There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.

The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. Although life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries. The U.S. health disadvantage cannot be attributed solely to the adverse health status of racial or ethnic minorities or poor people: even highly advantaged Americans are in worse health than their counterparts in other, "peer" countries. In light of the new and growing evidence about the U.S. health disadvantage, the National Institutes of Health asked the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene a panel of experts to study the issue. The Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries examined whether the U.S. health disadvantage exists across the life span, considered potential explanations, and assessed the larger implications of the findings. U.S. Health in International Perspective presents detailed evidence on the issue, explores the possible explanations for the shorter and less healthy lives of Americans than those of people in comparable countries, and recommends actions by both government and nongovernment agencies and organizations to address the U.S. health disadvantage.

Every student taking Introduction to Sociology is a member of a population (male, female, Black, white), exists within a collectivity (sociology class, concert member, crowd), belongs to a social class (upper, middle, lower), interacts in a group (peer group, work group), comes from a family (two parent family, single parent family, blended family), lives in a community (small town, urban center, hometown), goes to an association (university, hospital, military), communicates through a network (MySpace, political networks), and lives out their life in a society (America, Iraq, Sweden). By examining each of these levels of social organization, the social world suddenly becomes alive, real, and understandable. "I get it" is a common reaction to this approach. The Social Context View of Sociology provides a solid foundation upon which new students can fully understand the discipline of sociology. The approach is different from other introductions to sociology in that it helps students order their knowledge in a unified manner by examining nine levels of social organization and provides an immediate insight into the relevance to their lives. The Teacher's Manual is available electronically on a CD or via email. Please contact Beth Hall at [email protected] to request a copy.

This edited volume investigates young people within their social contexts. The focus is on engaging young people as they transition from youth into young adulthood. Key advantages of this book are its embodiment of interdisciplinarity in gathering research across a range of diverse methods, theories, settings, and countries. The volume begins with reviews of key theories and methods in understanding young people within their social networked contexts of generosity, networks, identity, and ethnic heritage. The second section includes chapters attending to education and work as contexts for transitions to adulthood, counseling, meaning, and aesthetics from high school to college and into workplaces. The third section includes chapters studying community engagement and the well-being of young people, including social support, meaning in life, religiosity, spirituality, stress coping, yoga, and sports. The diverse topics addressed in this edited volume are generosity, philanthropy, voluntary action, social networks, social identity, personhood, ethnic heritage, post-colonialism, intersectionality, personality, lived experiences, informal economy, sustainability, pandemic, family support, educational counselors, motivation, ?Not in Education, Employment, or Training? (NEET), everyday aesthetics, built environment, generativity, community, adult allies, youth engagement, life satisfaction, spiritual identity, religious affiliation, stress, practicing yoga, sexual violence, athletes, sports climate, pressures to perform, resilience, and neurodiversity. Disciplines span economics, business, education, sociology, psychology, medical science, geography, journalism, architecture, engineering, science and technology, and applied sciences. Methods include quantitative surveys, qualitative in-depth interviews, life course biographies, ethnographic case studies, bibliometric analysis, and integrative reviews. Young people are investigated across thirteen countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Yemen, Ghana, Bahrain, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Romania, and the Netherlands.

The youth of the world are our most important assets. When youth develop positively, they have the power to benefit themselves, their families, communities, and societies. These tremendous benefits accrue for many generations, so investments in youth represent a highly cost-effective opportunity for positive change. This is the first volume to focus globally on the effects of social and economic change on youth, and on the opportunity to support youth through policy, programs, and interventions to develop positively despite challenges. The chapters in this volume highlight research demonstrating youth assets and resilience as well as programs and interventions that increase the likelihood that youth will thrive. Many chapters also draw attention to opportunities for youth leadership, helping youth to develop their strengths as they benefit their communities. Additional chapters focus on promoting optimal youth development in the presence of adversity, risk, or challenge, taking into consideration the potential and capacity of the young person. Finally, the ecological system theory is a strong influence in many chapters that examine the inter-relationship of different social contexts such as family, peers, school, and work. Positive Youth Development in Global Contexts of Social and Economic Change is both a vision for the future and an ideology supported by a new international vocabulary for engaging with youth development. Developed by researchers across interdisciplinary fields, the volume has enormous policy implications for lawmakers given the surge in youth population in many parts of the world.

This book is a logical progression from The Sociology of Adult and Continuing Education. The author takes a completely new approach to the subject and puts forward a model of adult learning which is analysed in depth. This model arises from the results of a research project in which adults analysed their own learning experiences.

This popular and innovative core text book explores contemporary social work theories and perspectives in a systematic way, using an integrated and flexible framework to link context, theory, and practice approaches. Healy expertly provides an applied guide to social work theory across a range of organisational contexts, showing social work as a diverse activity that is profoundly shaped by professional purpose, public policy, and practice locations. This edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect developments in the contexts and theorising of social work practices. This is ideal reading to support and develop undergraduate and postgraduate students taking modules on Social Work Theories and Methods on qualifying professional programmes. Its international breadth and supportive pedagogical features have ensured the book's value to students of social work all over the world. New to this edition: - New sections on post-humanism and eco-social work - Coverage of a broader range of critical approaches including feminist and anti-racial social work - Additional practice exercises drawn from realistic case studies.

The Social Context of Health and Health Work breaks new ground by linking together sociology of health and social policy perspectives. Linda Jones argues that health and health work cannot be understood in isolation. Patterns of disease, illness, treatment and provision are crucially influenced by class, race, gender, age and disability. Conflicts over health policies reflect fundamental debates about the purpose of welfare. The writer draws on her specialist knowledge of developing and teaching nursing and health studies courses, and on her recent experience of writing distance learning materials, to create a book which encourages critical thinking and supports study.

Several recent analyses have focused on how social and cultural factors shape development, but less well understood are the individual constructive processes involved in this interplay. This volume showcases varied theoretical and empirical approaches to how individual, social and cultural factors shape development, and suggests new directions for future scholarship.