Learning is the soul of our species. From our first steps to our last words, we are what we learn. Our education predicts how much we'll earn, how content we will be, even how long we'll live. But for all its obvious importance, learning has lost touch with human progress. We live in an information age, work in a knowledge economy, yet our schools are relics of an industrial era. In Natural Born Learners, education insider Alex Beard takes us on a dazzling tour of the future of learning to show how we can - and why we must - do better. Weaving together expert insight, entertaining anecdote and intelligent research, Beard leads us from the crowded corridors of a London comprehensive to the high-tech halls of Silicon Valley, through the exam factories of South Korea to the inclusive classrooms of Finland to reveal that today we stand on the cusp of a learning revolution. Tackling everything from artificial intelligence to our growing understanding of the infant brain, from the roots of creativity to the way classrooms can be unwitting engines of extremism, this book is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century and roadmap to accessing our better future selves.

The pace of change in education has continued to accelerate since the 1988 Education Act, and even experienced school governors are often bewildered about their duties and responsibilities, as well as what is actually happening in primary and secondary classrooms nowadays. What do school governors do? How can they manage their role most effectively? The School Governors Handbook has been the most definitive and widely read book on the subject since it was first published in 1980. Written by Ted Wragg and John Partington, two of the most respected experts in the field, one of its' great strengths has always been its mixture of up-to-date authoritative information and humour. In this third edition, all sections of the book have been substantially revised to take account of the many changes in governors' duties that have been brought about by recent legislation. As governors rarely receive any specific training for their important role, this book is an essential guide to the legal and practical aspects of governorship. Sections cover: * recent legislative changes in funding and school management * opting out * governors responsibilities, including budgets, staffing and drawing up whole school policies * how to run effective governors meetings * curriculum and assessment issues * school inspections * how to manage difficult situations, including child abuse, discipline, equal opportunities and pupil exclusions

"Behaviour problems" in our schools occupy a considerable part of the education agenda and media attention. The major thrust of the literature has been on the provision of "new classroom management approaches". Too often these "packages" are inappropriate to the specific context of the school and its pupils. There are no "quick-fix" solutions. In this book, Slee proposes a critical re-examination of the school discipline issue. In doing so, he provides an overview of policy change; an examination of the major schools of thought on student discipline; a reconsideration of the context in which young people, teachers and schools now find themselves; and practical responses for addressing all levels of discipline policy making.

The Challenge of English in the National Curriculum considers how particular aspects of a national curriculum can be reconciled with the best practice of the English teaching tradition. The authors are all practising teachers who look at the lessons of the past as well as their hopes for the future. Each chapter begins from a question raised by teachers when asked at in-service workshops about the issues which concerned them most. The chapters cover most of the more significant aspects of English within the National Curriculum and vary from John Johnson's survey of practical ways to raise the standard of oracy to Nick Peim's suggestions for coping with Key Stage 4 which leads him to a radical questioning of the whole nature of English as a curriculum subject.

This handbook provides an important overview of corporeality, embodiment and learning in education from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Situating the body at the centre of educational practice, the editors and contributors introduce the concept of 'tact' as a practical corporeal language. The chapters provide a spectrum of historical, conceptual, empirical and practical educational approaches for embodied pedagogical engagement. Tact and embodied knowledge form a significant component of a teacher's capability and professionalism: interacting with students, a pedagogue responds to them tactfully, emotionally, sensitively, and reflectively searching for the right thing to do, the right words to say, improvising in aural, linguistic, spatial, and visual way that are as restrained as they are enabled by the body. This handbook questions the familiar and established essentialist and naturalist view of the body to allow new perspectives on how corporeality affects learners. It will be of interest to scholars in education and philosophy as well as those researching in across social sciences.

This comprehensive collection of essays provides a series of highly practical guidelines which schools can implement themselves. Step-by-step advice is given on developing a whole-school policy which is generally seen as the essential nucleus of effective action. The book also suggests methods for tackling bullying through classroom and curriculum activities, including video, drama, and the use of quality circles and of working with pupils involved in bullying situations. Emphasis is placed on assertiveness training for pupils who may be bullied, and non-punitive work with pupils who bully others. As the majority of bullying takes place in playgrounds, the book includes innovative sections on training lunchtime supervisors, enhancing playground activities, and improving the playground environment.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203425502

School Bullying: Insights and Perspectives gives a succinct and authoritative account of research into the nature and extent of bullying in schools. Here, for the first time, in the UK, is an evaluation of the success of different approaches, including strategies such as: * developing a whole-school policy * use of classroom and curriculum materials
* training lunchtime supervisors
* improving the playground environment, and * working directly with pupils involved in bullying situations.
This book will be essential reading for all professionals wishing to reduce the problem of bullying in schools.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203425499

Contents:
Reconceptualizing the Philosophy of Mathematics: Fresh Winds in the Philosophy of Mathematics, Reuben Hersh; What can the Sociologist of Knowledge Say About 2+2=4?, DavidBloor. Post-Modernist and Post- Structuralist Approaches: Reasoning in a Post-Modern Age, Valerie Walkerdine; Mathematical Writing, Thinking, and Virtual Reality, Brian Rotman. The Human Face of Mathematics: Mathematics and Art: Cold Calipers against Warm Flesh?, Philip J. Davis; Different Ways of Knowing: Contrasting Styles of Argument in Indian and Greek. The Social Context of Mathematics and Education: The Social Life of Mathematics, Sal Restive.

Everybody knows that South Africa has an education crisis, despite the fact that the government spends the biggest slice of its budget on education, more than any other African country. And yet the crisis persists.

Jonathan Jansen and Molly Blank looked at South African schools that work, in spite of adverse conditions – schools in poor communities, schools with overcrowded classrooms, schools in both rural and urban environments – and have drawn out the practical strategies that make them successful.

19 short films (included on DVD) let you visit these schools and understand in the words of their principals, teachers and learners what makes them succeed. Then take look at the 10 key strategies identified and see how to implement them in other schools to effect transformation. As we have come to expect from Jansen, there are no complicated theories, no difficult to implement solutions – just lots of common sense!

This edited volume focuses on the impact of education among different social groups in different geographical areas of South Asia. The chapters illustrate the effects of formal education on castes ranging from Dalits to Brahmins, Buddhists, and Christians, even as they consider a range of topics such as the relevance of practical knowledge prior to formal teaching, the personal educational experiences of young women, missionary education, curriculum, and the challenges and benefits of Information Technology. The geographical areas range from Sri Lanka and Nepal to various Indian states, including Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharastra, Odisha, and Rajasthan.

Looking In Depth At The Main Issues Of Emotional And Behavioural difficulties of 7-11 year olds, this book draws on recent study material and projects to suggest practical ways of dealing with such difficulties in schools, and to give a clearer understanding of the problems posed by children with EBDs. Key topics covered include educating children with Emotional And Behavioural Difficulties Ebds In Mainstream And Special schools, disruptive behaviour and bullying, withdrawal, anxiety and depression, identification and assessment and how schools, parents and others can help.

Over the last ten years deliberate and determined efforts have been made to improve schooling. This book charts recent and current developments in the practical business of changing classroom practice to make schools more effective. It is devoted to detecting the effects on classroom practice of the efforts made to improve schools and classrooms, and to understanding how classroom practice changes. Contributors include advisory teachers, Higher Education (HE) tutors and researchers, and work described ranges from early years' classrooms to post-experience course outcomes and the tracking of Inservice education and training (INSET) effectiveness.

The Toxic Schoolhouse is a collection of articles on chemical hazards endangering students, teachers, and staff in the education system of the United States and Canada. Some of the articles were originally published in a special issue of New Solutions: A Journal of Occupational and Environmental Policy, but all have been updated and several new articles have been added. The book is organized in three sections. The first describes problems ranging from the failures of coordination, monitoring, and siting of school buildings to the hazards of exposure to toxic substances, including lead and PCBs. The second section captures the voices of activists seeking change and describes community and union organizing efforts to improve school conditions. The third section covers policy "solutions." The authors include academics, union staff and rank-and-file activists, parent organization leaders, and public health professionals.

Educationalists have long worked to democratise our school system and purge traces of its religious origins. Rethinking the School shows that these efforts have been in vain. The bureaucratic organisation of schooling is here to stay, and Christian moral discipline is an integral part of the school as we know it.Hunter argues that both liberal and Marxian theory ignore the historical reality of the school. He does not see the school as the failed attempt to realise principles of social equality, complete personal development and intellectual enlightenment. Rather, he sees the modern school as an improvised apparatus for the training of good citizens and the guidance of souls.Rethinking the School is one of the first major applications of Foucault's genealogical method to the school system, and will be widely debated by educationalists, policy-makers and those interested in the interaction of government and subjectivity.'This is a serious piece of scholarship which breaks with much orthodoxy in educational theory and research. It brings new insights to old dilemmas and as such is a major contribution to a field which has in some respects lost its nerve. This is a book that must be read.' - Professor Richard Smith, Australian Journal of Education'Hunter. offers a detailed and fascinating account of the popular school. in a manner which reinvigorates modern debates regarding the relations between government and education. He makes us look and see differently, the hallmark of a powerful and original thinker.' - Professor Tony Bennett, Institute for Cultural Policy Studies

Over the last ten years deliberate and determined efforts have been made to improve schooling. This book charts recent and current developments in the practical business of changing classroom practice to make schools more effective. It is devoted to detecting the effects on classroom practice of the efforts made to improve schools and classrooms, and to understanding how classroom practice changes. Contributors include advisory teachers, Higher Education (HE) tutors and researchers, and work described ranges from early years' classrooms to post-experience course outcomes and the tracking of Inservice education and training (INSET) effectiveness.

This handbook lays out in detail the way in which Special Needs Assistants can work in a productive partnership with teachers.

Modern language classrooms are currently dominated by the communicative method of language teaching. This reader draws together recent and newly commissioned papers to show the origins of communicative methodology, how it has developed, what its research justification is and how it can most effectively be used in the classroom. Various chapters examine the particular challenges of differentiation, teaching grammar, encouraging pupils to use the target language together and teaching a foreign language to children with special educational needs. The final section discusses ways of developing creativity in the modern languages classroom through the use of drama, creative writing and role play. Anyone involved in teaching modern languages will find this reader a rich source for reflection and good practice.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203060016

Modernising School Governance examines the impact of recent market-based reforms on the role of governors in the English state education system. A focus of the book concerns how government and non-government demands for 'strong governance' have been translated to mean improved performance management of senior school leaders and greater monitoring and disciplining of governors. This book addresses fundamental questions about the neoliberal logic underpinning these reforms and how governors are being trained and responsibilised in new ways to enhance the integrity of these developments. Drawing on large-scale research conducted over three years, the book examines the impact of these reforms on the day to day practices of governors and the diminished role of democracy in these contexts. Wilkins also captures the economic and political rationalities shaping the conduct of governors at this time and traces these expressions to wider structural developments linked to depoliticisation, decentralisation and disintermediation. This book addresses timely and original issues concerning the role of corporate planning and expert handling to state education at a time of increased school autonomy, shrinking local government support/oversight, and tight, centralised accountability. It will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students in disciplines of education, sociology, political science, public policy and management. It will also be of interest to researchers and policy makers from countries with similar or emerging quasi-market education systems.

"What's Public About Charter Schools? by Gary Miron and Christopher Nelson deserves to be cited repeatedly as the debate about charter schools continues. The researchers' careful and balanced analysis of the situation in Michigan has much to say about the charter school movement across the country and leads to important cautions about whether and how the movement should proceed. These recommendations provide concrete and practical solutions for improving charter schools by addressing some of the shortcoming that the authors have uncovered."
?Education Review, October 2002

As computers become more widely used in schools, it is clear that they have the potential to redefine the scope of the language curriculum. But for this potential to be realized they need to be fully integrated into classroom activities. The contributors to "Language, Classrooms and Computers" - all with experience of teaching about language and computers for The Open University - use teachers' accounts and research findings to examine how the use of computers in school can affect the ways in which children learn and teachers teach. The first section looks at some generic aspects of computer use, focusing particularly on class management, including such topics as individual and group learning, the role of the teacher as facilitator and co-learner and the problems of limited access. The second section examines the contribution of specific sorts of software package to language learning. This is a book designed for everyone who wants Information Technology to add a new dimension to their teaching.

The 1988 Education Reform Act meant that schools had to manage themselves in ways which satisfied the world outside the school gates. Governors become more powerful, parents took on a greater influence and employers were given new rights. This book discusses the total management of schools as they respond to these new imperatives. It examines the responsibilities of Teachers, Head Teachers and Principals as they shape and execute their management plans. Against the background of a compulsory National Curriculum, the book also examines the management of the diverse pressures within the curriculum itself.

Although many schools and educational systems, from elementary to tertiary level, state that they endorse anti-homophobic policies, pedagogies and programs, there appears to be an absence of education about, and affirmation of, bisexuality and minimal specific attention paid to bi-phobia. Bisexuality appears to be falling into the gap between the binary of heterosexuality and homosexuality that informs anti-homophobic policies, programs, and practices in schools initiatives such as health education, sexuality education, and student welfare. These erasures and exclusions leave bisexual students, family members and educators feeling silenced and invisibilized within school communities. Also absent is attention to intersectionality, or how indigeneity, gender, class, ethnicity, rurality and age interweave with bisexuality. Indeed, as much research has shown, erasure, exclusion, and the absence of intersectionality have been considered major factors in bisexual young people, family members and educators in school communities experiencing worse mental, emotional, sexual and social health than their homosexual or heterosexual counterparts. This book is the first of its kind, providing an international collection of empirical research, theory and critical analysis of existing educational resources relating to bisexuality in education. Each chapter addresses three significant issues in relation to bisexuality and schooling: erasure, exclusion, and the absence of intersectionality. From indigenous to rural schools, from tertiary campuses to elementary schools, from films to picture books as curriculum resources, from educational theory to the health and wellbeing of bisexual students, this book's contributors share their experiences, expertise and ongoing questions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality.

Non-verbal skills are invaluable for teachers in getting their own messages across to classes and understanding the messages pupils are sending them.
Here an educational psychologist and a classroom teacher join forces to show new teachers in particular how to use gesture, posture, facial expression and tone of voice effectively to establish a good relationship with the classes that they teach. Each chapter is illustrated with clear drawings of pupils and teachers in common classroom situations and accompanied by training exercises aimed at improving the new teacher's ability to observe both her class and her own practice.
A section at the end of the book gives suggested solutions to some of the exercises and the final chapter, addressed to staff responsible for their colleagues' professional development, provides suggestions for half and whole day courses.

Along with the rest of the education system, the role of the local advisor or inspector has changed in recent years. There is now considerable pressure for local advisory services to take on an inspectorial and evaluative role. At the same time, the need for schools to have access to the disinterested advice of professional colleagues in a time of institutional upheaval has never been greater. Joan Dean offers practical guidance to advisors and inspectors at all levels on how to carry out this difficult but crucial task. She considers the aims of the advisory service in the fields of inspection, support and staff-development and sets out the means by which these aims can be achieved. These include the development of interpersonal skills in dealing with school staff and other sections of the advisory network, interviewing, organizing advisory teams and managing one's own work. In all these areas, Joan Dean gives advice based on 28 years in the advisory services. This book is intended not only for advisors themselves but also for those in schools and in higher education who collaborate with them in the development of schools and teachers. It should be of interest to heads and senior

The management of discipline is an essential element in educational practice, and at a time when teachers and managers are anxious about reported increases in violence and other forms of anti-social behaviour there's a need for practical guidance and a review of current thinking. Based on the author's experience and research in a range of secondary and primary schools, this book presents accessible summaries of relevant legislation and guides the reader through management theories towards effective practice. By placing the teacher at the centre of the management of discipline in schools and focusing on teacher and pupil esteem, a disciplined environment is not only desirable, but achievable too. Written in an accessible style, the book; * highlights the real problems and offers real solutions * includes case-studies, recent research and legislation * considers the classroom as well as the whole-school context * describes the support networks within education * provides a multi-agency approach. This book is aimed at trainee and practising teachers, managers, and all those who work with children.