This book explores ways to design courses and units to emphasize understanding and uncoverage rather than coverage, offering practical solutions for teacher-designers. It focuses on a different use for performance assessment, concluding that performance is the key to assessing understanding. The book analyzes the logic of backward design as an…

This book digs into the tensions, contradictions, and uncertainties of teaching. The book explores how to "read" teaching, which involves the application to practice and research of "simple if neglected things" like noticing, wondering, reflecting, and holding an impression in the grip of an idea. The first chapter discusses the productive…

Discusses the concept of egocentrism and its relation to cognitive development. Describes the major stages of egocentrism: sensori-motor, preoperational, concrete operational, and adolescent egocentrism. Focuses on research support for the theory of adolescent egocentrism. Discusses educational implications. (RC)

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) identifies scheduling students for classes as a non-counseling activity. Ideally, school counselors should limit non-counseling activities, but the reality is that counselors do in fact spend much time and energy scheduling classes, according to a recent survey of secondary counselors. We introduce…

To examine the impact of old age upon an individual's sense of self we must look at the enduring self. An understanding of selfhood or self-consciousness can only be found by reference to the social activity of the individual. The interactional part of the self involves the individual in two forms of active social behavior, subject and object. The…

A model of social skills in childhood and adolescence using the concepts and literature on symbolic interactionism is proposed. Its components (role-taking, role-making, definition of situation, and self) and their potential contributions to social skills analysis are discussed. An application to friendship making and possible model limitations…

When composition instructors discuss teaching diversity, the concept of tolerance often takes over the conversation. Tolerance constructs an ideal "comfort zone" where every student's voice can be heard and respected. While tolerance is perceived as an admirable goal, Marinara has concluded that the ideal of the comfortable classroom space from…

This 3-year longitudinal study was conducted in order to help students, enrolled in a graduate level teacher certification program designed for career change individuals, clarify their beliefs and perspectives about teaching and develop skills in reflective analysis. The study used perspectives including attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors,…

Educational imagery is introduced as an innovative classroom technique that allows students to isolate themselves mentally and to apply their imaginations to teacher-directed scenarios to accomplish a variety of educational objectives. In this book, the rationale and procedures for using educational imagery with secondary school and college…

Seventy preschoolers, first, and third graders (average ages of 4 1/2, 6 1/2 and 8 1/2 years, respectively) participated in interviews which used stories and pictures to assess their perceptions of the sources of self-knowledge (self-observation, social feedback, and social comparison). Assessments were made of level of role-taking and salience,…

Teachers, counselors, administrators, psychologists, social workers, and other professionals working in social service agencies have become so specialized that there is very little in common among the various approaches. In order to avoid separation and isolation of these professions and a possible decline in helping effectiveness, the common…

In a course preparing student teachers for culturally diverse classrooms, passionate debate about racism and affirmative action revealed some students' entrenched resistance to "difficult knowledge" about oppression and white privilege. A pedagogy of compassion builds trust by recognizing the need to learn about other peoples' realities through…

Elementary teachers read vignettes depicting incidents involving (fictional) students who presented chronic behavior problems, and then told how they would respond if the incidents occurred in their classrooms. Responses were coded for attributions about the students and about the teacher's roles in causing and remediating the problem. Teachers…

The felt-experience exercise is a form of cooperative learning. Participants are placed into dyads in which they interact with one another to realize and deepen their understanding of themselves, their partner, and the course content. Meaning is created through written reflection on personal experience and dialogue with one's partner. The…

The author offers an analysis of the failures and insights she experienced working with adolescents at a progressive school while discussing how the students understood and experienced race and identity -- their own and that of others. While she encountered students who were willing to take her into their worlds, her efforts fell flat when her…