Learning at Not-School


Book Description

This book focuses on programs, organizations, and institutions that have developed in parallel to public schooling which offer education in a non-traditional, non-school setting.




The Learning School


Book Description

Addressing the challenge of developing effective schools in this daunting yet exciting period of transformation in South Africa, this book aims to provide some insights and guidelines on how to proceed with school development. The values at the heart of this book are those central to a democratic South Africa and include the exercise of basic human rights by all individuals, a fair distribution of resources, participative decision making, access to necessary information on the part of people affected, and accountability on the part of those in authority. This is a handbook for principals, teachers, and other persons or groups interested in the holistic development of schools--particularly within the context of a developing South Africa.




Dirtmeister's Nitty Gritty Planet Earth


Book Description

Come and explore the world under your feet with the Dirtmeister and friends! Part graphic novel, part fun guidebook, this very cool, rocky journey introduces both eager and reluctant readers to the basic geologic processes that shape our Earth. Clear and concise explanations of the various geologic processes reveal the comprehensive science behind each fascinating topic. Fun facts and simple DIY experiments reinforce the concepts while short biographies of important scientists inspire future geo-scientists.




Using Data to Improve Student Learning in School Districts


Book Description

This book helps you make sense of the data your school district collects, including state student achievement results as well as other qualitative and quantitative data. Easy-to-use templates, tools, and examples are available on the accompanying downloadable resources.




Building School-Based Teacher Learning Communities


Book Description

Building on extensive evidence that school-based teacher learning communities improve student outcomes, this book lays out an agenda to develop and sustain collaborative professional cultures. McLaughlin and Talbert—foremost scholars of school change and teaching contexts—provide an inside look at the processes, resources, and system strategies that are necessary to build vibrant school-based teacher learning communities. Offering a compelling, straightforward blueprint for action, this book: Takes a comprehensive look at the problem of improving the quality of teaching across the United States, based on evidence and examples from the authors’ nearly two decades of research.Demonstrates how and why school-based teacher learning communities are bottom-line requirements for improved instruction. Outlines the resources and supports needed to build and sustain a long-term school-based teacher professional community. Discusses the nature of high-quality professional development to support learning and changes in teaching.Details the roles and responsibilities of policymakers at all levels of the school system. “This book offers vivid examples of how teacher learning communities are formed and sustained. A must-read for educators at all levels who are serious about enacting change.” —Amy M. Hightower, Assistant Director, American Federation of Teachers




Leaving to Learn: How Out-of-School Learning Increases Student Engagement and Reduces Dropout Rates


Book Description

In this provocative book, authors Washor and Mojkowski observe that beneath the worrisome levels of dropouts from our nation’s high school lurks a more insidious problem: student disengagement from school and from deep and productive learning. To keep students in school and engaged as productive learners through to graduation, schools must provide experiences in which all students do some of their learning outside school as a formal part of their programs of study. All students need to leave school—frequently, regularly, and, of course, temporarily—to stay in school and persist in their learning. To accomplish this, schools must combine academic learning with experiential learning, allowing students to bring real-world learning back into the school, where it should be recognized, assessed, and awarded academic credit. Learning outside of school, as a complement to in-school learning, provides opportunities for deep engagement in rigorous learning.




"I Love Learning; I Hate School"


Book Description

Frustrated by her students’ performance, her relationships with them, and her own daughter’s problems in school, Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology, set out to understand why her students found their educational experience at a top-tier institution so profoundly difficult and unsatisfying. Through her research and in conversations with her students, she discovered a troubling mismatch between the goals of the university and the needs of students. In "I Love Learning; I Hate School," Blum tells two intertwined but inseparable stories: the results of her research into how students learn contrasted with the way conventional education works, and the personal narrative of how she herself was transformed by this understanding. Blum concludes that the dominant forms of higher education do not match the myriad forms of learning that help students—people in general—master meaningful and worthwhile skills and knowledge. Students are capable of learning huge amounts, but the ways higher education is structured often leads them to fail to learn. More than that, it leads to ill effects. In this critique of higher education, infused with anthropological insights, Blum explains why so much is going wrong and offers suggestions for how to bring classroom learning more in line with appropriate forms of engagement. She challenges our system of education and argues for a "reintegration of learning with life."




Learning in Public


Book Description

This "provocative and personally searching"memoir follows one mother's story of enrolling her daughter in a local public school (San Francisco Chronicle), and the surprising, necessary lessons she learned with her neighbors. From the time Courtney E. Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her chest for long walks, she was curious about Emerson Elementary, a public school down the street from her Oakland home. She learned that White families in their gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school. As she began asking why, a journey of a thousand moral miles began. Learning in Public is the story, not just Courtney’s journey, but a whole country’s. Many of us are newly awakened to the continuing racial injustice all around us, but unsure of how to go beyond hashtags and yard signs to be a part of transforming the country. Courtney discovers that her public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, is a powerful place to dig deeper. Courtney E. Martin examines her own fears, assumptions, and conversations with other moms and dads as they navigate school choice. A vivid portrait of integration’s virtues and complexities, and yes, the palpable joy of trying to live differently in a country re-making itself. Learning in Public might also set your family’s life on a different course forever.




UnCommon Learning


Book Description

UnCommon Learning techniques set the stage for mastery and true student engagement Integrate digital media and new applications with purpose and build a culture of learning with pleasure! Let students use real-world tools to do real-world work and develop skills society demands. Be the leader who creates this environment. UnCommon Learning shows you how to transform a learning culture through sustainable and innovative initiatives. It moves straight to the heart of using innovations such as Makerspaces, Blended Learning and Microcredentials. Included in the book: Vignettes to illustrate key ideas Real life examples to show what works Graphs and data to prove initiatives’ impact




Learning in School-University Partnership


Book Description

This volume looks at school-university partnerships from sociocultural perspectives of learning that view participation in social practice as fundamental to the process of learning. Its two major themes – school-university partnership and sociocultural and social theories of learning – have both been treated extensively in the literature. It is the bringing together of these two themes that makes this book unique. In this examination of an evolving model of school-university partnership, the Unified Professional Development Project in Hong Kong, the authors analyze the learning that takes place as the participants (student-teachers, mentor teachers, and university supervisors) mutually engage in the enterprise of improving teaching and learning in schools, developing shared practices, and creating new communities of practice. Although it describes one specific context, the book is not just about this locale. Rather, the Unified Professional Development Project is used as a context for theorizing more generally a social theory of learning for school-university partnerships that is relevant to any other similar context. This book will interest teacher educators, researchers in teacher education and teacher development, policy makers, and school practitioners who are involved in school-university partnerships.