Approaches to Teaching, 4th Edition (Thinking About Education Series)

This widely used text has been completely revised to strengthen the connections between theories of teaching and the practice of teaching. Providing rich descriptions of philosophical and historical conceptions of teaching, this edition continues using the format of the three approaches and case study dilemmas.

• The Executive approach views the teacher as a skillful manager of learning and the acquisition of knowledge, skills, understandings, and competencies.   
• The Facilitator approach (previously called the therapist approach) has been renamed and reconceived to allow for a more global consideration of teachers who focus on the development and nurturing of each student's unique capacities and personal characteristics to help them attain authenticity and self actualization. 
• The Liberationist approach views the teacher as a liberator of the mind.  The classical liberationist stresses initiation into ways of knowing and the development of the student's intellectual and moral virtues.  The emancipationist variation stresses freeing the minds of students from false consciousness about their class, race, gender, or ethnic status and other forms of social repression.   

Using realistic case studies, the authors explore the strengths and weaknesses of each approach so that teachers can critically assess their own philosophical positions on teaching.

Teachers are urged to ask themselves such questions as: What is the main goal of teaching? What is the most important purpose of education? What do I expect my students to eventually become? Is the way I structure my teaching influenced by how I view my role and goals?

Approaches to Teaching is one of the five books in the highly regarded Teachers College Press THINKING ABOUT EDUCATION SERIES, now in its Fourth Edition. All of the books in this series are designed to help pre- and in-service teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Gary D Fenstermacher is Professor of Education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Jonas F. Soltis is William Heard Kilpatrick Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.