Download or read book Tinkering toward Utopia written by David B. TYACK and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans' faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices. In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to reinvent schooling? Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.

Download or read book Failure to Disrupt written by Justin Reich and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Science “Reading List for Uncertain Times” Selection “A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the present and future of higher education.” —Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Lower Ed “A must-read for the education-invested as well as the education-interested.” —Forbes Proponents of massive online learning have promised that technology will radically accelerate learning and democratize education. Much-publicized experiments, often underwritten by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, have been launched at elite universities and elementary schools in the poorest neighborhoods. But a decade after the “year of the MOOC,” the promise of disruption seems premature. In Failure to Disrupt, Justin Reich takes us on a tour of MOOCs, autograders, “intelligent tutors,” and other edtech platforms and delivers a sobering report card. Institutions and investors favor programs that scale up quickly at the expense of true innovation. Learning technologies—even those that are free—do little to combat the growing inequality in education. Technology is a phenomenal tool in the right hands, but no killer app will shortcut the hard road of institutional change. “I’m not sure if Reich is as famous outside of learning science and online education circles as he is inside. He should be...Reading and talking about Failure to Disrupt should be a prerequisite for any big institutional learning technology initiatives coming out of COVID-19.” —Inside Higher Ed “The desire to educate students well using online tools and platforms is more pressing than ever. But as Justin Reich illustrates...many recent technologies that were expected to radically change schooling have instead been used in ways that perpetuate existing systems and their attendant inequalities.” —Science

Download or read book Confessions of a School Reformer written by Larry Cuban and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Confessions of a School Reformer, eminent historian of education Larry Cuban reflects on nearly a century of education reforms and his experiences with them as a student, educator, and administrator. Cuban begins his own story in the 1930s, when he entered first grade at a Pittsburgh public school, the youngest son of Russian immigrants who placed great stock in the promises of education. With a keen historian's eye, Cuban expands his personal narrative to analyze the overlapping social, political, and economic movements that have attempted to influence public schooling in the United States since the beginning of the twentieth century. He documents how education both has and has not been altered by the efforts of the Progressive Era of the first half of the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through the 1970s, and the standards-based school reform movement of the 1980s through today. Cuban points out how these dissimilar movements nevertheless shared a belief that school change could promote student success and also forge a path toward a stronger economy and a more equitable society. He relates the triumphs of these school reform efforts as well as more modest successes and unintended outcomes. Interwoven with Cuban's evaluations and remembrances are his "confessions," in which he accounts for the beliefs he held and later rejected, as well as mistakes and areas of weakness that he has found in his own ideology. Ultimately, Cuban remarks with a tempered optimism on what schools can and cannot do in American democracy.

Download or read book Transforming Identities written by Stephen J. Pape and published by Myers Education Press. This book was released on 2023-10-09 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2024 SPE Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention Transforming Identities is the story of one doctoral program that was developed to transform the individuals who participated in the program personally and professionally, leading to improved ways of working within their professional practice. The book details the components of the program believed to have contributed to students' transformed personal and professional identities. The description of the program serves as a frame for 14 individual, compelling stories of transformation. These stories include identities experienced during the program, programmatic components that were mechanisms for change, and the impact of these alums' transformation on their professional organizations. In the final chapter, the editors look across the alums' stories of transformation to inform those who are developing/redeveloping doctor of education programs. Mechanisms of change highlighted by these former students include courses, communities of practice, advisers, and comprehensive examination. The book also synthesizes alums' descriptions of the phases of their transformation, what it means to be a scholar-practitioner, and what meaningful contributions “look like” within their professional contexts. The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Doctor of Education (EdD) program was created with the expressed programmatic outcome of developing leaders who possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to rigorously examine educational problems of practice with stakeholders within their context of professional practice. Transforming Identities frames this discussion of identity transformation from an improvement science perspective as depicted by Bryk et al. (2015) (see also Author et al., 2022). Using this framework for the Applied Dissertation, the program supported its scholar-practitioners to partner with their colleagues in educational institutions and to independently take on the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their work within their context of professional practice. The initial chapters in the book provide an overview of the EdD program, to frame the remaining chapters in which graduates from the program describe their inspirational stories of transformation. They describe the ways in which the program components, including their dissertation, transformed their identity as well as their work within their context of professional practice. These stories present the ways in which these change agents within their organizations have served as insiders who, with greater knowledge and access to knowledge, were able to become the bridge between research and practice, and practice and research and thereby change their organizations from the inside. These stories of transformation highlight how their skills and insights accurately identify the variability in the contexts in which their problem of practice is situated, the variability in the successes of interventions within similar contexts, and the most appropriate way to move the organization forward toward improved outcomes. Each chapter tells the author’s story of transformation from practitioner to scholar-practitioner through the dissertation study and beyond.

Download or read book Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education written by Efstratopoulou, Maria and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diversity creates a rich environment for ideas to evolve into new and more refined forms. This pedagogical approach can help students to appreciate and value all forms of diversity and enrich learning. There is a need for administrators in education to institute policies that will support diversity and inclusion within special education classrooms. Rethinking Inclusion and Transformation in Special Education explores the latest findings on how children learn by discussing global policies and educational practices, considering professional expectations, establishing parent relationships that enhance communication, creating an effective learning environment that meets all students’ needs, and using technology wisely. Covering topics such as language development promotion, school leadership practices, and long-term skill support, this book is essential for special education teachers, diversity officers, school administrators, instructional designers, curriculum developers, academicians, researchers, and upper-level students.

Download or read book Leading for Learning written by Phillip C. Schlechty and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-01-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading for Learning Written by acclaimed school reform advocate Phillip C. Schlechty, Leading for Learning offers educators the framework, tools, and processes they need to transform their schools from bureaucracies into dynamic learning organizations. Schlechty explains how to move beyond some of the deeply ingrained and negative conceptions of schooling that guide so much of their practice. He shows educators how they can take advantage of new learning technologies by increasing their organization's capacity to support continuous innovation. "Clearly not for the fainthearted, Schlechty's engrossing appraisal of American education calls for a bold, truly fundamental transformation of how we run our public schools. Some books are thought-provoking; this one is action-provoking." W. JAMES POPHAM, professor emeritus, UCLA "Dr. Schlechty has once again written an insightful book that educational leaders can use as a road map in transforming our schools into learning organizations designed to serve twenty-first century students." DR. RANDY BRIDGES, superintendent, Alamance-Burlington School System, NC "Because education is ultimately a community responsibility, Schlechty's proposal to shift school systems from bureaucracies to learning organizations can open doors to citizens who are frustrated by the bureaucracy in their efforts to reclaim their role in education. This book is as much for them as it is for professional educators." DAVID MATHEWS, president, Kettering Foundation "Anyone in a school leadership position from the board room to the classroom should read this engaging and thought-provoking book. It's a must-read for all immersed in or contemplating the transformation of public education." CLAUDIA MANSFIELD SUTTON, chief communications and marketing officer, American Association of School Administrators

Download or read book The Change Laboratory written by Jaakko Virkkunen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-12-31 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Change Laboratory is a method for formative intervention in work communities that supports this kind of organizational learning. It is a path breaker in the area of work place learning due to its strong theoretical and research basis and the way that it integrates the change of organizational practices and individuals’ learning. It provides a way to develop practitioners’ transformative agency and capacity for creating and implementing new conceptual and practical tools for mastering their joint activity.

Download or read book The State Role in School Turnaround written by Lauren Morando Rhim and published by IAP. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With chapters written by leading researchers and practitioners actively engaged in the work, this Edited Volume examines the role of the state education agency in school turnaround efforts. An emphasis is placed on practical application of research and best practice related to the State Education Agency’s (SEA’s) critical leadership role in driving and supporting successful school turnaround efforts. The Edited Volume is organized around the Center on School Turnaround’s four objectives, with sections devoted to each: 1. Create a Pro-Turnaround Statutory and Regulatory Environment 2. Administer and Manage Turnaround Efforts Effectively 3. Provide Targeted and Timely Technical Assistance to Local Educational Agencies and Schools 4. Advocate and Lead to Build Support for Local Turnaround Efforts

Download or read book Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders written by Michelle D. Young and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-08-19 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders brings together empirical research on leadership preparation and development to provide a comprehensive overview and synthesis of what we know about preparing school leaders today. With contributions from the field’s foremost scholars, this new edition investigates the methodological foundations of leadership preparation research, reviews the pedagogical and curricular features of preparation programs, and presents valuable insights into the demographic, economic, and political factors affecting school leaders. This volume both mirrors the first edition’s macro-level approach to leadership preparation and presents the most up-to-date research in the field. Updates to this edition cover recent state and federal government efforts to improve leadership in education, new challenges for the field, and significant gaps and critical questions for framing, researching, evaluating, and improving the education of school leaders. Sponsored by the University Council of Educational Administration (UCEA), this handbook is an essential resource for students and scholars of educational leadership, as well as practitioners, policymakers, and other educators interested in professional leadership. .

Download or read book Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions written by Stewart Marshall and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In many international settings, regional economies are declining resulting in lowered opportunities for these communities. This result attacks the very fabric of cohesion and purpose for these regional societies, and increases social, health, economic and sustainability problems. Community informatics research, education and practice is an emerging area in many countries, which seeks to address these issues. The primary objective of Using Community Informatics to Transform Regions is to provide leaders, policy developers, researchers, students and community workers with successful strategies and principles of Community Informatics to transform regions. This book embraces an integrative cross-sectoral approach in the use of Community Informatics to increase both social and cultural capital as a means to increased sustainability for regional communities.

Download or read book Transforming Music Education written by Estelle R. Jorgensen and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brilliant... important reading for those who teach music, who write the curricular plans for teaching it, and who guide prospective teachers to the profession.... It is a must-read, for it awakens thoughts about why we teach and how." -- Patricia Shehan Campbell This quintet of essays examines the reasons why music education should be transformed, investigates the nature of education and musical transformation, and suggests alternative educational models and strategies. Estelle Jorgensen frames her argument for new approaches against the backdrop of historical musical and educational practice and draws on literature from various fields. Transforming Music Education is addressed to current and future music teachers, those who train them, and all who are interested in revolutionizing music education.

Download or read book Rethinking Readiness written by Rafael Heller and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2021-02-17 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking Readiness offers a new set of competencies to replace the narrow learning goals of No Child Left Behind and, in chapters written by some of the nation’s most well-respected education scholars, explores their implications for schools. Today’s students must cultivate the full range of intellectual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal capacities that have been grouped together under the banner of “deeper learning.” Rethinking Readiness focuses on how educators and policy makers should move forward to provide the educational experiences that students need to become truly well prepared for college, careers, and civic life, including changes in curriculum, teacher evaluation, and student assessment. As state leaders chart a new course for K–12 education in the Every Student Succeeds Act era, Rethinking Readiness offers a succinct and compelling vision for a new agenda for school reform so future generations can prosper in a rapidly changing world.

Download or read book Learning on the Blog written by Will Richardson and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2011-08-17 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Education reform: We don’t need better, we need different Today’s students are immersed in the digital age, but can our educational system keep up? Best-selling author Will Richardson's comprehensive collection of posts from his acclaimed blog, weblogg-ed.com, spells out the educational reform we must achieve. The book’s entries present a multifaceted vision of the 21st-century classroom and describe how a social media-changed world has created new opportunities for: Project-based learning Student-created media that develops critical thinking Extending learning beyond the classroom and school hours Cooperative and collaborative learning Student empowerment and career readiness

Download or read book Technology For Transformation written by Libbi R. Miller and published by IAP. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book serves as a platform for educators and researchers to unite educational technology and social justice. While educational technology is a rapidly changing and progressive field of research and practice, it remains largely separate from education for social justice. Current literature about educational technology is often approached from a technical, how-to perspective that emphasizes ways to implement technology into the classroom. Technology is often viewed as inevitable, yet neutral and value-free. Educational technology, however, is anything but neutral. The contributors collectively advance a hopeful discourse by exploring the potential of technology as a vehicle to transform and emancipate, while not forgoing a critically reflective measure of self-conscious critique of our own role as educators, students, or scholars in oppressive silences, constraints and conditions. This edited collection makes an important and unique contribution to the field, as it will be the first published volume to detail research, theory, and practice regarding student use of technology in achieving liberatory aims since IAP’s 2009 publication, ICT for Education, Development and Social Justice. The fields of educational technology and social justice are vast and applicable in many domains, including teacher education, graduate programs, and K-12 education. This work is intended to appeal to a diverse academic and professional audience of K-12 teachers, teacher educators, educational technology and social justice scholars, and policy makers. Scholars and academics instructing graduate-level educational technology courses can reference this edited collection as the most current text on socially just educational technology. Educational practitioners from teacher education programs and the K-12 sector may use this book as a source of ideas and inspiration to incorporate student use of technology toward emancipatory aims. This title could be adopted as a course text for both undergraduate and graduate education courses in: media literacy, digital literacy, distance education, education for social justice, and teacher preparation, and educational technology courses. Readers will also be able to use the book as a guide when critically analyzing their own professional practice, whether it is in research, working with K-12 students, or preparing future educators or scholars.

Download or read book Schools That Change written by Lew Smith and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through specific examples, qualitative research, and portraiture, the author illustrates how and why some schools are able to achieve significant, sustainable change while others cannot.

Download or read book Resonant Games written by Eric Klopfer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Principles for designing educational games that integrate content and play and create learning experiences connecting to many areas of learners' lives. Too often educational videogames are narrowly focused on specific learning outcomes dictated by school curricula and fail to engage young learners. This book suggests another approach, offering a guide to designing games that integrates content and play and creates learning experiences that connect to many areas of learners' lives. These games are not gamified workbooks but are embedded in a long-form experience of exploration, discovery, and collaboration that takes into consideration the learning environment. Resonant Games describes twenty essential principles for designing games that offer this kind of deeper learning experience, presenting them in connection with five games or collections of games developed at MIT's educational game research lab, the Education Arcade. Each of the games—which range from Vanished, an alternate reality game for middle schoolers promoting STEM careers, to Ubiquitous Bio, a series of casual mobile games for high school biology students—has a different story, but all spring from these fundamental assumptions: honor the whole learner, as a full human being, not an empty vessel awaiting a fill-up; honor the sociality of learning and play; honor a deep connection between the content and the game; and honor the learning context—most often the public school classroom, but also beyond the classroom.

Download or read book Failure to Disrupt written by Justin Reich and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leader in educational technology separates truth from hype, explaining what tech can—and can’t—do to transform our classrooms. Proponents of large-scale learning have boldly promised that technology can disrupt traditional approaches to schooling, radically accelerating learning and democratizing education. Much-publicized experiments, often underwritten by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, have been launched at elite universities and in elementary schools in the poorest neighborhoods. Such was the excitement that, in 2012, the New York Times declared the “year of the MOOC.” Less than a decade later, that pronouncement seems premature. In Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education, Justin Reich delivers a sobering report card on the latest supposedly transformative educational technologies. Reich takes readers on a tour of MOOCs, autograders, computerized “intelligent tutors,” and other educational technologies whose problems and paradoxes have bedeviled educators. Learning technologies—even those that are free to access—often provide the greatest benefit to affluent students and do little to combat growing inequality in education. And institutions and investors often favor programs that scale up quickly, but at the expense of true innovation. It turns out that technology cannot by itself disrupt education or provide shortcuts past the hard road of institutional change. Technology does have a crucial role to play in the future of education, Reich concludes. We still need new teaching tools, and classroom experimentation should be encouraged. But successful reform efforts will focus on incremental improvements, not the next killer app.