An Introduction to Education: Choosing Your Teaching Path

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131192523 ISBN 13: 9780131192522

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2008

A unique introduction to education text designed to help pre-service teachers identify and confirm certification levels for their future careers in teaching.  The book focuses on 12 students, as well as teachers and administrators, using them as examples in the opening chapters as well as throughout the book.  Along with the book comes a DVD that is also unique in that it includes classroom footage of the focus students and teachers featured in the text.  The overall theme of the book is “how are the children?”  This serves as a reminder that all teachers must always remember to think of the student first.   

                                                                                               

The text brings teaching to life by taking the reader into a real school with real teachers and students.  All but one chapter begins with a Teaching in Focus feature that focuses on one of the ten-featured teachers and an experience from their classroom that fits with the content of the chapter.  Rural, suburban, and urban schools are represented to help teaching students decide if teaching is right for them, what kind of teacher they want to be, and what age students they would like to teach.

 

Some of the other pedagogical features in the book include: 

 

Teacher’s Days, Delights, and Dilemmas–In each chapter a state Teacher of the Year writes about experiences and lessons learned related to the chapter content.

 

Letter to the Editor (Chapters 1-7, and 10-12)–a public response to a relevant issue in education in the form of a letter help readers decide what their teacher identities might be.

 

In the News–this feature links ABC News footage on the DVD of national issues and gives opportunities to reflect on the impact of the content on teachers, classrooms, and students.

 

A scales icon marks Balance Margin Notes in each chapter.

 

What Role Will Diversity Play in My Teaching Identity?–these boxes appear at the end of every chapter.

 

Professional Practice features also appear at the end of every chapter to help students apply the chapter content to what they need to do to become a professional educator.

From the Back Cover:

Offering a unique experience, An Introduction to Education: Choosing Your Teaching Path, brings teaching to life by taking you into real schools to meet teachers and students. Go on a journey to help determine if teaching is for you, what kind of teacher you want to be, and determine what age students you would like to teach.

 

Find Your Teaching Identity

• Gain insight about the responsibilities and opportunities involved in teaching at various levels identified by Grade Level Icons in each chapter.
• Answer reflective questions identified by Fingerprint Icons, considering chapter content and video on MyEducationLab to help reveal your teaching identity.
• What Role Will Diversity Play in My Teaching Identity? summarizes chapter content to show you how diversity influences classroom practice.

 

Focus Schools, Teachers, and Students

• Explore Four Focus Schools representing rural areas, suburbs, and cities.  Watch videos on MyEducationLab to hear administrators and principals discuss their schools and take you on a tour of their facilities.   
• Get to know Ten Focus Teachers – their classroom demeanor, areas of expertise, teaching styles, attitudes regarding the teaching profession, and dispositions toward children and adolescents.
• Enter the lives of Twelve Focus Students who represent the diverse students of today’s classrooms and see how they interact with family, teachers, and peers.

Your Career. Your Future. MyEduationLab

MyEducationLab is a research-based learning tool that brings teaching in today’s classrooms to life. Through authentic in-classroom video and artifacts, research articles and more MyEducationLab prepares you for your teaching career. Look for the www.myeducationlab.com logo in the margins of the text and follow the simple instructions to access. MyEducationLab for this text includes:

·        Homework & Exercises assignments to help you extend what you are learning. Links to these assignments are found at the end of the chapter through the following features: Writing My Own Story, and What’s My Disposition.

·        Choosing Your Teaching Path, a section that takes you from the book to the videos that highlight our focus schools, teachers, and students.

·         Virtual Field Experience, a section that offers additional information and activities about the students in the book and in the video.

• To order this book WITHOUT MyEducationLab use this ISBN: 9780131192522.  To order this book WITH MyEducationLab use this ISBN: 9780137147939. Click here to learn more about MyEducationLab.

 

Read what reviewers have to say. . . .

"The strength is that no doubt the author's heart lies in this subject matter. The material is fresh, emotional, and honest. This was especially true in the sections dealing with exceptionality. I absolutely loved the vignette/poem about the student with Down syndrome. Amazing!" Corey M. Hall, Florida Community College, Jacksonville

 

“The book provides the reader with a superb bridge between theory and practice. It is very clear that the author considered a balanced approach between providing students with a rich and straightforward content and providing them with real life scenarios and reflective activities. The book’s presentation is unique in the way it balances theory and practice.” Adel Al-Bataineh, Illinois State University

 

“The author effectively involves the reader with the text. She does this with the tone of writing as well as with the pedagogical features throughout the chapter. There is good variety among the features, which call for different types of thinking on the part of the student. The end of chapter activities are particularly interesting.” Anna Lowe, Loyola University

 

Review:

Read what reviewers have to say. . . .

"The strength is that no doubt the author's heart lies in this subject matter. The material is fresh, emotional, and honest. This was especially true in the sections dealing with exceptionality. I absolutely loved the vignette/poem about the student with Down syndrome. Amazing!"

Corey M. Hall, Florida Community College, Jacksonville

 

“The book provides the reader with a superb bridge between theory and practice. It is very clear that the author considered a balanced approach between providing students with a rich and straightforward content and providing them with real life scenarios and reflective activities. The book’s presentation is unique in the way it balances theory and practice.”

Adel Al-Bataineh, Illinois State University

 

“The author effectively involves the reader with the text. She does this with the tone of writing as well as with the pedagogical features throughout the chapter. There is good variety among the features, which call for different types of thinking on the part of the student. The end of chapter activities are particularly interesting.”

Anna Lowe, Loyola University Chicago