This book focuses not on teaching techniques but on the strategic decisions which must be made before a course begins. It provides realistic advice for university and college teachers on how to design more effective courses without underestimating the complexity of the task facing course developers, and offers course designers both an understanding and a framework within which to clarify their own teaching purposes.
"At once evocative and suggestive, this exemplary book gives me hope that educators and scholars across the world will seize the opportunity to self-reflect and enlarge and enrich both their research and their practice in ways that will markedly contribute to the revitalisation of the higher learning in the twenty-first century. The urgency of the need for revitalisation of both research and practice in this domain of inquiry cannot be overstated." - Prof Clifton Conrad, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
There is greater interest than ever before in higher education: more money is being spent on it, more students are registered and more courses are being taught. And yet the matter that is arguably at the heart of higher education, the curriculum, is noticeable for its absence in public debate and in the literature on higher education. This book begins to redress the balance. Even though the term ‘curriculum’ may be missing from debates on higher education, curricula are changing rapidly and in significant ways. What we are seeing, therefore, is curriculum change by stealth, in which curricula are being reframed to enable students to acquire skills that have market value. In turn, curricula are running the risk of fragmenting as knowledge and skills exert their separate claims. Such a fragmented curriculum is falling well short of the challenges of the twenty-first century. A complex and uncertain world requires curricula in which students as human beings are placed at their centre: what is called for are curricula that offer no less than the prospect of encouraging the formation of human being and becoming. A curriculum of this kind has to be understood as the imaginative design of spaces where creative things can happen as students become engaged. Based upon a study of curricula in UK universities, Engaging the Curriculum in Higher Education offers an uncompromising thesis about the development of higher education and is essential reading for those who care about its future.
The book is organized around Richard Sagor's four-stage process developed from his many years of experience training hundreds of educators. The four stages are: clarifying visions/targets; articulating theory; implementing action and collecting data; reflecting on data and planning informed action; The book includes numerous tables, charts, handouts, forms, and worksheets to demystify and simplify the action research process. Short examples drawn from the author's experience working on-one-on with teachers on their action research projects are also included, from raising reading proficiency to increasing the problem solving capacity of faculty members. The author shows how teacher teams can work collaboratively to identify and research problems related to the school's goals. Appropriate for use by individual teachers and teacher teams, as well as by pre-service teachers in teacher education courses. Principals, counsellors, and other educators will also find the action research process useful for school improvement.
Around the world, higher education services are challenged by increased numbers and diversity of students, tougher demands for professional accountability, increasing calls for educational relevance and thinning resources. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional addresses key issues in the practice and theory of teaching and learning in the sector. The authors draw upon theory, practice and current research to provide a new way of thinking about the many aspects of learning and teaching in higher education, enabling the reader to critically reflect upon their teaching.
In this title, Ronald Barnett argues that ideologies are now multiplying on campus and that, consequently, the university as a place of open debate and reason is in jeopardy. The book examines, as case studies, the ideologies of competition, quality, entrepreneurialism and managerialism.
What should we teach in our schools and vocational education and higher education institutions? Is theoretical knowledge still important? This book argues that providing students with access to knowledge should be the raison d’être of education. Its premise is that access to knowledge is an issue of social justice because society uses it to conduct its debates and controversies. Theoretical knowledge is increasingly marginalised in curriculum in all sectors of education, particularly in competency-based training which is the dominant curriculum model in vocational education in many countries. This book uses competency-based training to explore the negative consequences that arise when knowledge is displaced in curriculum in favour of a focus on workplace relevance. The book takes a unique approach by using the sociology of Basil Bernstein and the philosophy of critical realism as complementary modes of theorising to extend and develop social realist arguments about the role of knowledge in curriculum. Both approaches are increasingly influential in education and the social sciences and the book will be helpful for those seeking an accessible introduction to these complex subjects. Why Knowledge Matters in Curriculumis a key reading for those interested in the sociology of education, curriculum studies, work-based learning, vocational education, higher education, adult and community education, tertiary education policy and lifelong learning more broadly.
A History of Modern Psychology, 3rd Edition discusses the development and decline of schools of thought in modern psychology. The book presents the continuing refinement of the tools, techniques, and methods of psychology in order to achieve increased precision and objectivity. Chapters focus on relevant topics such as the role of history in understanding the diversity and divisiveness of contemporary psychology; the impact of physics on the cognitive revolution and humanistic psychology; the influence of mechanism on Descartes's thinking; and the evolution of the third force, humanistic psychology. Undergraduate students of psychology and related fields will find the book invaluable in their pursuit of knowledge.
This concise yet comprehensive guide provides an introduction to the scientific method of inquiry. You will not only learn about the proper conduct of science but also how to recognize and question factors such as pseudoscience, untestable explanations and fallacies. Compact enough to be used as a supplementary book, yet comprehensive enough in its coverage to be used as a core book, this book assists users in using the scientific method to design and assess experiments.
