact textbook.Viral Infections of the Nervous System is organized into 4 main sections entitled “General Principles,” “Acute Neurological Diseases,” “Chronic Neurological Diseases,” and “Other Perspectives.” In “General Principles,” basic principles of viral pathogenesis and host responses with special emphasis on the nervous system are described. In “Acute Neurological Diseases,” the pathogenesis of meningitis and encephalitis caused by multiple viruses, human herpesviruses, rabies, postinfectious demyelinating diseases, and postviral syndromes is discussed. New material abounds in the “Chronic Neurological Diseases” section regarding human and animal retroviruses, retroviral infections of the developing nervous system, and prion diseases. A thorough examination of chronic inflammatory and demyelinating diseases has been enhanced. The final section, entitled “Other Perspectives,” provides information difficult to find in other textbooks, such as discussions of oncogenesis in the nervous system and the nature of emerging viral infections. Recent concerns about West Nile Virus in the United States came after the publication of this book, and hence this encephalitis virus is only briefly described.The rapid development of neurovirology since the publication of the 1st edition 16 years ago has necessitated the addition of new chapters describing human retroviruses and postviral syndromes. New material regarding human herpesviruses, prion diseases, and viral infections of the developing nervous system has been incorporated in this updated edition. Sixteen years represents a lengthy period between editions, but few, if any, current books describe neurovirology in such a focused and thorough manner. General virology textbooks such as Fields Virology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) and Principles of Virology by Flint et al (ASM Press) provide alternative textbook sources for neurovirologists and students of infectious diseases. These alternatives represent excellent references in general virology, but they lack the uniquely focused approach in neurovirology. Viral Infections of the Nervous System provides a cohesive approach to neuropathogenesis by describing neuropathologic similarities of diseases caused by different viruses while emphasizing key differences in viral pathogenesis caused by related viruses. Johnson authoritatively describes the historical context of important discoveries. Importantly, this book is not a complete reference for the diagnosis and therapy of viral infections, although these subjects are addressed briefly. Other resources, such as the Manual of Clinical Microbiology (ASM Press) and medical textbooks of infectious diseases, represent more comprehensive references for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in medical virology.Viral Infections of the Nervous System deserves an emphatic recommendation to medical and graduate students, physicians, and virologists. This book accomplishes its goal of providing a stand-alone reference for neurovirology and viral pathogenesis of the human nervous system. All major areas of neurovirology and prion diseases are included in this textbook. The cohesive presentation of a single-author work and the personal insights of a highly respected figure in the field lend additional value to this reference. Although neurovirology is rapidly expanding with applications of molecular biology, basic principles of pathogenesis are elegantly described and provide a durable framework for further studies. I hope that a 3rd edition will be published after a shorter time interval, and I congratulate Professor Johnson on an outstanding contribution to the virologic literature.

Ecocide of Native America: environmental destruction of Indian lands and peoples

This book is not only a work of history, it makes history.... We desperately need to hear this story if we are to save the earth, the sky, the water, the air -- save ourselves.... I thank Donald Grinde and Bruce Johansen for their eloquent and powerful contribution to our education. (Howard Zinn) A dense, hard-hitting well-documented work ... Ecocide of Native America offers a much needed option to European perspectives of history.... It is a valuable alternative textbook, if you can hold with its difficult truths. (New Mexican) The book includes the moving testimony of those who continue to experience the slow death of their lands, their means of subsistence, their communities, even as environmentalists look to Native American ecological precedents for solutions to our common global catastrophe.

Paradigms of Organizations: An Exploration in Textbook Rhetorics

This paper addresses a `paradigmatic gap' between current thinking on the nature of behaviour in organizations and the introductory organization behaviour textbook. It is argued that recent academic discourses, influenced by postmodernism and feminism, present organizations as fragile, unpredictable and discontinuous. However, the traditional organizational behaviour textbook continues to present an image of a solid, ordered and predictable organizational world. Rhetoric theory offers a powerful framework for examining the epistemological, stylistic and discursive assumptions and devices which make written text persuasive. It is used here to explore the persuasive strategies adopted by introductory textbook authors. In particular, it examines the style, content, structure and author—reader relationship of established textbooks. These are then contrasted to the rhetorical formats of the few `alternative' text-books, which attempt to bridge the paradigmatic gap. It is concluded that traditional textbooks are unable to portray organizations in line with current thinking because of their inherent assumptions about what a textbook should be and do. The alternative textbooks are faced with the challenge of not only presenting different theories but of developing a radical new rhetoric of the `textbook' itself. This is evident in how the authors address the reader, the move away from facts and theories to stories, in celebrating ambiguity, and in their accent on serendipitous learning.

The Teaching-Upbringing Complex

The creation of a democratic structure of public education requires a large variety of forms of teaching-upbringing institutions, name-established schools [avtorskie shkoly], a certain amount of autonomy for the teacher and his creativity, the development of alternative textbooks, programs, and much else.

Stochastic Models for Social Processes (3rd Edition)

This is a translation of the fifth edition of a German reference book for users of statistical methods. Exceeding 700 pages with more than 200 tables (logarithms to Bonferroni chi-squared) and a 74-page bibliography, the book covers elementary methods with brief treatments of analysis of variance and regression. Sachs provides a plan for using the book as an elementary textbook, but I feel that its main function is as a reference book. (An obvious alternative textbook is Box, Hunter, and Hunter 1978.) Many of the methods presented are back of an envelope statistical procedures. The book only briefly mentions high-speed computation and modern statistical packages, although appropriate references are given. The collection of extensive tables and unusual statistical tests gives an experienced user interesting choices of statistical procedures. For example, Section 4.7, Testing the Randomness of a Sequence of Dichotomous Data or of Measured Data, presents in six pages a test based on mean successive differences (with a table), the run test (with a table), the Wallis and Moore phase frequency test, the Cox and Stuart sign test for monotone trend, and other suggestions and references. There are 440 fully worked-out numerical examples, some of which are very simple (p. 1). Indeed, most just enable the reader to verify that the arithmetic involved in a method can be carried out. At the end there are eight pages of exercises of a routine nature. Overall, I recommend the book for consideration by a knowledgeable user who desires a reference book containing an eclectic array of techniques and tables for elementary methods. I plan to keep my copy close by.

Book Review: An Alternative Textbook in Special Education: People, Schools and Other Institutions

Book Review: An Alternative Textbook in Special Education: People, Schools and Other Institutions