Author Lyn Lesch advocates that learning cannot be measured by empirical results like testing and grading. As the founder of Chicago's The Children's School, Lesch didn't give grades or submit students to standardized testing. Such conditions may seem blasphemous to most educators, but the results spoke for themselves. Without the high-stakes…

This publication is a collection of 25 personal stories from a multitude of perspectives on the joys of teaching and learning. The stories emphasize active learning; respect for differences; creativity; willingness to make mistakes; a love of life, school, and family relationships; and the quest for personal meaning. The stories are: (1) "Richard"…

This book presents case studies of six "pockets of hope," democratic educational projects in which empowered students and their teachers actively engage with relevant academic and social problems. Although seemingly very different, the projects share a core commitment to democratic pedagogy and demonstrate practices consistent with…

This book reports on conversations in which elementary schoolteachers--who have taught in urban settings for an average of 20 years each--reflect on their professional work. The conversations in the book testify to the teachers' ability to engage young people in active learning--and their stories of teaching and learning verify that difference…

This book, a comprehensive guide to the range of genres and characteristic features of English-language fiction written for children, is based on the belief that deep subject knowledge of language and literature provides a foundation for effective teaching and learning. The book helps readers to develop their understanding of literature within…

In this book's essays, teachers describe and reflect on the practice of experiential education in elementary, secondary, college, and outdoor settings. Major themes of these narratives include the insider's view of the teaching experience; active learning that requires student autonomy, imagination, and responsibility; and the view of experience…

In fall 1966, Eliot Wigginton took his first teaching job in Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a semiprivate rural Georgia high school with both local and boarding students. This book is his account of his early struggle to control and interest his students, the genesis and development of the student-produced Foxfire publications, and his views on the…

Highlighting the importance of teaching practice grounded in a consciously held, critically examined philosophical framework, this book examines the contribution of John Dewey's philosophy to the early childhood teacher's theoretical base for practical direction and decision making. A detailed account of how Dewey's educational philosophy may be…