A study investigated the affective influence of the traditional textbook approach on students in an Educational Foundations Course at Iowa State University, and also evaluated their attitude toward teaching as a career. The changes were measured by an evaluative form of the semantic differential consisting of 12 philosophical, sociological, and educational concepts individually rated on a series of nine-point bipolar adjectival scales. Of 228 students involved, 97 were taught by the traditional method and 131 used controversial and critical material. Pre- and post-test scale scores with means and standard deviations were obtained, and t tests were computed. Results showed a significant pretest difference between the groups only on interracial dating; the control group changed from positive to neutral on discipline; the experimental group changed significantly on punctuality, absolute truth, grades, church, public school teachers, and discipline, all in a negative direction; t tests showed that the experimental group became less committed to teaching. Conclusions, supported by a review of literature, are that readings of a controversial nature produce more attitudinal changes than the textbook approach. (A 43-item bibliography is included, together with the evaluation instrument and correlation matrixes.) (MBM)