This book is an action plan for improving education in the U.S, focusing on the key role of teachers in this improvement. It offers a detailed comparison of the educational methods of Germany, Japan, and the United States. The analysis begins with an international study of mathematics teaching in the three countries that was conducted as part of…

This book is designed to help teachers understand the basic methodology of counseling and sensitize teachers to the basic ideas and skills that are involved in responding to students' interpersonal, social, and emotional needs. The book helps teachers create helping relationships with students, assess and diagnose problems, use current therapy…

This book explores the opportunities that technology provides to empower students to learn how to learn. Chapter 1 "Teaching and Learning the Structure of Information" covers information literacy, MAPping (Met-Web Information, Author, Purpose) the Internet, confusing technical mastery with critical thinking, and blocking versus access.…

Bridging the gap between child development and strategies for inclusion, this book is intended to help early childhood practitioners and pre-service teachers feel better equipped to meet the needs of all the children in their early childhood setting. Each chapter of the book is a case study introducing a child (ages birth to 8 years) with one or…

This book is designed to help policymakers, educators, and researchers develop a deeper understanding of the issues of school restructuring and to give greater conceptual clarity to the terms of the current debate. The chapters of the book contain forum papers that are organized into two main parts. Following chapter 1, "Introduction: On Changing…

This guidebook provides information on how to implement authentic assessment. It presents pertinent information in an easy-to-read format and is intended to be a reference for further resources. Chapter 1 defines relevant terms and compares traditional testing practices with authentic assessment. Specifically, it looks at the differences in…

The question that ought to be at the heart of the school reform debate is: Why do we have schools? An answer to this question will drive the sorts of "improvements" that schools attempt. This book proposes that schools exist to help young persons create meaning and discover their own being through development of the mind. The mind is the…

In recent years, schools have been moving away from centralized decision making, granting teachers the authority to determine course content. This book explores the concept of including students in curricular decision making. Chapter 1 explains why students at all grade levels should be involved in choosing topics of study. Educational research…

This book is designed as a springboard for teacher educators and students working together to engage in thought and dialogue about what it means to be a teacher in American society. Chapters are grouped into four sections, each of which ends with a section of suggested activities for discussion, writing, and research opportunities. Part 1 consists…

In an ethnographic reflection on 10 years experience working in the high schools of inner-city New York, issues of school safety, discipline, and violence are explored. The central proposition is that the mentality that relies on paramilitary security measures and technological devices, such as metal detectors, to achieve safe schools is only an…

This collection presents the best of 8 years of "Rethinking Schools," an education reform journal created in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) in 1986 by teachers vitally concerned with educational change. This volume contains 29 essays by classroom teachers, as well as pieces by such national reform figures as Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Herbert Kohl,…

This book contains interviews with 15 major figures in the academic discipline of political science. Contributors discuss the intellectual and institutional roots of political science and trace its evolution and development. Those interviewed describe what it was like to be a part of the earliest Ph.D programs, and what it was like to work with…

Popular demands for school restructuring are increasingly common. This book is designed for diverse audiences who are interested in school improvement. Chapter 1, "Restructuring: In Search of a Movement" (Joseph Murphy), provides a historical and conceptual framework of restructuring efforts. Chapter 2, "Feeling the Ripples, Riding…

This book describes the important theoretical ideas of critical pedagogy and explains how to put strategies consistent with them into practice. Chapter 1 explores Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society (1970) and his work highlighting ways in which institutions and conventional approaches to education are failing ordinary men and women. In contrast,…

This book suggets that teachers and teacher unions should take the lead in making changes to promote educational quality and prepare students for the 21st century, where knowledge rather than industry will be the organizing principle. Part 1, "A Call to Action," describes how American society is changing and how these shifts necessitate the…