An Introduction to the History of Educational Theories, first published in 1881, offers a comprehensive overview of the most notable approaches to education throughout Western history, from Athens and Rome to the Victorian public school. Exploring not only the still famous theories of Plato and Aristotle, this work also touches on techniques in education which are either no longer prevalent – Roman Oratory, the Jesuits – or in some cases were never widely adopted or appreciated: John Milton, for example. This title will be of value to those intrigued by the potential of past attitudes for present-day application, as well as to those unconvinced by contemporary approaches.

First published in 1990, the Handbook of Educational Ideas and Practices was written for practitioners and students in the field of education and its related services and was designed to appeal to educationists no matter what their nationality. Focusing mainly on compulsory schooling, it provides summaries of the thinking, research findings, and innovatory practices current at the time. However, the book is also careful to present a complete picture of education and therefore includes a separate section for education beyond school which covers pre-school level, post-secondary level, and adult and continuing education. There are also other chapters dealing with aspects of organization, curriculum, and teaching in various forms of tertiary education. Indeed, each topic has been discussed by an acknowledged expert writing in sufficient detail in order to resist trivialization.

First published in 1989, Towards a Theory of Schooling explores and debates the relationship between school and society. It examines the form and function of one of humankind’s most important social institutions, following the cutting edge of pedagogic innovation from mainland Europe through the British Isles to the USA. In the process, the book throws important light upon the origins and evolution of the school based notions of class, curriculum, classroom, recitation and class teaching.

This title, first published in 1973, brings together a variety of papers by Israel Scheffler, one of America’s leading educational philosophers. The essays each stress the importance of critical thought and independent judgement to the organization of educational activities. In the first section, Scheffler adopts a metaphilosophical approach, emphasizing the role of philosophy in educational thought. A number of key concepts are dealt with next, including the study of education and its relation to theoretical disciplines, philosophical interpretations of teaching, and the education of teachers. The final section is critical, and deals with the writings of several key thinkers in the field. A broad and authoritative study, this reissue will provide any Philosophy student with an essential background to the criticism and theories surrounding the philosophy of education.

First published in 1996, this book charts the philosophical landscape of staff development at a time when the subject of ‘quality’ in university teaching and learning was under examination. Graham Webb considers three main issues in his research. He focuses on what the basis for educational and staff development actually is and looks at the weaknesses of the then current practices, as well as deliberating over the future of informed staff development. This book will be of interest to staff developers of all kinds and more generally, to anyone concerned with education and human development.

Distance education, for long the Cinderella of the educational spectrum, had emerged in the 1970s and early 1980s as a valued component of many national educational systems in both developed and developing countries. The foundation of the Open Universities, developments in communications technology and in audio-, video- and computer-based learning, a new sophistication in the design of print-based materials and better support systems for the student learning at a distance had all contributed to the availability and quality of distance education programmes. Originally published in 1988, this book chronicles this great change in distance education. It presents the best writings on the subject published during the previous ten years. The articles selected for this volume provided a new scholarly basis for the theory and practice of distance education. The editors have brought together contributions from many countries and present authoritative introductions to each of the nine sections. This book provided those in both developed and developing countries with a guideline to one of the most rapidly expanding areas of education at the time.