Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching - Hardcover

Elbow, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195036921 ISBN 13: 9780195036923

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1986

Synopsis

Peter Elbow's widely-acclaimed and novel theories on the writing process, set out in Writing without Teachers and Writing with Power, have earned him the reputation of a leading innovator in the field. Now Elbow has drawn together twelve of his essays on the nature of learning and teaching, which, together, form a comprehensive synthesis of his philosophy of education. At once theoretical and down-to-earth, this collection will appeal not only to teachers and students of education, but to all those with a love of learning.

What, Elbow asks, is natural in studying, learning, and teaching? What are our assumptions about how the mind ought to function in learning and teaching? Elbow explores the "contraries" in the educational process, in particular his theory that clear thinking can be enhanced by inviting indecision, incoherence, and paradoxical thinking. The essay, written over period of twenty-five years, are engaged in a single enterprise: to arrive at insights or conclusions about learning and teaching while still doing justice to the "rich messiness" of intellectual inquiry. Elbow discusses the value of interdisciplinary teaching, his theory of "cooking" (an interaction of conflicting ideas), the authority relationship in teaching, and the value of specifying learning objectives. A full section is devoted to evaluation and feedback, both of students and faculty. Finally, Elbow focuses on the need to move beyond the skepticism of "critical thinking" to what he calls "methodological belief"--an ability to embrace more than one point of view.

About the Author:

Peter Elbow is Director of the Writing Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has also taught at M.I.T., Franconia College, Evergreen State College, and Wesleyan University.

The famed innovator in writing instruction shares his philosophy of education

About this title

About the Author

Peter Elbow is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Review

"Every teacher at every level and in every field should read this book. That would make life better for many students."--Duane H. Roen, Univ. of Arizona

"Elbow is delightful to read as well as inspiring for the teacher, neophyte or experienced."--Anne LeCroy, East Tennessee State University

"Those who want some outstanding specific examples of the kind of rethinking that we should be doing in our schools could do no better than read Embracing Contraries....We need to take a cue from Peter Elbow and carefully reexamine all our practices."--Albert Shanker, President, American
Federation of Teachers

"For a long time, Peter Elbow has been for me a welcome figure in the many public discussions of writing....Elbow is one of the modern pioneers in developing a teaching style founded on interest in what is already in students' minds, so that when he speaks, teachers who naturally put students
before subject matter listen."--ADE Bulletin

"Elbow makes thinking playful and testing it rigorous. He seems to have invented a precisely tooled, gleaming little machine for turning out insights."--Ken Macrorie, Albuquerque Journal Magazine

"Peter Elbow is always good company. He "preaches" what I "practice."--Nancy Walker, Southwest Missouri State University

"It's good to know there's somebody our there who thinks and cares and writes about [teaching], with truth and power."--S. Georgia Nugent, Brown University

"With a view toward teaching problem-solving in SW practice, this book helps us confront alternative ways of learning and, as a result, improves critical thinking. I will consider for . . . courses in future."--Dr. Mickel Coconis, University of Kentucky

"Extraordinary....Insightful!"--Shirley A. McFaul, Lewis University

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195036921
• ISBN 13: 9780195036923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 329