The Teaching Experience: An Introduction to Reflective Practice - Softcover

Henniger, Michael L.; Rose-Duckworth, Roxann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0558337996 ISBN 13: 9780558337995

Publisher: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2009

Synopsis

For Introduction to Education and Foundations of Education courses. Lively and reader-friendly, this thoughtful text paints a truly realistic picture of teaching. Comprehensive coverage explores teaching as a profession, simultaneously addressing the fundamentals while encouraging students to "try on" the role to see how well it "fits." Chapter after chapter, a continuous process of guided reflection helps students to increase their understanding of the joys and challenges of the profession and encourages them to carefully ponder their place in it. In fact, no other text so carefully takes the students through the process of considering their life experience, knowledge, research, and situation in order to make an informed decision about their path in life.

About this title

From the Back Cover

With his new text, The Teaching Experience: An Introduction to Reflective Practice, Michael Henniger marries the core foundations of education with the process of reflection for extremely personalized student learning and professional development. What makes this book so special, and how will Michael Henniger's theme of reflective practice benefit you and your students?

Decision Making

Reflection is presented as a critical process that informs decision making and involves experience, research, discussion, and implementation. Reflective Journey questions embedded in the narrative and features such as Engage in the Debate, Reflect on Diversity, and ABC News video segments Education in the News and Master Teacher Series guide students to research, reflect on, and think critically about a concept, situation, or issue.

Personalization

Questions and activities encourage students to explore their own experiences and internalize the chapter content. Features that encourage reflection and personalized learning include Explore Your Beliefs, Focus Questions and Chapter Scenarios, along with the Reflective Journey: Online Journal, Field Experience, and Building Your Portfolio activities.

Professionalism

The Views from the Classroom feature gives students the opportunity to hear directly from teachers in the field about why they chose teaching as a career and what makes it worth all the effort it takes to be successful. The Praxis Test Preparation Activities and INTASC-aligned Building Your Portfolio features at the end of each chapter and Chapter 15: The First Years and Beyond, ensure that students leave prepared to begin their teaching careers as reflective practitioners.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Every term, college students enter courses in teacher education to explore the possibilities and problems associated with becoming a teacher. These thoughtful, inquisitive, and energetic individuals are eager to learn more about students, teachers, and schools. They bring with them their own past schooling experiences, preconceptions about teaching and learning (some accurate and some not), and a strong desire to have an impact on their world. While there are those who have already made a commitment to the profession, most are exploring the roles and responsibilities to see if there is a good match. What these students need is a clear understanding of teaching as a profession, a rich knowledge base, opportunities to learn about both the joys and difficulties teachers encounter on a daily basis, and the encouragement to stop and reflect on schooling issues both individually and with others.

This text was written to assist prospective teachers in this process of exploration and reflection. Through the use of an engaging writing style that speaks directly to individual readers, those considering teaching as a career are continually challenged to think critically and deeply about the abilities and attitudes of exemplary educators and compare them with their own. The content of each chapter, coupled with captivating special features, provides a thorough and engaging overview of the teaching profession.

Conceptual Framework: The Process of Reflective Practice

Through opportunities to reflect on their own past learning experiences, read about the realities of schooling, and discuss critical issues with others, prospective teachers are led on a reflective journey that culminates in deeper insights into the teaching profession. This process of reflection directly influences all aspects of teaching and learning, including professionalism, decision making, and accountability.

To be good decision makers, new teachers need to learn the complex process of reflection. This text is designed to help prospective teachers engage in active reflection as they study the decision-making steps needed for effective teaching and learning. This process involves the following:

• Experience. This component of the reflective process involves considering one's own life experiences; knowing one's own beliefs, assumptions, or preconceived ideas; and understanding how these experiences, beliefs, and assumptions inform effective teaching. Many of the special features developed for this text and described later in this preface support this aspect of reflection by providing opportunities for consideration of experiences, beliefs, and assumptions.
• Research. Knowledge must inform classroom practice. In this phase of the reflective process, the teacher gathers good information, acquiring knowledge of the student, the content to be taught, the underlying theory and research, and the context or situation. This text provides a wealth of current and relevant information to those considering teaching. Prospective teachers can use this information as a starting point for good reflection.
• Discussion. This component of the reflective process engages the teacher in active consideration of life experiences, beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge, whether with others by discussion or through a vehicle such as journaling. Once again, there are special features included in this text which provide prospective teachers with the content and the questions they need to reflect with others on a diverse array of topics.
• Implementation. In this phase of the process, teachers carry all their understanding and consideration of experiences, beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge into their classroom practice. That is, their experiences, their research, and their discussion all inform their decision making in the classroom. There are several features included in this text that give prospective teachers the opportunity to make decisions informed by reflection.

The process of reflective practice is reinforced throughout the core text and text activities. In each chapter, readers encounter a rich assortment of reflection strategies and are encouraged to begin developing them into habits as they prepare for the day when they will be responsible for making the many difficult decisions required of all classroom teachers.

Organization of the Text

This text is organized into four major sections that guide students through an introduction to reflection and to teaching as a profession, introduce them to foundational and timely concepts and topics in education, and encourage them to consider their choice of teaching as a career as well as the influences and characteristics that will help them become successful reflective practitioners.

Part 1. What Is Today's Context for Reflective Practice?

In Chapters 1 to 5, prospective teachers are introduced to students, teachers, school settings, and issues of teacher professionalism. Chapter 1 identifies the benefits and challenges of teaching and helps the reader begin the process of determining if teaching is a good career choice. Chapter 2 focuses on the growing diversity among students in American classrooms and describes effective strategies for dealing with the differences that exist. Chapter 3 introduces the reader to the roles and characteristics of effective teachers. Chapter 4 describes the ways in which schools are typically organized and provides information on alternative forms of schooling. Chapter 5 describes the growing professional nature of teaching and the efforts being made to enhance the image of education.

Part 2. What Is Reflective Classroom Practice?

Chapters 6 to 9 are designed to help the reader develop a deeper understanding of the essential elements of effective classroom teaching. Chapter 6 assists prospective teachers in understanding students and the many different ways in which they learn. Chapter 7 identifies the curriculum that is being taught in schools and how it has changed over time. Chapter 8 describes the elements of effective instruction, including an introduction to classroom management and discipline. Chapter 9 helps the reader understand the many issues surrounding the use of computers and other instructional technologies in today's schools.

Part 3. What Are the Foundations for Reflective Teaching?

This section comprises Chapters 10 to 14, which provide prospective teachers with information about the historical, philosophical, and societal issues that influence teaching and learning. Chapter 10 addresses the history of American education and describes how this past has influenced current educational practice. Chapter 11 broadly defines philosophical study and describes several educational philosophies that influence teaching and learning today. Chapter 12 identifies the many ways in which American society influences student behaviors and how schools are responding to these issues. Chapter 13 describes the legal rights and responsibilities of teachers and students and summarizes key legislation and court cases influencing schooling. Chapter 14 provides prospective teachers with a framework for understanding the many levels of school governance and identifies both traditional and more recent efforts being used to finance schooling.

Part 4. How Do I Grow as a Reflective Practitioner?

In this final section, the reader is reminded of the importance of viewing teaching as a profession that requires lifelong learning and continued growth as a reflective educator. Chapter 15 describes what teachers can expect during their first years in the classroom and encourages prospective teachers to continue learning and growing throughout their careers.

Chapter Features

With a reader-friendly writing style and frequent opportunities for reflection, the text draws readers in and encourages them to personalize the concepts and examples as they develop a clear understanding of all aspects of teaching as a career. Throughout each chapter, these reflective features reinforce the content, examine contentious topics, and challenge students to explore how their own ideas and beliefs inform their teaching practice.

Focus Questions and Chapter Scenario. These chapter opener sections introduce chapter content in a meaningful and personalized manner. Focus questions provide the framework around which the chapter and end-of-chapter sections are built.

Reflective Journey. This feature encourages prospective teachers to stop at key points within the main chapter narrative and think carefully about the issues being presented. Each reflective journey uses a series of thought-provoking questions embedded directly in the text to help teacher education students develop deeper insights into the issues and concepts being discussed. Students are invited to submit their responses to their instructor through the online journal on the Companion Website for this text.

Engage in the Debate. Prospective teachers have the opportunity to spend additional time investigating current issues that affect teaching and learning. Each issue has been chosen because of its direct impact on schooling and its potential for controversy. Those concerned with American education often have very different views on the possible benefits and problems associated with each issue. After presenting some of the key elements of the debate, readers are guided to Research the Issue by reading primary source materials and conducting online research using sources available on the Companion Website. Explore Your Views questions provide students the opportunity to articulate their own informed positions.

Explore Your Beliefs. This feature is designed to help prospective teachers begin to identify and analyze the beliefs about teaching and learning they currently hold. Because each student has experienced both good and bad teaching as part ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson Learning Solutions
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0558337996
• ISBN 13: 9780558337995
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 496