Foundations of Education

Book excerpt: Foundations of Education incorporates relevant interdisciplinary perspectives and emphasizes coverage of key issues in education, with up-to-date research, primary resources, and documentation. This text provides comprehensive and substantive coverage of all foundational areas--including social, philosophical, historical, political, economic, curricular, and legal--for students who are preparing for a career in teaching and for those who simply wish to learn more about significant contemporary issues in education. The authors have included strong, thought-provoking pedagogy, and have emphasized the growing role of technology in education, especially in the new Technology@School feature.New! In This Case boxed features contain brief, fictional case scenarios that describe situations in which a new teacher might find themselves. Readers are asked to think critically about concepts discussed in each chapter to answer questions that encourage critical and applied analysis.New! Expanded topical overview charts in each chapter summarize and compare key developments and topics in education.New! Information about standards addresses the growing emphasis on holding students, teachers and schools accountable for performing at levels specified by local, state, and national standards. New sections focus on preparing teachers for the stress related to state/district standards, and legal issues, including the No Child Left Behind act, are addressed.Technology@School, a popular feature in every chapter, updates students on relevant developments in educational technology and provides information that may prove useful in their teaching careers. Topics include, Usingthe Internet to Learn About World Schools (Chapter 3), Helping Students Develop Media Literacy (Chapter 9), and Protecting Students from Undesirable Material on the Web (Chapter 13).Focus Questions appear at the beginning of each chapter and provide students with an organized reference to chapter material--Refocus Questions appear after major text sections and are designed to help reinforce and improve the students' comprehension by reviewing the information in the chapter.Taking issue charts appear in each chapter to present controversial issues in the field of education, offering arguments on both sides of a question to illustrate why the topic is important and how it affects contemporary schools. Instructors can use these charts as the basis for class discussions or essay assignments.Eduspace, a customizable, powerful, interactive platform, provides instructors with text-specific online courses and content in multiple disciplines. Eduspace gives an instructor the ability to create all or part of their course online using the widely recognized tools of Blackboard and quality text-specific content from HMCo. Instructors can quickly and easily assign homework exercises, quizzes, tests, tutorials and supplemental study materials and can modify that content or even add their own.