“This is a useful, interesting and valuable work. The authors ask the difficult questions and attempt answers which, although complex, are written in an accessible and open manner. It deserves to be widely read.” Educational Review Engaging Teachers makes a deliberate attempt to reclaim the education discourse captured by new right politics and connect it with a radical democratic agenda for schooling. On its agenda are education markets, policy, leadership, professionalism, and communities. Engaging with these is conceived on at least two levels. First, as an invitation to teachers to become involved in reconstructing schooling for socially just purposes and in democratic ways. From this perspective, the politics of engagement is not simply a matter of acquiescence or resistance but is informed by a commitment to generate alternatives: teachers, parents and students making things happen rather than having things done to them. Also signalled is an intent to work collectively, exploring and acting on common interests and across uncommon ground. Second, the book also celebrates teachers engaging in these reconstructive efforts in attractive and meaningful ways. The attraction is decisions about schooling made by those they affect as well as decisions that are meaningful because they engage the interests of all.

The first few years of teaching represent an intense period of experimentation and learning, leading to the adoption of learner-centered practices to help students achieve. A critical incident or nagging problem triggers critical reflection on practice, experimentation, the adoption of new approaches, and permanent changes in practice. When teachers improve their practice through action research and collaboration with colleagues, students predictably learn more. Inspecting the “core” areas of teaching and learning helps teachers critically reflect on practice to improve and innovate. Drawing on research and best practices from education and psychology, readers learn how four “motivational pathways” attract even the most reluctant and resistant learners to learning. While many recognize the importance of well prepared and accomplished teachers in helping students learn, too few recognize the need for continuous learning as the surest route to gaining expertise in teaching and increasing student achievement. Practical models and strategies presented in this book will help teachers address the important challenges facing schools today, including supporting disadvantaged learners, raising student achievement, and challenging all students to achieve their potential.

The authors who introduced the concepts of Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) and choice-based art education have completely revised and updated their original, groundbreaking bestseller that was designed to facilitate independent learning and support student choices in subject matter and media. More than ever before, teachers are held accountable for student growth and this new edition offers updated recommendations for assessments at multiple levels, the latest strategies and structures for effective instruction, and new resources and helpful tips that provide multiple perspectives and entry points for readers. The Second Edition of Engaging Learners Through Artmaking will support those who are new to choice-based authentic art education, as well as experienced teachers looking to go deeper with this curriculum. This dynamic, user-friendly resource includes sample lesson plans and demonstrations, assessment criteria, curricular mapping, room planning, photos of classroom set-ups, media exploration, and many other concrete and open-ended strategies for implementing TAB in kindergarten–grade 8. Book Features: Introduces artistic behaviors that sustain engagement, such as problem finding, innovation, play, representation, collaboration, and more. Provides instructional modes for differentiation, including whole-group, small-group, individual, and peer coaching. Offers management strategies for choice-based learning environments, structuring time, design of studio centers, and exhibition. Illustrates shifts in control from teacher-directed to learner-directed, examining the concept of quality in children’s artwork. Highlights artist statements by children identifying personal relevancy, discovery learning, and reflection.

Children and young people with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) have co-existing and overlapping conditions which can manifest in complex learning patterns, extreme behaviours and a range of socio-medical needs which are new and unfamiliar to many educators. Their combination of issues and layered needs – mental health, relationship, behavioural, physical, medical, sensory, communication and cognitive – mean they often disengage from learning and challenge even our most experienced teachers. This book provides school practitioners and leaders with an approach and resources to engage this often disenfranchized group of children in learning. The Engagement for Learning Framework has been developed and trialled by over 100 educational settings (both special and mainstream) with learners from early years to post-16. It gives practitioners from a range of disciplines a shared means of assessing, recording and developing personalized learning pathways and demonstrating progression for these children. The focus on inquiry means that however complex a young person’s needs, educators will be able to apply the approach. This practical and engaging book provides literature, tools and case study examples outlining who children and young people with CLDD are, why their engagement for learning is important and how the Engagement for Learning Framework can be used effectively by teachers and other professionals to ensure the best possible outcomes for these children.

Student engagement happens as a result of a teacher’s careful planning and execution of specific strategies. This self-study text provides in-depth understanding of how to generate high levels of student attention and engagement. Using the suggestions in this book, every teacher can create a classroom environment where engagement is the norm, not the exception.

Discover how and why community-engaged teacher preparation is a powerful and vital approach to address an educational system that is historically deficient, discriminatory, and decidedly inequitable. In this edited volume, the authors argue that past practice is inadequate and issue a mandate for a new approach to educator preparation. Articulating a clear definition of community-engaged teacher preparation, they focus on national and international initiatives that have been sustained over time and are having a direct impact on student learning. Chapters are written by school, university, and community partners who speak to the innovation, creativity, commitment, and persistence required to reinvent teacher preparation. They also underscore the complexity of this work, the humility necessary to reflect and reconsider, and the true spirit of authentic solidarity among university, school, and community partners required to seek and secure equity for children in schools. Book Features: Provides a critical examination of structural inequity in education and ways to address it through community-engaged teacher preparation. Describes a teacher preparation model that is enacted in solidarity with members of historically marginalized populations.Offers clear guidance on what is meant by culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies with examples of how these frameworks are being operationalized.Explores the obstacles and opportunities involved in the implementation process. “A collection of powerful authors who offer theoretical considerations, evidence-based approaches, and practical considerations for not just teacher education as usual but community-engaged teacher education.” —From the Foreword by Tyrone C. Howard, University of California, Los Angeles

"This book by first-time Heinemann author Jessica Martin is about creating structure and environment to address classroom management issues. Most importantly, it highlights the necessity of co-designing with students-not just for students. Jessica spent a lot of time in real classrooms (especially west coast settings) to collect ideas and capture a multitude of design options that will offer flexible, inclusive learning"--