Despite American education’s recent mania for standardized tests, testing misses what really matters about learning: the desire to learn in the first place. Curiosity is vital, but it remains a surprisingly understudied characteristic. The Hungry Mind is a deeply researched, highly readable exploration of what curiosity is, how it can be measured, how it develops in childhood, and how it can be fostered in school. “Engel draws on the latest social science research and incidents from her own life to understand why curiosity is nearly universal in babies, pervasive in early childhood, and less evident in school...Engel’s most important finding is that most classroom environments discourage curiosity...In an era that prizes quantifiable results, a pedagogy that privileges curiosity is not likely to be a priority.” —Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today “Susan Engel’s The Hungry Mind, a book which engages in depth with how our interest and desire to explore the world evolves, makes a valuable contribution not only to the body of academic literature on the developmental and educational psychology of children, but also to our knowledge on why and how we learn.” —Inez von Weitershausen, LSE Review of Books

MY TRIALS STARTED AT THE TENDER AGE BETWEEN 7 & 8 YEARS OLD. TODAY IM 58 YEARS OF AGE. THEREFORE, IT HAS TAKEN ME ...YEARS TO BE ABLE TO SAY I'M FREE, PRAISE THE LORD I'M FREE, NO LONGER BOUND, NO MORE CHAINS HOLDING ME, MY SOULS IS RESTING, IT'S JUST A BLESSING, PRAISE THE LORD HALLELUJAH I'M FREE. 2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

This book brings a unique, innovative and refreshing perspective to one of the most protracted issues affecting young lives - disengagement from schooling. Rather than continuing to blame young people, as most educational policies do, this book examines disengagement from the vantage point of the lives, experiences, interests and aspirations of the communities from which young people come, and within which they are embedded. It uses a narrative and representational approach that gives detailed insights into the wider context of poverty, class, power, relationships and identity. A major and defining hallmark of the book is the emphasis it places upon a number of 'doings', - including community voice, identity formation, critical work education and education policy - all of which provide a very different set of scripts with which to reinvent the institution of high school.

Following the Threads: Bringing Inquiry Research into the Classroom integrates several strands related to inquiry research. Historians, artists, and educators are interviewed about carrying out research, and teachers who regularly conduct projects, expeditions, and other student-centered research strategies discuss their work. Complete with lesson and unit suggestions and further resources, this book is a tapestry of ideas for teachers, woven from the work and wisdom of educators and artists who follow the threads of their own questions and their students', bringing passion, depth, and authenticity to classroom teaching at any level.

Teacher Education and Practice, a peer-refereed journal, is dedicated to the encouragement and the dissemination of research and scholarship related to professional education. The journal is concerned, in the broadest sense, with teacher preparation, practice and policy issues related to the teaching profession, as well as being concerned with learning in the school setting. The journal also serves as a forum for the exchange of diverse ideas and points of view within these purposes. As a forum, the journal offers a public space in which to critically examine current discourse and practice as well as engage in generative dialogue. Alternative forms of inquiry and representation are invited, and authors from a variety of backgrounds and diverse perspectives are encouraged to contribute. Teacher Education & Practice is published by Rowman & Littlefield.

This book explores schools and how they can function as social institutions that advance the interests and life chances of all young people, especially those who are already the most marginalized and at an educational disadvantage. Social justice is a key theme as the book examines the needs of youth, the concept of school culture, school/community relations, socially critical pedagogy, curriculum and leadership and a socially critical approach to work. The Socially Just School is based upon four decades of intensive writing and researching of young lives. This work presents an alternative to the damaging school reform in which schools are made to serve the interests of the economy, education systems, the military, corporate or national interests. Readers will discover the hallmarks of socially just schools: - They educationally engage young people regardless of class, race, family or neighbourhood location and they engage them around their own educational aspirations. - They regard all young people as being morally entitled to a rewarding and satisfying experience of school, not only those whose backgrounds happen to fit with the values of schools. - They treat young people as having strengths and being ‘at promise’ rather than being ‘at risk’ and with ‘deficits’ or as ‘bundles of pathologies’ to be remedied or ‘fixed’. - They are ‘active listeners’ to the lives and cultures of their students and communities and they construct learning experiences that are embedded in young lives. This highly readable book will appeal to students and scholars in education and sociology, as well as to teachers and school administrators with an interest in social justice.

Contemporary Readings in Curriculum provides beginning teachers and educational leaders with a series of articles that can help them build their curriculum knowledge base. [This book] provides a historical context of the curriculum field, giving educators a solid foundation for curriculum knowledge; describes the political nature of curriculum and how we must be attentive to the increasingly diverse populations found in our schools; connects the readings to traditional course goals, providing practical applications of curriculum topics; covers cocurricular issues, which have become a major contemporary topic within school systems; enhances the articles with a strong pedagogical framework, including detailed Internet references, questions for each article, topic guides tying each article to course topics, and article abstracts for the instructor. --Publisher description.

Describes the conditions that contribute to hunger, including poverty and environmental problems, and details efforts being taken to rid the world of the problem.