Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching

Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching Review

Peter Elbow's widely acclaimed and original theories on the writing process, set forth in Writing Without Teachers and Writing With Power, have earned him a reputation as a leading educational innovator. Now Elbow has drawn together twelve of his essays on the nature of learning and teaching to suggest a comprehensive philosophy of education. At once theoretical and down-to-earth, this collection will appeal not only to teachers, adminitrators and students, but to anyone with a love of learning.

Elbow explores the "contraries" in the educational process, in particular his theory that clear thinking can be enhanced by inviting indecision, incoherence, and paradoxical thinking. The essays, written over a period of twenty-five years, are engaged in a single enterprise: to arrive at insights or conclusions about learning and teaching while still doing justice to the "rich messiness" of intellectual inquiry. Drawing his conclusions from his own perplexities as a student and as a teacher, Elbow discusses the value of interdisciplinary teaching, his theory of "cooking" (an interaction of conflicting ideas), the authority relationship in teaching and the value of specifying learning objectives. A full section is devoted to evaluation and feedback, both of students and faculty. Finally, Elbow focuses on the need to move beyond the skepticism of critical thinking to what he calls "methodological belief"--an ability to embrace more than one point of view.

Hands-On Bible Explorations: 52 Fun Activities for Christian Learning

Hands-On Bible Explorations: 52 Fun Activities for Christian Learning Review

Hands-On Bible Explorations is a terrific collection of 52 activities and crafts for kids—one for each week of the year.  The book includes favorite stories and parables from the Old and New Testaments, chapters on important Christian Values, and fun projects that make the lessons of the Bible entertaining and easy to understand.   You’ll learn about the Ten Commandments, the Christmas story, the boy with loaves and fish, the greatest gift, the importance of friendship, and many more parts of the Bible as you do the fun activities.

Learning Classifier Systems: International Workshops, IWLCS 2003-2005, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)

Learning Classifier Systems: International Workshops, IWLCS 2003-2005, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science / Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence) Review

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed joint post-proceedings of 3 consecutive International Workshops on Learning Classifier Systems that took place in Chicago, IL, USA in July 2003, in Seattle, WA, USA in June 2004, and in Washington, DC, USA in June 2005 - all hosted by the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO.

The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from the workshop contributions. The papers are organized in topical sections on knowledge representation, mechanisms, new directions, as well as application-oriented research and tools. The topics range from theoretical analysis of mechanisms to practical consideration for successful application of such techniques to everday datamining tasks.

The First Voyage Around the World (Exploration and Discovery)

The First Voyage Around the World (Exploration and Discovery) Review

Discusses the Spanish expedition of 1519-1522, in which a crew led by Ferdinand Magellan found a westward route through the Americas and became the first to circumnavigate the world.

Cognitive Load Theory (Explorations in the Learning Sciences, Instructional Systems and Performance Technologies)

Cognitive Load Theory (Explorations in the Learning Sciences, Instructional Systems and Performance Technologies) Review

Over the last 25 years, cognitive load theory has become one of the world’s leading theories of instructional design. It is heavily researched by many educational and psychological researchers and is familiar to most practicing instructional designers, especially designers using computer and related technologies. The theory can be divided into two aspects that closely inter-relate and influence each other: human cognitive architecture and the instructional designs and prescriptions that flow from that architecture. The cognitive architecture is based on biological evolution. The resulting description of human cognitive architecture is novel and accordingly, the instructional designs that flow from the architecture also are novel. All instructional procedures are routinely tested using randomized, controlled experiments. Roughly 1/3 of the book will be devoted to cognitive architecture and its evolutionary base with 2/3 devoted to the instructional implications that follow, including technology-based instruction. Researchers, teachers and instructional designers need the book because of the explosion of interest in cognitive load theory over the last few years. The theory is represented in countless journal articles but a detailed, modern overview presenting the theory and its implications in one location is not available.

Making Teaching and Learning Matter: Transformative Spaces in Higher Education (Explorations of Educational Purpose)

Making Teaching and Learning Matter: Transformative Spaces in Higher Education (Explorations of Educational Purpose) Review

This volume captures the spirit of collaboration and innovation that its authors bring into the classroom, as well as to groundbreaking undergraduate programs and initiatives. Coming from diverse points of view and twenty different disciplines, the contributors illuminate the often perplexing debates about what matters most in higher education today. Each chapter tells a unique story about creating vital pedagogical arenas that have the potential to transform teaching and learning for both faculty and students. These exploratory spaces include courses under construction, cross-college and interdisciplinary collaborations, general education reform initiatives, and fresh perspectives on student support services, faculty development, freshman learning communities, writing across the curriculum, on-line degree initiatives, and teaching and learning centers. All these spaces lend shape to an over-arching, system-wide project bringing together the often disconnected silos of undergraduate education at The City University of New York (CUNY), America’s largest urban public university system. Since 2003, the University’s Office of Undergraduate Education has sponsored coordinated efforts to study and improve teaching and learning for the system’s 260,000 undergraduates enrolled at 18 distinct colleges. The contributors to this volume present a broad spectrum of administrative and faculty perspectives that have informed the process of transforming the undergraduate experience. Combined, the voices in these chapters create a much-needed exploratory space for the interplay of ideas about how teaching and learning need to matter in evolving notions of higher education in the twenty-first century. In addition, the text has wider social relevance as an in-depth exploration of change and reform in a large public institution.

Approaching Language Transfer through Text Classification: Explorations in the Detection-based Approach (Second Language Acquisition)

Approaching Language Transfer through Text Classification: Explorations in the Detection-based Approach (Second Language Acquisition) Review

This book explains the detection-based approach to investigating crosslinguistic influence and illustrates the value of the approach through a collection of five empirical studies that use the approach to quantify, evaluate, and isolate the subtle and com

Bringing Schools into the 21st Century (Explorations of Educational Purpose)

Bringing Schools into the 21st Century (Explorations of Educational Purpose) Review

Shift happens: Emerging technologies and globalization have resulted in political, social and cultural changes. These changes have a profound impact on all aspects of human life, including education. Yet while society has changed and continues to change, schools are slow to keep up. This book explores issues related to transforming and modernizing our educational systems, including the impact of societal shifts on education, the efforts at various levels to bring schools into the 21st century, the identification of 21st century skills, the reformation of the curriculum, the creation of alternative models of schooling, the innovative use of technology in education, and many others. It addresses questions like the following: Should schools systems adapt to better meet the needs of tomorrow’s world and how should this be accomplished? How can society better prepare students for a changing and challenging modern world? What skills do students need to lead successful lives and become productive citizens in the 21st century? How can educators create learning environments that are relevant and meaningful for digital natives? How can the school curriculum be made more rigorous to meet the needs of the 21st century? This book encourages readers to transcend the limits of their own educational experience, to think beyond familiar notions of schooling, instruction and curriculum, to consider how to best structure learning so that it will benefit future generations. It encourages a deeper analysis of the existing education system and offers practical insights into future directions focused on preparing students with 21st century skills.

International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools

International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools Review

This, the first publication to collate a broad international perspective on the pedagogical value of GIS technology in classrooms, offers an unprecedented range of expert views on the subject. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are now ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive. They have revolutionized the way people explore and understand the world around them. The capability they confer allows us to capture, manage, analyze, and display geographic data in ways that were undreamt of a generation ago. GIS has enabled users to make decisions and solve problems as diverse as designing bus routes, locating new businesses, responding to emergencies, and researching climate change. GIS is also having a major impact in the classroom. Students and teachers around the world are using this significant emerging technology in the secondary school classroom to study social and scientific concepts and processes, to broaden their technical skills, and to engage in problem solving and decision making about local and global issues. International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools brings together authors from 34 countries who profile the current status of GIS in secondary school teaching and learning in their country. Each chapter includes a summary of the country’s educational context, a case study illustrating how GIS is used in secondary schooling, and an assessment of the opportunities and challenges in teaching and learning with GIS now and in the future. The book demonstrates that GIS is not only a technological tool to be used in the classroom, but also a catalyst for motivation, encouragement, and cooperation in understanding and solving global problems. The most up to date and extensive survey of GIS in the secondary education landscape, covering both principles and practice. Professor David Maguire, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University, UK International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning With GIS in Secondary Schools is a highly relevant, critically important, reflective contribution to the literature, providing strong arguments supporting the inclusion for spatial studies for all in secondary school education.  Karl Donert, President, EUROGEO This is an invaluable and inspirational examination of innovation in geospatial technologies in secondary schools around the world. Each chapter contains practical models for how to integrate powerful tools for spatial analysis into a range of subjects. It will be useful to classroom teachers and administrators seeking pathways to implementation and teacher educators considering how to prepare the next generation to use geospatial technologies. Sarah Witham Bednarz, Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

The Leverage of National Board Candidacy: An Exploration of Teacher Learning

The Leverage of National Board Candidacy: An Exploration of Teacher Learning Review

The Leverage of National Board Candidacy is written for teachers considering the pursuit of National Board certification as well as for those currently engaged in the certification process. Capturing the experiences of Anne, Barbara, and Jamie, three teachers who sought NBPTS certification during the 2004-2005 school year, the book vividly describes their teaching practices, guiding philosophies, and thought processes before exploring each teacher's learning as it occurred during the certification year. Comparing the three teachers' certification experiences to the findings of recently conducted research, the book explores characteristics of readiness for National Board candidacy, common learning outcomes of the NBPTS certification process, and possible explanations for the varying nature and degree of learning that occurred for the three teachers through the experience. The final chapter presents the theory of leverage during National Board candidacy, an interactive dynamic that creates an uncomfortable yet positive pressure that makes the pursuit of National Board certification one of the most powerful professional development experiences currently available to teachers.

Interaction of Media, Cognition, and Learning: An Exploration of How Symbolic Forms Cultivate Mental Skills and Affect Knowledge Acquisition

Interaction of Media, Cognition, and Learning: An Exploration of How Symbolic Forms Cultivate Mental Skills and Affect Knowledge Acquisition Review

The educational use of television, film, and related media has increased significantly in recent years, but our fundamental understanding of how media communicate information and which instructional purposes they best serve has grown very little. In this book, the author advances an empirically based theory relating media's most basic mode of presentation -- their symbol systems -- to common thought processes and to learning. Drawing on research in semiotics, cognition and cognitive development, psycholinguistics, and mass communication, the author offers a number of propositions concerning the particular kinds of mental processes required by, and the specific mental skills enhanced by, different symbol systems. He then describes a series of controlled experiments and field and cross-cultural studies designed to test these propositions. Based primarily on the symbol system elements of television and film, these studies illustrate under what circumstances and with what types of learners certain kinds of learning and mental skill development occur. These findings are incorporated into a general scheme of reciprocal interactions among symbol systems, learners' cognitions, and their mental activities; and the implications of these relationships for the design and use of instructional materials are explored.

Career Exploration: Finding Your Future (Standalone)

Career Exploration: Finding Your Future (Standalone) Review

Our Career Exploration software features over 200 popular careers. This product is designed to allow learners from 16 to 60 explore career options. This interactive software will enable users to assess basic knowledge, explore career paths, and have access to starting salaries, duties & responsibilities, and job forecasts. This software can be used in any secondary education program, and guidance or career counseling program at any level from high school to continuing education programs, any human resource department in private, public, or government organizations seeking to provide career development opportunities to their employees. In addition to such detailed information on over 100 careers, this software can also be used as a powerful research tool. Our software will not only educate the student to all career opportunities, it will serve as a valuable tool to the educators, counselors, and parents.

Exploration & Discovery: History Detectives Series

Exploration & Discovery: History Detectives Series Review

Read all about the great explorers - Columbus, Cheng Ho, Cabot and Captain Cook. Join these intrepid exploreres on their voyages into the unknown.

Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620 (The American Story)

Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620 (The American Story) Review

Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover the Americas, but his voyages led to European exploration of the New World. Rich in resources and natural beauty, the Americas were irresistible to gold-hungry conquistadors. The newcomers gave little thought to those who had called the lands their home, and exploration soon came to signify conquest. The New World -- and the lives of its inhabitants -- would be changed forever.