The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? - Softcover

Chall, Jeanne S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1572307684 ISBN 13: 9781572307681

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 2002

Synopsis

This volume addresses one of the central issues in education: how best to instruct our students. From the late Jeanne S. Chall, Professor of Education at Harvard University and a leading figure in American education, the book reviews and evaluates the many educational reforms and innovations that have been proposed and employed over the past century. Systematically analyzing a vast body of qualitative and quantitative research, Chall compares achievement rates that result from traditional, teacher-centered approaches with those resulting from progressive, student-centered methods. Her findings are striking and clear: that teacher-centered approaches result in higher achievement overall, with particular benefits for children of lower socioeconomic status and those with learning difficulties. Offering cogent recommendations for practice, the book makes a strong case for basing future education reforms and innovations on a solid empirical foundation. In a new foreword to the paperback edition, Marilyn Jager Adams reflects on Chall's deep-rooted commitment to and enduring legacy in educating America's children.

About this title

About the Author

Jeanne S. Chall, PhD, was Emeritus Professor of Education at Harvard University Graduate School of Education until her death in 1999. She founded and directed the Harvard Reading Laboratory. Her books include Learning to Read: The Great Debate, Stages of Reading Development, Readability Revisited and the New Dale-Chall Readability Formula, and Qualitative Assessment of Text Difficulty. A member of the National Academy of Education and the Reading Hall of Fame, Dr. Chall served on the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and the National Society for the Study of Education. She received many awards, including the American Psychological Association's Edward L. Thorndike Award for distinguished psychological contributions to education, the American Educational Research Association Award, the International Reading Association Citation of Merit, and the Samuel T. Orton Award from the Orton Dyslexia Society.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents 1. Academic Achievement: An American Dilemma 2. Traditional, Teacher-Centered Education versus Progressive, Student-Centered Education 3. Twentieth-Century Trends in Educational Policy: The Shift toward Student-Centered Programs 4. Trends in Specific Areas of the Curriculum: Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, 1900 to the 1990s 5. Research on the Overall Effects of Teacher- and Student-Centered Educational Programs 6. Descriptive Studies of Early Educational Experiments 7. Student-Centered Education: From Theory to Practice 8. Socioeconomic and Learning Difference Effects 9. Parents, the Media, and other Nonschool Educators 10. Where Do We Go from Here? Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix: Key Differences between Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered Instruction

Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1572307684
• ISBN 13: 9781572307681
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 210