Commonsense Questions about Instruction: The Answers Can Provide Essential Steps to Improvement

by Gerard Giordano

Overview

Parents want teachers to explain how they instruct children. They become annoyed when the teachers are silent or surly. Parents counter with explicit, common sense questions: how do teachers arouse interest, design curricula, reinforce discipline, assign grades, designate textbooks, and select technology? This book examines the parents' questions, the answers they elicited, the allies they attracted, and the improvements they initiated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475805093
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	01/30/2014
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Gerard Giordano is professor at the University of North Florida and has written more than a dozen books about education. His last five books, which were published by Rowman & Littlefield Education, focused on the case method.

Table of Contents

Preface: Have Common Sense Questions Affected Teaching?
Chapter 1: Why Ask Shrewd Questions?
Chapter 2: What Is Instruction’s Goal?
Chapter 3: What Are the Fundamental Subjects?
Chapter 4: What Prods Learning?
Chapter 5: How Complex Is Classroom Discipline?
Chapter 6: What Are the Right Questions about Textbooks?
Chapter 7: How Much Technology Do Teachers Need?
Chapter 8: Do Grades Matter?

Chapter 9: What Prods Politicians to Collaborate on Schools?

Chapter 10: How Much Data on Teachers Is Needed?

References

Editorial Reviews

My experience in preparing teacher candidates and educational leaders reinforces the need to give thought to the type of questions that parents, community leaders, and the general public will ask them. Some of the appealing features of this book are that each chapter highlights an important educational question, the answers to it, and the context for those answers. Dr. Giordano effectively uses the case study method to present pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and administrators with real-world experiences.--Vickie S. Gentry, Ph.D., dean, Gallaspy Family College of Education and Human Development, Northwestern State University of Louisiana

This book will increase the knowledge of a subject that will be in the news forever--education. Although it is hard to ask the right educational questions, those questions deserve great and accurate responses. Gerry Giordano has provided an invaluable service by examining the questions and the attempts to answer them.--Richard Harrison, Ed.D., dean and professor emeritus, Georgia Regents University

From the Publisher

This book will increase the knowledge of a subject that will be in the news forever—education. Although it is hard to ask the right educational questions, those questions deserve great and accurate responses. Gerry Giordano has provided an invaluable service by examining the questions and the attempts to answer them.

Richard Harrison

My experience in preparing teacher candidates and educational leaders reinforces the need to give thought to the type of questions that parents, community leaders, and the general public will ask them. Some of the appealing features of this book are that each chapter highlights an important educational question, the answers to it, and the context for those answers. Dr. Giordano effectively uses the case study method to present pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and administrators with real-world experiences.

Vickie S. Gentry