This volume looks at the social and intellectual forces which the child encounters in class-room and playground from the parent’s point of view. School and home are seen as the separate yet overlapping worlds of childhood – for some children more uncompromisingly separated than for others. In the social development of the child, school functions as a link between the kinds of demands (and immunities) which are characteristic of family life, and those which the child will discover in the wider society of adulthood. The authors provide a meeting-point for developmental psychology, sociology and education, to the illumination of all three. There is a concern with the daily life of ‘ordinary’children in ‘ordinary’ families. School reluctance – rather than the more clinical school phobia or truancy – is delicately probed. The back-up that parents provide at home, directly or indirectly, is objectively evaluated, yet with empathy for parents’ and teachers’ anxieties about their roles.

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.

A concise analysis of the basic problems with our Public Schools, and a succinct guide to fixing them! Once in the classroom I learned the limitations of the current platform that dictates the operation of Public Schools in the United States. This book addresses 25 primary and secondary topics that should be addressed if we are serious about Public School reform in the United States. Each chapter is easily read and digested in 20 minutes. The reader should find each chapter entertaining as each contains at least one story that showcases the problem and the ensuing discussion is brief and to the point. The author grew up in Wyoming, attended an exploratory high school attached to the University of Wyoming, earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming, worked in the mining and chemical processing industry in Wyoming and Colorado, taught high school math for seven years, and is now retired in Jackson, Wyoming.

The British Journal of Sociology of Education has established itself as the leading discipline-based publication. This collection of selected articles published since the first issue provides the reader with an informed insight and understanding of the nature, range and value of sociological thinking, its development over the last twenty-five years as well as the analysis of the relationship between society and education. Divided into four sections, the book covers: social theory and education social inequality and education sociology of institutions, curriculum and pedagogy research practices in the sociology of education. The intention of this form of organisation is to provide the reader with an awareness and understanding of multiple perspectives within the discipline as well as key conceptual, theoretical and empirical material, including a wealth of insights, ideas and questions. The editor’s specially written introduction to each section contextualises the selection and introduces readers to the main issues and current thinking in the field.

In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.

First published in 1987. Several of the chapters in this book were presented at a symposium held at the British Educational Research Association Conference in Bristol in September 1986. This volume’s title is a deliberate echo of the title of the Plowden Report (CACE, 1967). It is now twenty years since Plowden was published and the chapters in this collection constitute an attempt to present a new perspective on one of the central assumptions which underpinned the Report — on the ‘nature of ‘children’. Within the book there are two themes of particular importance. The first is focussed on how children themselves are perceived, bearing in mind new developments in child psychology and in sociological studies of children’s perspectives and behaviour in schools. The second concerns the implications which such developments may have for teaching and learning processes in classrooms.

These books were compiled to help the professional development of primary school teachers, and represent wholly enlarged, updated and revised editions of the three primary source books published by Falmer Press in 1985.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

This book explores an under-researched but vital part of education: the first year at primary/elementary school. The work shows that children’s progress varies enormously from school to school, class to class and child to child. This variation is important because the more progress that children make in that first year of school, the higher their academic attainment at the end of compulsory schooling. The iPIPS (international Performance Indicators in Primary Schools) project, upon which this book is based, has been able to provide deeper insights into some of the key issues within and across different contexts whilst highlighting new and some ongoing issues. Despite all the work there remain unanswered or new puzzling issues which are also explored. We need to know how to improve the education at that stage and, more broadly, we need greater clarity about when children should be taught to read and be introduced to formal arithmetic, in other words, when they should start school. We also need to be clearer about whether, when and how young children should be assessed. The book will suggest some answers but it will raise important questions and dilemmas for which we do not, as yet, have answers.

This third book in the Global Perspectives on Social Issues series grants scholars and policy makers an overview of the steps being taken by governments and educational organizations worldwide to increase the quality, standards, goals, and accessibility of education. Authors Rita J. Simon and Lisa Banks examine and compare the system of education, literacy rates, enrollment rates, types of public and private schools, years of compulsory education, and the amount of money the government allocates to education in twenty countries worldwide. Each country's demographic characteristics and political, social, and economic institutions are summarized, and the influence of each nation's political and cultural ideology on the educational system is discussed.