What Works May Hurt―Side Effects in Education - Softcover

Zhao, Yong

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807759058 ISBN 13: 9780807759059

Publisher: Teachers College Press, 2018

Synopsis

Medical products are required to disclose both their intended outcomes and known side effects. Educational policy and practice, however, carry no such labels. Thus, teachers, school leaders, and the public are not told, for example, that “this program helps improve your students’ reading scores, but it may make them hate reading forever,” or that “school choice may improve test scores of some students, but it may lead to the collapse of American public education.”

In his new book, Yong Zhao, distinguished professor and specialist in education policy, shines a light on the long-ignored phenomenon of side effects of education policies and practices, bringing a fresh and perhaps surprising perspective to evidence-based practices and policies. Identifying the adverse effects of some of the “best” educational interventions with examples from classrooms to boardrooms, the author investigates causes and offers clear recommendations.

This volume will help the field of education to advance beyond the extreme pendulum swings that characterize today’s school reform efforts.

Book Features:

• Provides evidence to show how popularly endorsed education strategies, policies, and systems can actually do harm to students.
• Encourages educators to consider some less-publicized or lower-effect strategies that may be just what the doctor ordered for some students and classrooms.
• Cautions educators, policymakers, and parents to be more thoughtful when considering educational programs and weighing evidence.
• Calls for researchers to include possible downsides to strategies that they are testing and promoting in order to assist school leaders and practitioners in choosing and implementing educational interventions.

About this title

Book Description

“Yong Zhao has written a highly readable and important book about the side effects—the unintended consequences—of education reforms. Every educator and researcher should read this book and take its lessons to heart.”
—
Diane Ravitch
, New York University

"As he did in
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon
, Yong Zhao has again produced a stunning analysis of the problems encountered in our efforts to improve education. In
What Works May Hurt
, he has succeeded in demonstrating that the schooling of youngsters is at least as complex as marriage, war, or religion. If he has not delivered the death blow to naive empiricism, he has at least severely wounded it."
—
Gene V. Glass
, San José State University

"What Works May Hurt
puts together a convincing argument, supported by a wide range of evidence, that we must begin to mind the unintended side effects of educational ‘treatments’ just as we have done with medical procedures and products. This book is a brilliantly written analysis of well-known educational change efforts followed by a concrete call for action that no policymaker, researcher, teacher, or education reform advocate should leave unread. If taken to action, Yong Zhao could become a long-awaited peacemaker in century-old political and educational rivalries and an advisor to those who hold the power to design sustainable education policies to benefit all the children in the United States and beyond."
—Pasi Sahlberg
, Professor of Education Policy, Gonski Institute for Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney

“In this wonderful and crucial book, Zhao has made clear that the obsession with testing in our public schools has hurt students, teachers, and the quality of the citizens produced by our schools. Nothing less than the future of the republic is dealt with in this most thoughtful book about the field of educational research and policy.”
—
David C. Berliner
, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

From the Author

Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professorial fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy at Victoria University in Australia. He is a recipient of the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association and is an elected fellow of the International Academy for Education.

Edition details

• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0807759058
• ISBN 13: 9780807759059
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176