Learning Theories in Childhood - Hardcover

Marcus Gray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857021460 ISBN 13: 9781857021462

Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd., 1995

Synopsis

By focusing on the early philosophies of learning and the key behavioural, cognitive and social theorists, this book provides a comprehensive overview of children's learning. The authors discuss the key learning theories, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and encourage reflection on how different approaches impact on the learning environment. The discussion finishes with an exploration of the new sociology of childhood. Examples are drawn from practice to highlight key concepts, and to make vital links between theory and practice.

Theorists considered include:

- Locke

- Rousseau

- Montessori

- Piaget

- Vygotsky

- Bandura

- Bronfenbrenner

- Bruner

Accessibly written, with key questions and recommended reading included, this book is essential reading for all those studying on child development, early childhood and childhood studies courses, and for anyone interested in understanding more about how children learn and think.

Colette Gray is Principal Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Stranmillis University.

Dr Sean MacBlain is Reader in Child Development and Disability at University College Plymouth, St. Mark & St. John.

'It gives the reader food for thought and questions personal understanding as to how we recognise that children have learnt something, but more importantly than that challenges our own confidence and ability to explain the process they moved though took to reach that final point' - Denise Chadwick, Course Leader BA Early Childhood Studies, University of Huddersfield

About this title

Review

Twenty years after its loud birth even punk rock cannot avoid the grasp of nostalgia. The black leather, silver studs and pierced skin no longer shockingly new, the aging Sex Pistols are on tour again. The ultimate rejectionist philosophy is the subject of revivals, celebratory reissues, and analytical documentaries and books. Only one other band rivaled the Pistols as kings of punk: The Clash. Marcus Gray's account of the band that was led by Mick Jones and Joe Strummer offers "the story and myth." Gray details the early lives of the band, describing the genesis and then the decline of this most political of punk bands. Gray is highly critical of the band's later career, arguing that they sold out the punk philosophy by giving in to the lure of money.

From Kirkus Reviews

A hopelessly rambling and combative biography of the seminal punk band. British writer Gray (It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion, not reviewed) is out to debunk what he calls the Clash Myth: the notion that the Clash were working-class outsiders who despised '70s rock culture as well as England's social status quo, and that they were motivated by righteous political anger, not by the desire to make money. In reality, the teenage Mick Jones played in garage bands influenced by the New York Dolls, only briefly lived in a council high-rise, and wore ultralong hair and flared jeans. Even more damning, according to Gray, Joe Strummer (n‚ John Mellor) attended a posh public school and actually had some pre- Clash musical success fronting the 101ers, a mid-'70s London R&B outfit. The two singer-songwriter-guitarists formed the Clash in 1976. Gray speciously portrays the band's stirring agitprop as sociobiographically suspect: `` `Career Opportunities' . . . came nowhere near to reflecting the realistic employment prospects of the band as a whole.'' Gray never conveys the impact the music had on the public, relying on sniping reviews in the notoriously fickle and trend-gobbling British music press. The Clash were plagued by management and record company conflicts, the heroin addiction of drummer Topper Headon, and the two singers' increasingly divergent personalities and musical tastes, but they produced sophisticated, melodic, incendiary rock and roll. Gray faults them for issuing contradictory political statements over the years and even for earning some money, but given that all concerned were in their 20s and were, after all, a band rather than a political action committee, his myth-busting on these fronts seems misguided. Gray's smug, repetitive prose utterly fails to put the Clash in a coherent context the way Jon Savage's towering England's Dreaming did for the Sex Pistols. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1857021460
• ISBN 13: 9781857021462
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192