Learning to Educate


Book Description

Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries is a practical and strategic guide for education leaders and others who want to do more to improve the quality of curriculum, learning, teaching, and assessment. The book is also a philosophical guide that articulates and affirms the fundamental values and purposes of education in a rapidly changing world. It confronts us with the opportunity and the necessity to unravel bedrock assumptions and stimulate further discussion about the nature of teaching and learning. What does it take to change mindsets? And how do we bring about “reconstruction” without losing our groundings and bearings? The authors, Ernesto Schiefelbein and Noel McGinn, use the full weight of their extensive knowledge in education research, teaching, policy, and action, to argue that, in order to reconstruct quality education, we must begin by improving its foundation. The result is a seasoned and superbly articulated examination of the principles and practices of teaching and learning, which focuses on the crucial need of all children to learn how to learn. Innovative, cultured, and consistently captivating, this book is bold and, in the field of comparative and international education, unprecedented. “... Current and cutting-edge knowledge on critically important dimensions of effective teaching and learning ...” – N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Cornell University “... A treasury of insights into the education challenge currently proposed by the UN global 2030 Agenda: universal quality learning ...” – Kenneth King, University of Edinburgh “... A helpful roadmap to the essential questions facing educators today ...” – Fernando M. Reimers, Harvard University




We Are Crew


Book Description

Crew is two things. It is a schoolwide culture that supports social and emotional wellness, character development, and academic and life success for students and staff. It is also a unique and transformational meeting structure for secondary school advisories, elementary school morning and closing circles, and for staff collaboration. We Are Crew provides guidance for bringing Crew to your school or district and highlights numerous examples from successful schools that have used Crew to foster student and staff success for more than 25 years. We Are Crew is paired with an online toolkit of resources and a suite of open-source videos.




Mindstorms


Book Description

In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.




Deeper Learning


Book Description

The acclaimed exploration of how public education can cultivate innovators—with a foreword by Russlynn Ali, a leading advocate for remaking schools Dime-a-dozen ideas for reforming education seem to be everywhere these days but few actually transform the everyday experience of the 50-million-plus students who are regularly subjected to traditional lecturing, note-taking, and rote learning—often with dismal results. Enter Deeper Learning, "a fast read [that] will interest educators who want to produce self-motivated, passionate learners" (Library Journal). Offering "uplifting" (Kirkus Reviews) anecdotes in what Tom Carroll of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future calls a "rare blend of inspiration and practical action," Deeper Learning provides a blueprint for creating flexible environments that put students at the helm of their own collaborative learning experience. This paperback edition includes a new foreword by renowned education advocate Russlynn Ali and will empower and inspire educators everywhere to address the need for schools to be genuinely innovative.




Learning to Teach for Social Justice


Book Description

In this book, a group of student teachers share their candid questions, concerns, dilemmas, and lessons learned about how to teach for social justice and social change. This text provides powerful examples of how they integrated diversity within a teacher education program--an excellent model for educators who are seeking ways to transform their teacher education programs to better prepare teachers to work effectively in multicultural classrooms.




Learners Without Borders


Book Description

The future of education centers empowered students in a global learning ecosystem. Despite decades of reform, the traditional borders of education—graduation, curriculum, classrooms, schools—have failed to deliver on the goals of excellence and equity. Despite massive societal changes, education remains controlled by an old mindset. It is time to change that limiting mindset and, more importantly, the ineffective practices in education. To truly serve all learners, future classrooms must remove the boundaries of learning and become student-centered, culturally responsive, and personalized—supportive and equitable environments where each student can direct their own learning and seek multiple pathways to skills and knowledge in a global learning ecosystem. This compelling call for transformative change offers all involved in education Evidence-based arguments that reveal the need to break the traditional borders that limit learning Strategies to personalize learning and remove the confinement of traditional pathways Examples from around the world to create equitable and student-centric learning environments Resources for creating a school learning environment that expands opportunities for personalized learning into the global learning ecosystem It is time to now imagine a different kind of learning, without borders, and to begin the shifts in practice that will result in personalized learning for all students.




Learning to Improve


Book Description

As a field, education has largely failed to learn from experience. Time after time, promising education reforms fall short of their goals and are abandoned as other promising ideas take their place. In Learning to Improve, the authors argue for a new approach. Rather than “implementing fast and learning slow,” they believe educators should adopt a more rigorous approach to improvement that allows the field to “learn fast to implement well.” Using ideas borrowed from improvement science, the authors show how a process of disciplined inquiry can be combined with the use of networks to identify, adapt, and successfully scale up promising interventions in education. Organized around six core principles, the book shows how “networked improvement communities” can bring together researchers and practitioners to accelerate learning in key areas of education. Examples include efforts to address the high rates of failure among students in community college remedial math courses and strategies for improving feedback to novice teachers. Learning to Improve offers a new paradigm for research and development in education that promises to be a powerful driver of improvement for the nation’s schools and colleges.




Transformative Ethnic Studies in Schools


Book Description

"Drawing on Christine Sleeter's review of research on the academic and social impact of ethnic studies commissioned by the National Education Association, this book will examine the value and forms of teaching and researching ethnic studies. The book employs a diverse conceptual framework, including critical pedagogy, anti-racism, Afrocentrism, Indigeneity, youth participatory action research, and critical multicultural education. The book provides cases of classroom teachers to 'illustrate what such conceptual framework look like when enacted in the classroom, as well as tensions that spring from them within school bureaucracies driven by neoliberalism.' Sleeter and Zavala will also outline ways to conduct research for 'investigating both learning and broader impacts of ethnic research used for liberatory ends'"--




Learning to Teach in Higher Education


Book Description

This bestselling book is a unique introduction to the practice of university teaching and its underlying theory. This new edition has been fully revised and updated in view of the extensive changes which have taken place in higher education over the last decade and includes new material on the higher education context, evaluation and staff development. The first part of the book provides an outline of the experience of teaching and learning from the student's point of view, out of which grows a set of prinicples for effective teaching in higher education. Part two shows how these ideas can enhance educational standards, looking in particular at four key areas facing every teacher in higher education: * Organising the content of undergraduate courses * Selecting teaching methods * Assessing student learning * Evaluating the effectivenesss of teaching. Case studies of exemplary teaching are used throughout to connect ideas to practice and to illustrate how to ensure better student learning. The final part of the book looks in more detail at appraisal, performance indicators, accountability and educational development and training. The book is essential reading for new and experienced lecturers, particularly those following formal programmes in university teaching, such as courses leading to ILT accreditation.




Learning by Playing


Book Description

There is a growing recognition in the learning sciences that video games can no longer be seen as impediments to education, but rather, they can be developed to enhance learning. Educational and developmental psychologists, education researchers, media psychologists, and cognitive psychologists are now joining game designers and developers in seeking out new ways to use video game play in the classroom. In Learning by Playing, a diverse group of contributors provide perspectives on the most current thinking concerning the ramifications of leisure video game play for academic classroom learning. The first section of the text provides foundational understanding of the cognitive skills and content knowledge that children and adolescents acquire and refine during video game play. The second section explores game features that captivate and promote skills development among game players. The subsequent sections discuss children and adolescents' learning in the context of different types of games and the factors that contribute to transfer of learning from video game play to the classroom. These chapters then form the basis for the concluding section of the text: a specification of the most appropriate research agenda to investigate the academic potential of video game play, particularly using those games that child and adolescent players find most compelling. Contributors include researchers in education, learning sciences, and cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as instructional design researchers.