education-theory

The Education of A Christian prince is qutie intresesting and really gives you a sense of how the Renaissance was and kinda what people were thinking know that they didn't follow the church so strictly and that the were free to write their ideas and with the help of the printing press were able to spread the ideas like wildfire to the rest of Europe through books such as this one.

I am using this book to teach an undergraduate psychology course. The authors present the material in a reader-friendly format. I prefer this text to Hilgard's.

No, not "The Matrix" Hollywood brought us, but the cultural matrix: where traditional logic and abstract thought have a tendency to breakdown. Life is like that. As James would remind us, this is not a "block universe" (what non-philosopher/non-scientist ever thought it was?) and so our ideas often end up bursting under the pressure of more and more experience. How is logic to cope with this? Dewey is not a magician, but in this book he sets out (in rather abstruce, brier-patch prose) to give us a radical new tool kit. If you enjoy seriously thinking about thinking, this book is for you. Bring your coffee, though. Dewey's writing style is rather soporific; and weighing in at over 500 pages, this tome can even knockout the most experienced philosophical heavyweight. That said, I encourage you to shuck your gloves and take a swing!

This colletion of essays proves that it does not take the most sophisticated and thus most expensive means (i.e. software tools) to dramatically enhance language learning classrooms. A simple "chat"-like online-programm is enough to overcome the obstacles of decades maybe centuries of foreign language learning, provided is is appropirately used by language teachers. Focussing on "extended discourse" among students , a didactical aim that is seldomly achieved in regular high-school classes, be it in the U.S or in my home country, Germany, this book gives the theoretical foundation as well as concrete advise how to achieve this. A bonus for language teachers: Suggestions for marking scales for this brand new, yet unexplored way of language teaching.

This small book gives a wide range of examples of "languaging" with reality therapy (control theory). It is amazing how "languaging" can make a huge difference in how communication is understood or the context of the words. This book is especially useful for parents of teens in applying reality therapy kinds of practical approaches to their kids. Natural consequences, taking responsibility and making useful choices. The mere reading of the difference between conventional and habitual phrasing .. and the control theory type of speak gives insight. This book is best as a companion to Glasser's other books.

In his 1996 book, "Language Program Evaluation: Theory and Practice," author Brian Lynch remains true to the subtitle by effectively balancing theory and practice in this introduction to program evaluation. The book is short enough (194 pp.) to digest in a few sittings and is written in language that is both focused enough for expert evaluators and accessible to first-time program assessors.

Lynch begins with an overview of evaluation and follows with a comprehensive review of early efforts in evaluating language programs. Early on, he describes the tension between the two competing research paradigms -- positivism (i.e, quantitative) and naturalistic (i.e., qualitative) inquiry -- while alerting the reader to biases, alternative paradigms, and the possibility (and complexity) of seeking a "middle ground" paradigm. In subsequent chapters, Lynch examines the issues of validity, research design, data gathering and analysis from the quantitative and qualitative perspectives; in each case, he presents numerous examples of particular use to language program administrators. He closes with a summary of his own procedure for program evaluation, the "context-adaptive model," which he describes as "a flexible, adaptable heuristic -- a starting point for inquiry into language education programs that will constantly reshape and redefine itself, depending on the context of the program and the evaluation" (p. 3).

Although the book is designed to provide administrators with a possible framework for self-evaluation (choosing from the competing paradigms described throughout the book), the text is not meant to be a recipe to undertake a self-study. The quantitative sections can be a bit heavy going for the numerically challenged, although Lynch shies away from overloading the book with statistical analyses. For the language program administrator that wants (or needs) to do a self-evaluation and doesn't know where or how to begin, Lynch's work will provide a theoretically sound, well-crafted overview of the field of evaluation and the alternatives available to the evaluator.

I was impressed with this book, Learning and Instruction: Theory Into Practice. I have just started my grad. degree in education, and used it for my first class. I found it to have rather concise and informative summaries of key educational theorists. The book, while structured chronologically, flows together nicely and shows how these theories build upon and interweave with one another. I am ordinarily not too thrilled, like many, about picking up a textbook; but I found this to be one of the better options. My only criticism is that it is pricy for such a small size.

Jack Mezirow et al have provided an excellent resource book for helping us to change attitudes and tackle difficult situations.

As a LearningSupport Tutor in further education (16 years and over) the reviewer is often in contact with students who have challenging behaviour and finds herself in situations that require a shift in perspective, 'epistomology' and 'frame referencing'. This book provides the forum for doing the essential work. But it is not for the faint-hearted reader, neither is it light reading; this book is for thinkers: it's meanings are not always instantly accessible.

That said, for those who are serious about their profession, searching always for ways to improve their teaching, evaluation and reflection, this is the book to go for. Those readers who experience difficulty in accessing the academic language may benefit from discussions in the staff room and it is certainly a book that deserves studying on teacher-training courses.

Although the book is written with the adult learner in mind, teachers of younger teenagers may well find a lot of useful information here.

There is much food for thought in 'Learning as Transformation' and it is a book that can be read and digested like a series of good meals. This reviewer is doing just that and enjoying the experience.

The first half of Woodring's slender tome traces the development of English as an academic discipline: from its philological beginnings to the historicist thirties and then to the emergence of New Criticism in the forties. However, of paramount interest to the budding literature student is the chapter that deals with the rise of poststructuralist theory and cultural studies--i.e., the quagmire from which literary studies has not yet entirely extricated itself. Subsequent chapters deal with administrative bloating, the lack of marketability of the PhD, tenure track trauma, political correctness running rampant on campuses everywhere, and a whole assortment of new challenges from outside the university proper: distance learning, remedial education, ESL, relaxing of foreign language requirements, and a general decline in the quality of and emphasis on the primacy of writing in undergraduate education. To each of these issues Woodring proposes solutions, some sensible and some frankly drastic, such as his suggestion that older professors retire sooner to make room for younger and that the publish or perish dictum that has hounded academics for so long be banished in favor of increased attention to teaching and to preparing undergraduates for lives of civic duty and personal empathy. Throughout, Woodring maintains the value of literature, and the humanities in general, in a technocratic, highly material age that often looks askance at its apparently insular, highly esoteric concerns and values.

Woodring is basically saying nothing new in this deceptively thin volume. He sounds many of the same alarms that others have for quite some time now. His plea to those in the academic establishment who would seek to de-center the canon either through deconstructuralist nihilism or cultural studies revisionism to curb their excesses and to reconnect with the concerns of the average reader--i.e., plot, character, theme, etc.--breaks no new ground. (Camille Paglia's "Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders" is a more entertaining tour of the ridiculous excesses of academic theory and political maneuvering.) And his contention that a solid background in the humanities prepares students for lives of civic duty appears rather old-fashioned and naive in today's cynical, commercial culture. But perhaps the bid for comprehensive overview is the value of Woodring's book; he shows us literary studies yesterday and today and gives us a glimpse of what the future may hold.

Of somewhat lesser concern is Woodring's organization, tone, diction and language. His discussion is not always succinct: he repeats himself occasionally and sometimes his chapters seem to ramble. For the most part, he holds to his own dictum to write with "clarity of thought, vigor of expression, pursuit of truth, and recognition of beauty." He is occasionally witty and frequently shrewd in some of his observations. However, he could have benefitted from an able proofreader: his text occasionally suffers from obfuscating, unnecessarily complex sentence structure (including his fondness for overinflated metaphors, the passive voice and for piling clause upon clause). The book also contains a number of minor grammatical blunders. Yet a major concern is Woodring's audience--most, if not all, of his book will be of little interest to the lay person, save those seeking corroboration of the generally absurd state of the humanities nowadays. The return to the concerns of the common reader that Woodring espouses may fall on deaf ears. For he appears to lack the coarseness of mind and spirit that would put him in contact with a greater reading public. His audience appears to be those academics who either already agree with him but who can do little to change things or those who will dismiss his claims as hopelessly outdated and backward looking.

Friedman has seen the post-modern future. This book ostensibly addresses feminists, but it spends so little time actually addressing this point of view that it self-demonstrates the more inclusive, globalistic, humanistic that it posits. I particularly appreciated the combining of literary review with this new global social theory of identity formation. My only criticism would be that the highly specialized jargon Friedman uses can at first seem obstructive. Overall, invaluable.