The Art and Practice of Teaching
This powerful collection will inspire new and veteran teachers to make space for childrens interests, for teaching as relational and intellectual work, and for new insights and ideas. The authors introduce the Prospect Centers Descriptive Review of Practice, a collaborative inquiry process that provides an opportunity for teachers to examine their practice and gain new perspectives from other participants. The contributors to this volume respond to each childs modes of thinking as they develop curriculum or find wiggle room in curricula they are given. By demonstrating how it is possible to pursue careful knowledge of craft, this book offers ways of teaching that allow for continuing growth and change. Book Features: An inquiry methodology that assists teachers to reflect on the classroom and develop curriculum that responds to childrens interests and needs. Specific examples of a variety of sources teachers can draw on and think about to improve practice. A method of data collection that can inform practice while allowing for the unevenness, messiness, and essential humanness of teaching and learning. Making Space for Active Learning is a collection that stands alone and gets to the heart of what we mean by learning and teaching. Each contribution reminded me of how much I miss being in the classroom and how much we're missing in current so-called school reform discourse. Keep this book handy. A chapter at a time will restore some needed sanity about what's important. Deborah Meier, author and education activist This book is a moving and powerful collection of teachers' work that holds the possibility of inspiring and changing new teachers' practice. Kathy Schultz, Dean and Professor, School of Education, Mills College This book will add significantly to the expanding and important literature about The Prospect Processes which were developed over many years at the Prospect School and Center in Vermont. The chapters, all by experienced educators, profit from the back-and-forth between inquiry and stories of classroom life, each informing the other. Brenda S. Engel, associate professor, retired, Lesley University
Learning. The stories in this section focus on daily life in classrooms where
teachers are attentive to what children say and do and find ways to expand the
curriculum in response to children's ideas.They provision their classrooms with
materials that invite interest and exploration.They are attuned to the small clues
and telling moments that provide insight into children's thinking and the great
variety of ways in which children and adolescents make sense of the world. The
importance of ...
