The term McDonaldization was coined by George Ritzer in 1993 and is a valuable tool for providing a theoretical and practical debate concerning novel and defining features of our contemporary world. The contributors to this collection, academics and writers from three countries, examine the McDonaldization of higher education in contemporary society.

The growing literature on McDonaldization shows the power of the term to describe the extension of industrial rationalization (commodification) to wider society. In the context of higher education, one can see the application of Ritzer's four features of McDonaldization, "efficiency, calculability, predictability, " and "control." For example: higher education is becoming more efficient because it is processing more students by introducing multiple choice exams (US) or by removing exams altogether (UK) and replacing them with forms of continuous assessment, which leads to grade inflation and more students passing. The contributors to this volume, 15 academics and writers from three continents, examine what can be called the McDonaldization of higher education and the impact this has on the idea of the university as a liberal institution primarily engaged in the pursuit of knowledge.

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education confronts the silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the educational system and into the workplace. Controversial and compelling, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes' classic text uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university and the workplace, to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world. Remaining extremely topical, the chapters illuminate the powerful effects of therapeutic education, including: How therapeutic learning is taking shape, now and in the future How therapeutic ideas from popular culture have come to govern social thought and policies How the fostering of dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities that encourage the disclosing of emotions, can undermine parents' and teachers' confidence and authority How therapeutic forms of teacher training undermine faith in the pursuit of knowledge How political initiatives in emotional literacy, emotional wellbeing and 'positive mental health' propagate a diminished view of human potential throughout the education system and the workplace. The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is an eye-opening read for every teacher and leader across the field of education, and every parent and student, who is passionate about the power of knowledge to transform people's lives. It is a call for a debate about the growing impact of therapeutic education and what it means for learning now and in the future.

Debating is out of fashion. No one raises the question of what has gone wrong when the entire political project of a society is seemingly reduced to 'education, education, education'. The aim of this lively and challenging book is to provide the stimulus for further thinking about key educational issues by exposing and explaining the assumptions behind this obsession. Over forty contributors, all experts in their fields, have written short, accessible, informed and lively articles for students, teachers and others involved in education. They address broad questions that are central to any understanding of what is really going on in the education system. Topics covered include: the new relationship of the state to education; the changed nature of schools; whether teachers are afraid to teach; the problems with circle time, anti-bullying strategies, citizenship education, and multiple intelligences; the retreat from truth and the demise of theory in teacher training, and much more. Everyone learning to teach in primary and secondary schools and further education colleges will find this book relevant to their programmes. In particular the book would be useful for students on Education Studies courses.

Debating is out of fashion. No one raises the question of what has gone wrong when the entire political project of a society is seemingly reduced to 'education, education, education'. The aim of this lively and challenging book is to provide the stimulus for further thinking about key educational issues by exposing and explaining the assumptions behind this obsession. Over forty contributors, all experts in their fields, have written short, accessible, informed and lively articles for students, teachers and others involved in education. They address broad questions that are central to any understanding of what is really going on in the education system. Topics covered include: the new relationship of the state to education; the changed nature of schools; whether teachers are afraid to teach; the problems with circle time, anti-bullying strategies, citizenship education, and multiple intelligences; the retreat from truth and the demise of theory in teacher training, and much more. Everyone learning to teach in primary and secondary schools and further education colleges will find this book relevant to their programmes. In particular the book would be useful for students on Education Studies courses.

Beyond McDonaldization provides new concepts of higher education for the twenty-first century in a unique manner, challenging much that is written in mainstream texts. This book undertakes a reassessment of the growth of McDonaldization in higher education by exploring how the application of Ritzer's four features efficiency, predictability, calculability and control has become commonplace. This wide-ranging text discusses arguments surrounding the industrialisation of higher education, with case studies and contributions from a wide range of international authors. Written in an accessible style, Beyond McDonaldization examines questions such as: Can we regain academic freedom whilst challenging the McDonaldization of thought and ideas? Is a McDonaldization of every aspect of academic life inevitable? Will the new focus on student experience damage young people? Why is a McDonaldized education living on borrowed time? Is it possible to recreate the university of the past or must we start anew? Does this industrialisation meet the educational needs of developing economies? This book brings international discussions on the changing world of higher education and the theory of McDonaldization together, seeking to provide a positive future vision of higher education. Analysing and situating the discussion of higher education within a wider social, political and cultural context, this ground-breaking text will have a popular appeal with students, academics and educationalists.

Beyond McDonaldization provides new concepts of higher education for the twenty-first century in a unique manner, challenging much that is written in mainstream texts. This book undertakes a reassessment of the growth of McDonaldization in higher education by exploring how the application of Ritzer's four features efficiency, predictability, calculability and control has become commonplace. This wide-ranging text discusses arguments surrounding the industrialisation of higher education, with case studies and contributions from a wide range of international authors. Written in an accessible style, Beyond McDonaldization examines questions such as: Can we regain academic freedom whilst challenging the McDonaldization of thought and ideas? Is a McDonaldization of every aspect of academic life inevitable? Will the new focus on student experience damage young people? Why is a McDonaldized education living on borrowed time? Is it possible to recreate the university of the past or must we start anew? Does this industrialisation meet the educational needs of developing economies? This book brings international discussions on the changing world of higher education and the theory of McDonaldization together, seeking to provide a positive future vision of higher education. Analysing and situating the discussion of higher education within a wider social, political and cultural context, this ground-breaking text will have a popular appeal with students, academics and educationalists.

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education confronts the silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the educational system and into the workplace. Controversial and compelling, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes' classic text uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university and the workplace, to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world. Remaining extremely topical, the chapters illuminate the powerful effects of therapeutic education, including: How therapeutic learning is taking shape, now and in the future How therapeutic ideas from popular culture have come to govern social thought and policies How the fostering of dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities that encourage the disclosing of emotions, can undermine parents' and teachers' confidence and authority How therapeutic forms of teacher training undermine faith in the pursuit of knowledge How political initiatives in emotional literacy, emotional wellbeing and 'positive mental health' propagate a diminished view of human potential throughout the education system and the workplace. The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is an eye-opening read for every teacher and leader across the field of education, and every parent and student, who is passionate about the power of knowledge to transform people's lives. It is a call for a debate about the growing impact of therapeutic education and what it means for learning now and in the future.

Dojo has been described as the JavaScript toolkit for programmers that's easy enough for designers to pick up. This book will introduce the foundational concepts of using Dojo to increase efficiency when developing modern websites that utilizeDocument Object Model (DOM) manipulation, Ajax, animations, effects, and widgets.Dojo basics Animations and effects Widgets with Dijit What you'll learn Understand why using Dojo is recommended over plain JavaScript. Examine Dojo's core functions that empower the developer to focus on efficient, easy-to-maintain solutions. Utilize Dojo's powerful event management and handling features to easily execute functions from user and program interaction. Create rich user experiences with the powerful and easy-to-use utilities Dojo provides for animation. Implement and use the large selection of Dojo's premade, well-constructed, and skinnable widgets in a website or application. Bring third-party dynamic data and content into your website or application using Dojo's robust tools for easy Ajax implementation and handling. Who this book is for

This book is geared toward designers who want to use JavaScript functionality on websites but don't want to deal with the everyday complexities of coding JavaScript for cross-browser compatibility, tedious methods for DOM manipulation, event handling, Ajax calls, and application user interface elements.

Getting StartED with Dojo is also aimed at developers who are looking to enhance their preexisting JavaScript skills by transitioning their front-end development style to one that is based on core programming standards such as classes, events, and server communication using Ajax.

It is assumed the reader is familiar with (X)HTML development. Table of Contents JavaScript FundamentalsDigging DeeperEnhancing with DojoDojo DOM BasicsManaging User Interaction with Dojo Make It RichDynamic DataWidgetsWhere to Go from Here

LINQ is the project name for a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that provide a generic approach to querying data from different data sources. LINQmade its debutin Visual Studio 2008, andbecamea musthave skill for .NET developers. For more information about LINQ, you can check out www.linqdev.com.

Starting with code and ending with code and tailored for the VB language, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in VB 2008 is a veritable treasury of LINQ examples that will save you hours, even days, of research time. Keeping you focused on the relevant LINQ principles, expert author Joseph Rattz, Jr., and VB specialist Dennis Hayes provide examples for complex models that you won't find anywhere else.

In most books, you'll find plenty of simple examples to demonstrate how to use a method, but authors rarely show how to use the more complex prototypes. Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in VB 2008 is different. Demonstrating the overwhelming majority of LINQ operators and protoypes, Joseph Rattz, Jr., and Dennis Hayes condense their extensive experience and expertise into a desk companion that is essential for any serious .NET professional.

Rather than obscure the relevant LINQ principles in code examples by focusing on a demonstration application you have no interest in writing, this book cuts right to the chase of each LINQ operator, method, or class. However, where complexity is necessary to truly demonstrate an issue, the examples are right there in the thick of it. For example, code samples demonstrating how to handle concurrency conflicts actually create concurrency conflicts so you can step through the code and see them unfold.

Most books tell you about the simple stuff, while few books warn you of the pitfalls. Where Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in VB 2008 returns your investment is in the hours, and sometimes days, spent by the authors determining why something may not work as expected. Sometimes this results in an innocentlooking paragraph that may take you a minute to read and understand, but took days to research and explain.

Face it, most technical books while informative, are dull. LINQ need not be dull. Written with a sense of humor, this book will attempt to entertain you on your journey through the wonderland of LINQ and VB 2008. What you'll learn How to leverage all the LINQrelevant VB 2008 language features, including extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous data types, and partial methods How to use LINQ to Objects to query inmemory data collections such as arrays, ArrayLists, and Lists to retrieve the data you want Why some queries are deferred, how a deferred query can bite you, and how you can make deferred queries work for you How to use LINQ to XML to revolutionize your creation, manipulation, and searching of XML data How to query DataSets with LINQ to DataSet so you can coexist with legacy code and use LINQ to query databases other than SQL Server How to query databases with LINQ to SQL, write your own entity classes, and understand how to handle concurrency conflicts Who this book is for

This book is written for the proficient VB developer, but you do not need to be up on all the latest VB features to understand the material. Table of Contents Hello LINQ VB.NET 2008 Language Enhancements for LINQ LINQ to Objects Introduction Deferred Operators Nondeferred Operators LINQ to XML Introduction The LINQ to XML API LINQ to XML Operators Additional XML Capabilities LINQ to DataSet Operators Additional DataSet Capabilities LINQ to SQL Introduction LINQ to SQL Tips and Tools LINQ to SQL Database Operations LINQ to SQL Entity Classes The DataContext Concurrency Conflicts Additional SQL Capabilities