education-theory

This workbook consisted of short "biographies" of realistic people. The detailed stories of their life supported different personality theories. The book was extremely readable and, should I say, enjoyable. Usually, I don't read texts for fun, but her characters were unique enough that I read ahead.

This book is an excellent resource as to what teachers are doing throughout the United States and why. The book supplies practical discussions in teacher talk for those practitioners looking to understand more about critical theory and the affect of such theory on classroom practice. The authors are from diverse backgrounds, ranging from Native Americans to African-American authors. the book is targeted towards both primary and secondary teaching. I found the book insightful and hopeful in both its approach and content. An excellent addition to critical pedagogy.

This compilation of Locke's political writings not only contains his famed second treatise, but also suplementary essays supporting his views and espousing other particulars. The book is a must for any one interested in political philosophy in the least simply because most of the ideas espoused were incorparated into the foundation of our country. The essays set up locke's basic democratic theories and his version of social contract society. the reading is mildly technical and archaic, but not too bad. an excellent start to any one interested in philosophy

A brilliant exposition, which covers every aspect and type of use made of the art of proverbs in this linguistic region (the Akan peoples inhabit much of the southern half of Ghana, and include the large sub-groups Ashanti and Fante, as well as several others). There are many books which collect large numbers of African proverbs, Akan/Ashanti and otherwise, but few give any sort of pithy account as to how they are used by the people, the part creativity plays in their use, and so on. Nor do they attempt to portray the brilliance of many of the users, how the lists of proverbs are maintained, how choosing a proverb is contextually/determined in a specific situation, etc. There is even the factor of how the correct vs. incorrect and/or creative use of a proverb leads to respect being gained or lessened by the individual using it.

There are proverb performance artists; proverbs are used during judicial proceedings, and in educational and religious contexts. Mr. Kwesi Yankah does a masterly job of dissecting the rhetoric, by citing 72 specific proverbs, documenting and further explaining how each was used in a specific situation. The textual analysis is exemplary. For each of the 72 situations, he identifies the type of interaction (e.g. formal judicial proceedings, church sermon, conversation between two people etc.), size of audience, age and gender and/or occupation of the proverb speaker, place/location, and original language. If the proverb was used in the midst of a longer oratorical passage, enough of that verbiage is included so the context is evident - the proverb itself is italicized.

In an appendix, Yankah lists these 72 situational proverbs in Twi (the language of the Akan peoples) along with the equivalent English. All in all, the treatise is well documented with appropriate footnotes, and there is an ample 14-page bibliography of works cited. This is a well-designed and well-executed work - it's not too difficult reading even for a non-specialist such as myself. There are wider implications for world culture as a whole: it helps to dispel the idea (which is probably still floating around) that African discourse is somehow of less substance than that of say, those of Euro-America and Asia. In 1985, it won Indiana University's Esther Kinsley Award for Best Dissertation.

[One of the earliest Akan proverb collections, J. G. Christaller's 'Tshi Proverbs' (1879), had an odious preface which stated that, in effect, the main use for such a work would be for Christian missionaries to better understand how to manipulate the natives to convert to his religion. Christaller's proverbs remained untranslated until later, when Rattray and others began that further work, and for the same stated objective. Many of these other early collectors/translators were also missionaries.]

Note that here Mr. Yankah's surname is spelled incorrectly as "Yanka". For other of his various, available works - please search the correct spelling.

Also please note that there is a serious pagination error in chapter 8: "Proverb Rhetoric and the Judicial Process". You'll have to read the pages in the following order: 214 . . . 218 . . . 215 . . . 216 . . .217 . . . 219. After that everything reverts to normal.

In a beautifully conceived and artfully written essay, Ronald adn Roskelly have retraced the twin forces of American education at its best: pragmatism and romanticism. Their findings are rich with voice, immanence, surprise, and relevance. They write with a sense of teaching so attuned to the rhythms and relationships of real writing classes--and their thinking is so live and lively in that setting, one has to answer their question--"Yes!" Teaching is still possible.

This book is a thorough examination of the Platonic concept of recollection, i.e. the theory that all true knowledge involves remembering our prior experience in the realm of Forms before to our earthly incarnation. This is demonstrated by the uneducated slave in Meno that is able to independently generate certain mathematical formulas without prior exposure to them. While it is not explored here, this obviously ties in with Plato's exposure to, and acceptance of, Orphic and/or Pythagorean doctrines of reincarnation.

The author makes it very clear that this theory was intended to account for only knowledge of the Forms. It was never meant to account for mundane and technical knowledge. Concerning this form of learning Plato was a quite capable empiricist. Recollection, as expounded by Plato, was meant to deal only with philosophical/metaphysical knowledge. Moreover, since recollection was seen as the necessary first stage of philosophizing, then only philosophers (or those well on their way to become philosophers) could recollect.

The argument of innate vs. empirical learning is expanded to cover both the ancient world and the present day. A large portion of the second part covers Aristotle's empiricist rejection of his master's thoughts on the subject (which may indeed be the entire origin of the current continuing argument.) The stand of both the Epicureans and the Stoics is presented in the chapters on the Hellenistic schools. The historical development of the arguement is continued on through the present day and the innatism of the Cambridge Platonists.

This is a lengthy and exhaustive examination, but it is rewarding to those seriously interested in the concepts of innate knowledge and the role of intuition in metaphysical thought. Secondly, it indicates the existence of the straight jacket imposed by Aristotelian logic upon this subject. In a larger sense, this book points to where modern thinking went astray of its traditionalist roots.

Reflective Practice To Improve Schools: An Action Guide To Educators defines reflective practice (approaches to teaching that require personal commitment to continuous learning and improvement) and discusses how reflective practice and continuous learning can be spread among teachers and applied throughout school systems to create a better educational base for our children's future. Tables, figures, point-by-point bulletins and black-and-white diagrams help illustrate the benefits of reflective practice. Collaboratively written by Jennifer York-Barr, William A. Sommers, Gail S. Ghere, and Jo Monite in an effort to present difficult undergraduate level concepts in clear language that can be easily grasped, Reflective Practice To Improve Schools poses a challenging, compelling argument and is highly recommended for any educator in search tips, tricks, and techniques for self improvement on the job.

This is an extraordinary collection of stories (some are stories about stories) of what goes on within communities (not just or even priomarily geographic ones) as they wrestle with changing themselves. It complements a much larger literature on community and organizational development that tends to talk about external rather than internal matters. There is an especially powerful chapter of the dynamics of thinking among the children of holocaust perpetrators. Also fine-grained analysis planned change in various schools and in the famous Fagor cooperatives of Basque country.

This book asserts that Deaf students learn mostly like hearing students, going against the "disability" and "remedial" stamps of nearly all teacher preparation programs in Deaf Education. And unlike most books on teaching Deaf students, Rethinking... actually gives specific, real examples of how to put theory into practice. One of the most useful aspects of this book is Livingston's detailed explanation of how to read to Deaf students of all ages in a meaningful and accessible way. She asserts that the main focus of all language activities in the classroom must be meaning-based, with the logistics of language following. Every teacher and parent of the Deaf, despite educational or communication philosophy, needs to read this book. It offers an eclectic, well-tested, tried and true approach to increasing the literacy skills of Deaf students.

This informative and unique book provides a thought-provoking critique of current pedagogy, and it offers valuable suggestions for reform. The book provides a history of multicultural theorizing and practice. It suggests radically new ways of reading such classic books as Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN, Maxine Hong Kingston's WOMAN WARRIOR, and Mark Twain's HUCKLEBERRY FINN. And it provides a biographical account of an experimental composition course taught by the author using multicultural materials. The whole book is written in a wonderfully personal and unpretentious voice. THE RHETORIC OF DIVERSITY is an irreplaceable addition to our current conversations about teaching multiethnic students and texts.