Books by Vanessa Rodriguez
Hard Questions on Global Educational Change: Policies, Practices, and the Future of Education
by Pasi Sahlberg, Jonathan Hasak, Vanessa Rodriguez
This new book, from internationally renowned education scholar Pasi Sahlberg and his colleagues, focuses on some of the most controversial issues in contemporary education reform around the world. The authors devote a chapter to each of these “hard questions”: Does parental choice improve education systems? Is there a future for teacher unions? What is the right answer to the standardized testing question? Can schools prepare children for the 21st-century workplace? Will technology save schools? Can anyone be a teacher? Should higher education be for the public good? What knowledge and skills should an educator have?
Each educational change question sheds much-needed light on today’s large-scale education policies and related reforms around the world. The authors focus on what makes each question globally significant, what we know from international research, and what can be inferred from benchmark evidence. The final chapter offers a model for policymakers with implications for teaching, learning, and schooling overall.
Book Features: An in-depth look at the most contentious areas of contemporary education reform. Concrete examples from across the globe. Commentary from key experts, authorities, and organizations. A consistent, accessible organization that will appeal to faculty and students. Lessons learned that illuminate a good way forward to improve the educational experience of all students.
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The Teaching Brain: An Evolutionary Trait at the Heart of Education
by Vanessa Rodriguez, Michelle Fitzpatrick
“A significant contribution to understanding the interaction among teachers, students, the environment, and the content of learning” (Herbert Kohl, education advocate and author).
What is at work in the mind of a five-year-old explaining the game of tag to a new friend? What is going on in the head of a thirty-five-year-old parent showing a first-grader how to button a coat? And what exactly is happening in the brain of a sixty-five-year-old professor discussing statistics with a room full of graduate students?
While research about the nature and science of learning abounds, shockingly few insights into how and why humans teach have emerged―until now. Countering the dated yet widely held presumption that teaching is simply the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, The Teaching Brain weaves together scientific research and real-life examples to show that teaching is a dynamic interaction and an evolutionary cognitive skill that develops from birth to adulthood. With engaging, accessible prose, Harvard researcher Vanessa Rodriguez reveals what it actually takes to become an expert teacher. At a time when all sides of the teaching debate tirelessly seek to define good teaching―or even how to build a better teacher―The Teaching Brain upends the misguided premises for how we measure the success of teachers.
“A thoughtful analysis of current educational paradigms . . . Rodriguez’s case for altering pedagogy to match the fluctuating dynamic forces in the classroom is both convincing and steeped in common sense.” ―Publishers Weekly
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