This teacher's book contains helpful notes on the texts in Understanding Ideas, giving information about the authors, contexts or cultural background where this seems desirable. It also provides answers to all the questions set on the texts and suggestions for follow-up work such as writing, discussion and role-playing. Those texts in Understanding Ideas which lend themselves to oral exploitation have been recorded on cassette. The teacher's book suggests ways to use the recording, for example, for global or detailed listening comprehension, pronunciation work or as an aid to oral presentation of a text intended for intensive language study.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

The journey towards becoming a teacher involves engaging with a range of theoretical and pedagogical knowledge, and fieldwork experiences. This edited collection is a response to recurring student feedback about the struggle to grasp the philosophical and political aspects of teaching and learning. For some, encountering broad open-ended questions about the nature and purpose of education is confronting. The chapters have been organised around three philosophical 'traditions'--progressive, liberal, and socially critical perspectives. The exploration of each philosophical tradition is complemented by personal reflections of academics for whom a particular philsophical view has influenced their development as scholars, researchers, and educators. This book is essential reading for teachers, educators, parents, and community members interested in understanding how enduring philosphical ideas can help us make sense of contemporary educational issues. The book raises questions key questions about the purpose of education, the nature of knowledge, and beliefs and values about teaching and learning. The authors present education as a site of competing and often conflicting ideas to which there may be no firm answers to these questions. In this regard, the book presents philosophical thinking as a deep, on-going exploration of the relationship between education and society. By providing further questions for discussion, the authors seek to promote further reflection and thinking about education and its role in society. The book will therefore also be of interest to policy makers, government officials and teacher educators.

In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.

Underpinned by the work of major thinkers such as Marx, Locke, Weber, Hobbes and Foucault, the first half of the book looks at political concepts including: the state and sovereignty; the nation; democracy; representation and legitimacy; freedom; equiality and rights; obligation; and citizenship. There is also a specific chapter which addresses the role of ideology in the shaping of politics and society. The second half of the book addresses traditional theoretical subjects such as socialism, Marxism and nationalism, before moving on to more contemporary movements such as environmentalism, ecologism and feminism.

This book shows how schools can--and must--develop expertise in "learning variation" (understanding how different kinds of minds learn) and apply this knowledge to classroom instruction in order to address the chronic learning challenges and achievement gap faced by millions of students. Barringer shows how using what we know about learning variation with a focus on discovering learning strengths, not just deficits, can help schools create plans for success for those students who often find it elusive. The book specifically addresses how school leaders can incorporate this knowledge into instructional practice and school-level policy through various professional development strategies. Schools for All Kinds of Minds: Provides a readable synthesis of the latest research from neuroscience, cognitive science, and child and adolescent development as it relates to understanding learning and its many variations. Links this information to strategies for understanding struggling learners and adapting school practices to accommodate a wider array of learning differences in a classroom. Demonstrates how this understanding of learning variation can change the way teachers and others help students succeed in various academic and content areas and acquire necessary 21st century skills. Includes discussion questions and facilitator guidelines for staff developers and teacher education programs; downloadable forms that accompany exercises from within the book; an action plan for schools to implement the ideas found in the book; and more.