Education Teaching Books

"Brain Based Learning" suggests a new style of teaching that activates student brains and makes them an active participant in the learning process. Author Eric Jensen is absolutely brilliant with his delivery of this material. His writing style is engaging, profound and insightful. I'm so impressed with the way to weaves together a variety of sources to present his idea for personal transformation. Never before have I read a book that combines material on stress reduction, fight-or-flight, activating both hemispheres of the brain, and flow states-- and applied it to education.

Seriously, this book is a masterpiece! You don't have to be a teacher to gleam something from "Brain Based Learning" -- it is also insightful for entrepeniurs, marketers and writers. If you listen to brain synch cds, use light and sound machines, or do any sort of AVE (audio visual entrainment), reading this book will rock your world. I highly recommend this book!

This is a text book I ordered for my classes for teacher certification. This book is very easy to read, and I am really enjoying it. It presents info and then at the end of a section, recaptures the essence of the reading for you. I would suggest it for any teaching class. I am learning so much from this book. I have been buying all my text books from Amazon because they are so much cheaper, and sometimes I can get free shipping. So far, there has not been a book that I could not find here at Amazon.

Reading this book was fascinating! The brain is an amazing organ and this book presents the facts in a way that will capture and hold your interest.

I had to purchase this book for a community college class I'm taking. As a "textbook," it has been a complete disappointment. The "science" is sketchy, the research is shoddy, and the huge holes in logic are brushed over with explanations like "you can't prove nearly anything empirically in education" (straight from page 8!). Some of the concepts presented are interesting, but since Mr. Jensen (no, he doesn't hold a doctorate) provides almost no citations for his claims, there is no way to check his assertions or determine where the theories come from. The book reads like a multilevel marketing sales pitch. In fact, you are encouraged to share it with your friends and colleagues and are directed to a website where you could empty your bank account getting "certified" in Mr. Jensen's unique, "empirically unproven" techniques.

This book was purchased for a PhD level course. It is a very easy read. It gives practical applications to the latest brain research. On a down note, there are not a lot of references documented within the text when Jensen quotes a study, but he does give an extensive bibliography. This book can be used for parents to read about how their child's brain works, or for teachers within a school system. It is a good book to read if you want basic information about the brain from an education standpoint.

Great intro to the concept of home education with a heavy emphasis on the Charlotte Mason method. I re-read this little treasure regularly to keep myself on track. Loving books as much as I do tempts me to compile quite a list of Books We Must Have for School. The CM way of thinking ensures I stick only with the best, the essentials. I highly recommend it!

I first read this book because it was written by Susan, one of Francis and Edith Schaeffer's daughters. Little did I know that it would become the foundational book to becoming a homeschool parent when I decided to take my youngest child out of the public schools.

One doesn't need to be homeschooling their children to appreciate this book. Susan writes in the same warm and friendly way as her mother. However, if one is homeschooling and using the Charlotte Mason "method", this book is an essential volume to have in your library.

If you're a Charlotte Mason fan, you can't pass this one up. It is my favorite book on Charlotte Mason & is full of wonderful parenting advice. Really, all parents are teachers, not just homeschooling parents. This book offers great insight for all who spend time caring for children.

As one preparing to homeschool, this book was this kind of thing that has been spurring me on to ponder, philosophize and dream about both the general approach I will take, and the beginnings of many specific ideas.

For those who are disenchanted with the high pressure standardized-testing mentality prevalent in classrooms today, this book explains the educational philosphy of Charlotte Mason. It is God-focused (Susan is the daughter of Christian apologtic Francis Shaeffer), natural, and relaxed. It is a must-read for any classroom teacher, homeschool parent, or school administrator.

This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. This book is strictly practice, it doesn't actually teach the child how to write cursive or show the formation at all. And it moves along very quickly, the entire alphabet is covered in four days' practice (half-page each day). Take a look at the Letter Formation Chart in the customer's images - it only shows what the completed letters look like, not how to form them.

I'm probably the only one who cares about this, but the image for this product is showing Traditional Cursive, but the title of the product is Contemporary Cursive. When I click to search inside, it does show Contemporary Cursive, so I'm hoping that's what I get when I order this product. Contemporary Cursive begins all letters on the baseline, which is much easier for a child to learn. But it's hard to find....Anyhow, just thought I'd point out the discrepancy between the title and the graphic for anyone who wants to be sure what they are getting. I'll try and update this when I get the product...

We were happy to have discovered this series. My 2 boys had already learned the formation of the letters, but still needed practice in writing. This series of books fit the bill perfectly! The practice is divided into daily amounts and the children are learning other information through the writing. Instead of simply copying letters or words focused on one letter, they are putting the whole alphabet into practice while writing and therefore learning about the topic of the day. They have found this much more interesting and are actually enjoying their handwriting time now.

This book is a college textbook for me, but because our state requires all early childhood centers to use this curriculum, I am keeping this book. It has great ideas on how to stop children from biting, to how to get children more involved in the activity centers that you plan daily. If you need a nice comprehensive resource this is definitely one you want to look into.

Every preschool or early childhood classroom teacher should have this book on hand to help incorporate DAP into all children's lives. Don't forget to buy 3rd edition that has other information in it as well.

We use this book for Head Start Program.. A very good reference book.

This curriculum book manages to cram as much information into its 530 pages as possible. It starts with an overview of child development in chapter one, entitled "How Children Deveop and Learn". Chapter one also introduces and explains what I consider the most exciting aspect of the Creative Curriculum program- the developmental continuum as a tool for tracking children's progress and identifying areas for the program to focus attention. The continuum states a program goal, let's say "knowledge of the alphabet" and then proceeds to state specific examples to help teachers assess how far a child has acheived in meeting that goal, ranging from forerunner skills (child points out that there are letters on their cubby and those letters mean this is the child's cubby) and listing 2 more examples of growing understanding, then ending with a high (for preschool) level of understanding (makes sound-letter connections and demonstrates it by writing a D on a picture they state they want to give to dad). The Creative Curriculum continuum has 50 stated goals coverng all domains of development. I find this tool extremely helpful in general program planning, individualization to meet specific needs of a specific child, and in communicating with parents.

The book also has informative chapters regarding setting up the classroom environment and the family-school partnership. This book continues with a chapter on each learning center typically found in an ECE classroom such as the book corner, blocks, and water table. It states items found in that area with suggestions on how to use them and highligting what content areas (literacy, math skills, social skills, etc.)are addressed. The other thing I am also particularly pleased with this book is how it repeatedly reinforces how Early Childhood Educators assist children in furthering their understanding through teacher-child discussions,teacher modeling, and posing open questions such as "I wonder what will happen if you...?" Children are not just left to their own devises in a "safe and interesting environment." The majority of learning occurs with people interacting with each other.

I even find the planning forms helpful, and I usually prefer to make up my own things like that.

Overall, a comprehensive and developmentally appropriate approach to teaching small children. Highly Recommended.

Dodge, Colker, and Heroman present this updated version of the well-known program that focuses all aspects of the early childhood classroom around the environment, what the child learns, the family, the teacher's role, and developmental theory in its famed interlocking pentagon.

Not only does the text explain each segment of the conceptual framework in painstaking detail, but a reference list of both primary and secondary sources sits at the end of each chapter.

Please make sure that you get the Creative Curriculum Toolbox (which includes this book) in order to completely implement this curriculum in the classroom.

Since play forms the foundation of this curriculum, I doubt a school/community will accept it as valid if they view education from a direct instruction viewpoint.

I use this book in my SAT prep class. Both my students and I find this book is very helpful and well organized. Thumbs UP!

I bought this book for my daughter and this is a very useful book for her. This book has a lot of practice and very detail explaination. My daughter improves a lot after learning this book. I very recommend this book for the people who want to know more about SAT MAT I.

I am private math SAT tutor and a math professor at a top tier university in New England, and I recommend this book without reservation. The problems are thorough and serve as an excellent refresher for the types of problems found on the new SAT 1 math portions.

If you are looking for a review book that prepares you and then a little bit more for the SAT 1 test, this will do it. This book assumes you have a good foundation on high school math to begin with; but if you are looking for a cookbook to fill the voids in your math foundation, this review book does not provide that level of hand-holding.

I use this book when I tutor students for the SAT 1 math sections.

This book is a very fine book to study in preparation for the New SAT I. I've studied MANY different SAT books as a student. This book offers problems that may be given on the SAT's that I have not seen in other books. There are all levels of difficulties also. There is no "fluffy" pages with wordy explanations. Its explanations and summaries of every topic is concise and understandable. A major plus of this book is that it offers MANY math problems of every subject covered on the SAT I. (the key way in getting a higher score is being exposed to many types of problems and becoming familiar with them through repeated exercises) Each page of this book is worth its money.

By using this book as a study guide, my daughter increased her SAT I math score by 110 points. She did this over the course of 25 days, doing a section of the book each day in addition to her other school work. She was motivated to do this by the need to increase her score to qualify for a program that she was interested in.
I chose this book for her because it was laid out in managable chapters and had a review at the end of each section. Of all the SAT math review books, this one seemed to approach the subject in the most logical fashion.

This book is a reasonably good discussion of the dynamics of organizational change. But it does not do much that a really top-notch book on organizational behavior and development does. The major advantage of being topically focused on education -- the ability to focus on the mission of education -- is pretty much missed. One of the common pitfalls of school systems is to become focused on the environment for the professionals to the point of insufficient attention to the group at the center of school system's mission -- the students. Evans misses opportunities to integrate the theory and practice of organizational change with such core topics as curriculum, pedagogy, and the impact of theories -- either solidly research-based or faddish -- on the culture and outcomes in the classroom

According to Evans, the goal of this immensely readable and practical book is to help school leaders "implement change in ways that truly `take'." He has divided this project into three parts. In the first, he describes the nature of change; in the second, the dimensions of change; and in the third, the dynamics of leading innovation. Evans' book is perhaps different from others in that he looks at change from where most schools are, not from where he believes they should be. In so doing, he describes what it means for schools to grow and improve given the very human constraints that define an educators' world.

In describing the nature of change, Evans sees a need to move away from common organizational assumptions rooted in Taylor's scientific management practices to assumptions that are more aligned with the nature of today's organizational reality. Given that the environments in which organizations operate today are no longer stable, but turbulent, change strategists must alter the way they seek to improve their organizations. Taylor's legacy assumes efficient organizations are stable, rational, hierarchical, and product-oriented. Evans argues that this "rational-structural" paradigm is less useful than the "strategic-systemic" paradigm, which assumes that efficient organizations are fluid, adaptable, open, and process-oriented. Given that cultures (school cultures as well) are fundamentally conservative, changing schools means changing school cultures. The problem is change challenges peoples' competence, creates confusion and causes conflict. Effective change strategies must harness people's competencies, seek coherence, and work productively with conflict.

In describing the dimensions of change, Evans argues that change must be desirable and feasible. He includes a useful table of tasks of change (p. 56), which describes "unfreezing" the school's culture by increasing the fear of not trying, making change meaningful to the change agents, developing new behaviors and ways of thinking, revising existing structures and norms, and generating support for change. In one of his key chapters, Evans addresses the issue of the "reluctant faculty" and offers an analysis of the faculty member in midcareer (the average age of teachers in the US is forty-five). In part, midcareer educators are where they should be: their personal roles (partner, parent, community member) in life have become important, and the material rewards of work have become necessary expectations. Yet for many, educating young people has become less challenging and the rewards and recognition for what they do have become less frequent. These faculty are isolated and unfreezing them is a significant challenge. Schools must offer more new opportunities for leadership, appropriately recognize and reward teachers at all stages of their careers, and seek new ways for teachers to develop professionally and personally. Additionally, to undertake effective change, schools must assess their organizational capacity by examining six school specific contexts, which Evans describes in some depth: (1) Occupational framework (2) Politics (3) History (4) Stress (5) Finances, and (6) Culture (pp. 119-143).

In the last section of the book, Evans focuses on leadership as a key dimension of innovation. Given that effective reform in today's schools requires trust and consensus, authenticity is the key quality for school leaders - be they teachers, administrators, or parents. Major change, he argues, almost never arises from the bottom up, it comes from purposeful leadership. Purposeful leadership means generating consensus around a school's core purposes and demonstrating tireless commitment to them. Purposeful leadership builds followership and with followership comes change. (Evans offers an exploration of six ways to build optimal participation on pages 246-252.) Leaders should emphasize the positive, keep the path clear (when you add, take something away), and be flexible with timelines. The leader can't ask others to change unless s/he changes first. And, leaders must challenge "unprincipled resistance" from staff who violate group values. Schools, like America's top corporations, must reward people for trying innovations, and avoid punishing failure.

This book, more than most I've ever read, is true to its title. Evans is humane, intelligent, insightful, and realistic. This book continues to enrich me each time I re-read it.

This books is full of inspiration, information, and hope. I am so blessed to have come across this book in the early stages of my educational leadership experience. I have been a principal for less than a year. No matter where my leadership "road" takes me, I am sure that I will always reference the reading of this book as playing a pivotal role in shaping me as a leader. In this respect, it will rank second to only one other powerful book which plays a similar, yet infinitely more powerful role: the Bible.

Dr. Evans Book is an excellent guide to change making in established organizations; where the carrot and the whip cannot be applied. The main contribution, after an extended anthropological analysis of group dynamics in defined institutional settings, is the postulation about authentic leadership as a catalyst for making changes. This requires the nurturing of positives among teachers. Evans gives examples of situations of conflict and ways to resolve them.

A staggeringly good book.Easily the best analysis of the change process in education that I've read-and I've 'force-read' a few. Evans' adopts a holistic approach concentrating on why real innovation is so difficult to achieve successfully. However,there is much sage advice and many cogent observations that are enormously thought-provoking. Although ostensibly about change it is also a marvellous examination of leadership,how educational institutions function and how public policy should be implemented.This is an excellent book in every respect.

This is one of the most poorly written texts covering adult learning theory. The author has picked a selection of different theories but only gives a short introduction to each - leaving many questions and concerns after reading each chapter.

The information given on educational theorists is horribly fragmented. In many chapters there is no context, history or biography of the theorists given. If you'd like fragmented information on learning theories - this is the book.

If you'd like comprehensive information on learning theories-this is not the right book. The information has to be supplemented with a lot of hard work researching details from the internet or other educational texts.

This was a required text for a graduate level course in adult education and it was a waste of money.

I bought this book for a masters study class because it was half the price they were going to charge me at the book store. This book is well written and easy to read. I have read other books by Merriam and they were not this well put together, but I would recommend this book.

Learning in Adulthood is one of those "classic" text/reference books i.e., the kind that you actually read and return to time and again. I am particularly taken by the way the authors summarize the major thinking in the various content areas. They extract the key thoughts of hundreds of research works, compare and contrast, synthesize. They are careful to present dissenting views. Most of their references are recent. I also like the fact that their own voices are heard and they are strong, experienced voices. This is an ideal source book for graduate students that are writing or will be writing a thesis or dissertation.

Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (Jossey-Bass Higher & Adult Education)

I was quite pleased with my purchase. I was especially happy that I received the book within 5 days of my purchase. The purchase price was significantly lower than the purchase price at my university's bookstore.

Before I give my review, let me state my bias. I am an American through-and-through. I love my country. America feeds the world. America gives billions in aid to countries that openly declare their hostility to our culture. Also, I am almost 70 and am grateful for the opportunities that America has given me. Therefore I become annoyed at books that state as fact that America is somehow responsible for all the world's woes. Although there is much that is scholarly and well-researched in this book, and although it was required reading for a course I am taking, I was annoyed by its constant inferences that Western Society is at fault for all the world's problems. The terms "oppress, oppressive, and oppression" are used more than 40 times when describing the teacher-student relationship. American success is blamed for world terrorism. This is unnecessary in an otherwise scholarly explanation of educational trends for adulthood. In an effort to sound super-scholarly the vocabulary and sentence structure is full of inflated and pretentious statements. Concepts that could be described in five simple words are given in long sentences of 5 syllable words strung together in clauses that practically require the reader to get out the Unabridged.

What a great book! It was amazing how quick it works. It really is magic!

The book I ordered is in excellent condition and I received it quickly. Thank you!

This book was fabulous. It clearly sets up a classroom management plan and it goes through step by step how to set it up in the classroom. Even if you decide not use their counting system, one can still benefit from the practice in identifying, setting, and following through on limits.

This is a great book! My entire team purchased a copy. It was easy to read and understand, and it makes so much sense! We're all looking forward to using the techniques. We know other teachers that say this really works.

I teach Kindergarten and have 5 very difficult boys. I read the book Monday and started Tuesday. By Thursday I was amazed.

i got it for my wife, because she is going to nursing school and the textbook is required for one of her courses.

The book arrived in good condition! Amazon service was very fast. I would use amazon service again.

The book arrived just when I needed it to infact a little before. It was in great condition and it still had the code so that I would be able to access the book's online website!

This lab manual is brand new! The estimated time of arrival was September 17, but I received it September 12th! Very fast, very efficient!