Teaching Today : An Introduction to Education

by Armstrong, David G.; Henson, Kenneth T.; Savage, Tom V.

• ISBN13: 9780131837829
• ISBN10: 0131837826
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

Teaching Today, Seventh Edition, connects well-grounded research with decision making and practical classroom application, making it an invaluable resource for beginning teachers. Readers are introduced to current issues in education and the realities of teaching in today's classrooms. They learn how to analyze, reflect, and decide how to respond and what roles they will be required to play as teachers. Unique to Teaching Today, Part III, Teaching and Assessing, gives readers four chapters filled with vivid, detailed pictures of effective instruction, classroom management and discipline, and assessment, deepening readers' understanding of the realities of teaching today. New to the Seventh Edition: bull; bull;Chapter 13, Influences of Technology. This chapter illustrates the impact of technology on teaching today, how teachers can incorporate technology into their classroom practice, and how to make informed decisions about the use of technology in the classroom. bull;Text organization including: bull; bull;Profiles of Today's Learners (Chapter 4) bull;Responding to Diversity (Chapter 5) bull;Social and Philosophical Perspectives (Chapter 11) bull;Legal Issues Affecting Learners and Teachers (Chapter 14) bull;Extended coverage throughout the book of curriculum standards, standardized testing, accountability, and the No Child Left Behind Act. bull;Web Extensions prompt students to learn more about topics by selecting Web sites to search to find engaging supplementary information. bull;Profiling a Teacher anecdotes bring students face to face with real-world challenges faced by classroom teachers today. bull;Preparing for Praxis motivates students to take notes and organize materials in ways that will help them prepare for the Praxis II tests. bull;For Your Initial-Development Portfolio encourages students to organize materials for a portfolio that is consistent with INTASC standards. bull;The Companion Website, www.prenhall.com/armstrong, has been expanded and is integrated with the text.

Table of Contents

The Profession

Education in a Age of Change

Becoming a Professional Educator

Challenges of School Reform

Learners and Their Needs

Profiles of Today's Learners

Responding to Diversity

Meeting the Needs of Exceptional Learners

Teaching and Assessing

The Curriculum

Effective Instruction

Classroom Management and Discipline

Assessing Learning

Shapers of Today's Educational World

Social and Philosophical Perspectives

Historical Influences

Influences of Technology

Legal Issues Affecting Learners and Teachers

Glossary

Name Index

Subject Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

You may not have thought much about the diverse, potentially competing roles you will play out in the classroom. When you work with learners, you will be expected to establish an appropriate balance between Teaching young people to behave appropriately in groups while, at the same time, developing a personal relationship with each member of your class (Cuban, 2001); Promoting the value of individualism while, at the same time, encouraging commitment to the larger community's shared perspectives; Encouraging learners to master long-standing approaches to problems while, simultaneously, nurturing their abilities to engage reality in. creative ways; and Presenting content that you deem to be essential and, at the same time, preparing learners for mandatory assessments that may focus on content that you consider less important.How you navigate among these varying expectations will depend on your teaching situation, your academic background, and your personal values. Your responses may change over the course of your teaching career. Variations in your approaches will be driven by changes in learners, legislation, community expectations, and your store of personal knowledge.Education demands smart, altruistic teachers. If school districts were to post notices to attract the kinds of people they want to hire, the signs might read: "Wanted: Teachers Who Lead." If you seek a career free from the confrontations of contemporary life, choose another line of work. As a teacher, you need to act as a proactive leader. Today teachers are becoming ever more involved in making decisions about budgets, school management, and other areas that go well beyond traditional concerns for instructional planning.In preparing the seventh edition ofTeaching Today,we have emphasized topics relevant to the world you will enter as a classroom teacher. In addition to basic information about these topics, you will find material designed to help you analyze, reflect, and decide. You can expand your understanding of these issues by going beyond the text to pursue information at a number of World Wide Web sites that we recommend. You also will find useful the extensive glossary of specialized terms that follows the final chapter.You may live in a state that requires you to take thePraxis IIexamination as a qualification for a teaching certificate, credential, or license. (You will find detailed information about the Praxis exams in Chapter 1, "Education in an Age of Change.") At the end of each chapter, you will be invited to reflect on what you have learned and to think about how the content might help you prepare for thePraxis IIexamination.In your effort to make content from this text part of your own professional-knowledge base, consider starting and maintaining a personalinitial development portfolio.An initial-development portfolio provides a means to record important new information, highlight key points you wish to remember, and reflect on ways to use this new content as you prepare for your teaching career. At the end of each chapter, you will be prompted to consider how newly introduced content might be incorporated into your initial-development portfolio. (You will find detailed information about initial-development portfolios in Chapter 1.)The end-of-chapter materials related to preparing forPraxis IIand your initial-development portfolio are reminders that, to derive maximum benefit from this text, you need to engage new information actively. The more you reflect on the content and integrate it into what you already know, the better the information will serve you. We hope your work with this text and the other experiences you encounter in your preparation program will enhance your ability to think carefully about educational issues and will help you grasp key characteristics of teaching and schooling. ORGANIZATION OP THIS TEX