Critical Issues in Education: Dialogues and Dialectics / Edition 8

by Jack Nelson, Stuart Palonsky, Mary Rose McCarthy

Overview

There is a great need for critical thinking in schools, and by teachers. Current educational reform efforts emphasize student testing on basic information and rote memorization. What is lost is education that involves critical thinking, creativity, and consideration of alternatives. The essential framework for this book is the stimulation of critical thinking—to include dialogue and dialectic approaches.

Critical Issues in Education includes opposing sides of the issues presented and illustrates, through competing essays on each topic, how critical thinking, dialogue, and dialectic approaches improve understanding and the evaluation of available evidence and reasoning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780078024375
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Education
Publication date:	07/16/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jack L. Nelson a professor of education at Rutgers, obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California. He is experienced teacher in schools at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels; his university teaching experience includes California State University, Los Angeles; the State University of New York at Buffalo; San Jose State University; and Cambridge University. Nelson has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University, University of Colorado; and Curtin University and the University of Sydney in Australia. Critical Issues in Education is his sixteenth book; he has also published about 150 articles and reviews. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Contemporary Authors.

Stuart B. Palonsky is professor of education and director of the Honors College at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A former public school teacher in New York and New Jersey, Palonsky earned his doctorate at Michigan State University. His publications include 900 Shows a Year, an ethnographic study of high school teaching from a classroom teacher’s perspective. In addition, Palonsky has published numerous articles and reviews in educational and social science journals, and has presented scholarly and professional papers on educational issues at national association conferences.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Nel Noddings

Preface

Chapter 1:
Introduction: Critical Issues and Critical Thinking

Part One: Whose Interests Should Schools Serve? Theme: Justice and Equity

Chapter 2: School Choice: Family or Public Funding

Chapter 3: Financing Schools: Equity or Disparity

Chapter 4: Academic Achievement Gap: Old Remedies or New

Chapter 5: Gender Equity: Discrimination or Legitimate Distinctions

Chapter 6: Standards-Based Reform: Real Change or Political Smoke Screen

Chapter 7: Religion—Church/State: Unification or Separation

Chapter 8: Privatization of Schools: Boon or Bane

Part Two: What Should Be Taught? Theme: Knowledge

Chapter 9: Basic Education: Traditional or Critical

Chapter 10: Reading: Phonics or Whole Language

Chapter 11: Multicultural Education: Democratic or Divisive

Chapter 12: Values/Character Education: Traditional or Liberational

Chapter 13: Technological Literacy: Necessary or Excessive

Chapter 14: Standardized Testing: Restrict or Expand

Part Three: How Should Schools Be Organized and Operated? Theme: School Environment

Chapter 15: Instructional Leadership: Teachers or Administrators

Chapter 16: Academic Freedom: Teacher Rights or Responsibilities

Chapter 17: Teacher Unions: Detrimental or Beneficial to Education

Chapter 18: Inclusion and Mainstreaming: Special or Common Education

Chapter 19: School Violence: SchoolTreatable or Beyond School Control

Index