Details

Foreword; Acknowledgements; List of Figures and Tables; Introduction: Schooling and Education; Our Schools Are Better But We Are Not Happier; Our Central Concern in This Book—Improve Teaching in Order to Learn to Educate; What Is Schooling?; The Content of This Book; The Organization of This Book; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 1; The Process of Learning; Introduction: Learning, Teaching, and Instruction; How Humans Learn; Factors That Contribute to Learning; Principles for Effective Teaching; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 2; How Can We Know If Anyone Is Learning (the Curriculum)?; Introduction: Ways of Learning What Has Been Learned; Issues in the Assessment of the Curriculum; Formative Assessment of Teaching Practices; Assessment to Inform Teacher Training and Curriculum Design; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 3; Models of the Process of Teaching; Introduction: Models of the Teaching Process; Methods to Improve Retention of What Has Been Taught; Methods to Increase Comprehension; Cooperative Learning Models; The Value of Using More Than One Model of Teaching; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 4; How to Get and Keep Effective Teachers; Introduction: The Central Importance of Teachers; The Role of the First “Teachers”; Insuring an Adequate Supply of Qualified Candidates; The Preparation of Teachers at the Skilled-Worker Level; Enabling Teachers to Learn to be Professionals; Organizational Frameworks for Training and Professional Development; Supervision and Improvement of Teachers in the Classroom; How to Retain Effective Teachers; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 5; The Educational Tasks of Every Society; Introduction: How Best to Prepare for a Future Yet to Be Made?; What Must be Done to Have a Future?; “Better” and More Schooling Introduces New Challenges; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 6; The History of National School Systems; Introduction: The Evolution of Systems for Learning; The Origin of National Public School Systems; Schools in Colonies; The GrowingSameness of the Structure and Content (But Not Quality) of National School Systems; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 7; Instruction—and the Transformation of Society; Introduction: The Usefulness, and Limitations, of Explanation by Metaphor; Three Metaphors for the Transformation of Society; Is There a Link between Schooling and Social Change?; The Institutional Impact of Schooling on Society; What, Therefore, Do We Know?; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 8; Models of the School as Organization; Introduction: What Makes Schools Important?; Metaphors as a Source of Perspectives about Schools; The School as a Site for Production of Learning; Organizations That Learn; Comparison of the Models; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 9; Issues in How to Finance a School System; Four Basic Questions about Education Finance; How Much Should be Spent on Schooling?; Who Should Pay?; How Should Resources be Distributed?; Ways to Increase the Productivity of Resources; Improvement of the Productivity of Resources; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 10; The Builders and Shapers of School Systems; The Selection of Policies to Improve Learning Outcomes; Identifying Groups with Interests in the School System; The Tasks of a School System; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 11; The Process of Shaping a School System; Understanding Change as a Process of Contestation and Negotiation; What Determines the Actions a Group Might Take?; Coalition Formation Among Groups of Actors; The Stages of a Process of Contestation Over Policy; Sustaining Policies Once They Have Been Put into Place; Summary; Anticipating Chapter 12; Strategies for Improvement of Instruction and Education; Strategies for the Attainment of a True Education; Focus Attention on Preparation for Learning; Convert Teachers from Producers to Managers of Learning; Expand Opportunities for Teachers to Learn How to Teach; Shift the Impetus for Change from Ministries to Schools; Having Improved Instruction, Develop Education; Overcoming Obstacles tothe Improvement of Teaching and Learning; About the Authors.

The book compares a variety of teaching methods for their fit with basic principles of learning, and for their implications for the recruitment, training, and allocation of teachers. The book proposes basic objectives for a school system, links these with the early and current histories of schooling, and reviews major theories on how school systems contribute to the transformation of society. The book reviews major theories on how the organization and financing of schools and education systems affect their efficiency and effectiveness. The book analyzes the processes by which different groups in society attempt to change school systems to better serve their interests. The book proposes four major strategies to initiate a radical improvement of school systems.