Drawing on the perspectives of architectural psychology, set against the historical development of school building in the United States, Japan and Germany, the authors’ vision is to create places where we would want to relive our own school days. The book takes the position that user design, control of stress factors and control of communication (privacy, retreats) should be allowed to modify the original architectural design to flexibly accommodate future changing requirements. The development and application of criteria for assessing functional, aesthetic, social-physical, ecological, organizational and economical aspects to various parts of the school complex call for a common language for the design process. The appendix presents 24 innovative schools from countries in five continents.

Improve Schools and Transform Education In order for educational systems to change, we must reevaluate deep-seated beliefs about learning, teaching, schooling, and race that perpetuate inequitable opportunities and outcomes. Hatch, Corson, and Gerth van den Berg challenge the narrative when it comes to the "grammar of schooling"--or the conventional structures, practices, and beliefs that define educational experiences for so many children—to cast a new vision of what school could be. The book addresses current systemic problems and solutions as it: Highlights global examples of successful school change Describes strategies that improve educational opportunities and performance Explores promising approaches in developing new learning opportunities Outlines conditions for supporting wide-scale educational improvement This provocative book approaches education reform by highlighting what works, while also demonstrating what can be accomplished if we redefine conventional schools. We can make the schools we have more efficient, more effective, and more equitable, all while creating powerful opportunities to support all aspects of students’ development. "You won’t find a better book on system change in education than this one. We learn why schools don’t change; how they can improve; what it takes to change a system; and, in the final analysis, the possibilities of system change. Above all, The Education We Need renders complexity into clarity as the writing is so clear and compelling. A powerful read on a topic of utmost importance." ~Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/Universtiy of Toronto "I cannot recommend this book highly enough – Tom tackles long-standing and emerging educational issues in new ways with an impressive understanding of the challenging complexities, but also feasible possibilities, for ensuring excellence and equity for all students." ~Carol Campbell, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

The 21st century poses a fascinating, yet daunting challenge for educators: how to harness the potential of the infinite abundance brought forth by the Internet. Today's educators are the first generation in history to have access to all accumulated human knowledge. They are now facing a completely new educational paradigm with tools, strategies, and structures that have long been outdated. Schools need to reinvent themselves to develop a pedagogy and related curriculum for the 21st century. Learning for the Future: Rethinking Schools for the 21st Century explores the main drivers and principles for developing schools in the Internet age. It provides insight, pointers, and examples that allow readers to start the process of rethinking teaching strategies and helping students learn new skills needed to become lifelong learners in the knowledge era.

This book presents an overview of education technology and its use in schools, with a primary emphasis on best practices of technology enhanced learning; how new technologies such as mobile, augmented and wearable technologies affect instructional design strategies; and the content curriculum development process. Providing insights into the future of education and the upcoming pedagogies that will be applied in schools, it helps educators and other stakeholders make innovations for the new generations of learners in the 21st century. The use of emerging technologies such as mobile and ubiquitous technologies, context-aware technology, augment-reality, and virtual reality is contributing to making education adaptive and smarter. With the ever-changing technologies, how to equip teachers with these digital skills and transform their teaching style is also important to ensure that school education is more individualised and customised for students. Offering a global perspective with integrated practical cases, this timely book is of interest to educators, teachers, and education policymakers. And although most of the authors are from the academia, it provides non-experts with a novel view of what future schools will be like with the help of technology.

In The Future of Our Schools, Lois Weiner explains why teachers who care passionately about teaching and social justice need to unite the energy for teaching to efforts to self-govern and transform teacher unions. Drawing on research, her experience as a public school teacher, and as a union activist, she explains how to create the teachers unions public education desperately needs. Lois Weiner is a professor at New Jersey City University and has been a life-long teacher union activist who has served as an officer of three different union locals. She is the author of The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and their Unions: Stories for Resistanc e .

"When A nation at risk was published 20 years ago, it was seen as something of the Peyton Place of education reports: it stunned the establishment, readers threw up their hands and proclaimed themselves shocked by it, but no one could tear themselves away from reading it. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the original report, the Koret Task Force tells a no less compelling story."--Quatrième de couverture.

This engaging book presents a frontal attack on current forms of schooling and a radical rethinking of the whole education process. Kieran Egan, a prize-winning scholar and innovative thinker, does not rail against teachers, administrators, or politicians

In the wake of the tragedy and destruction that came with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, public schools in New Orleans became part of an almost unthinkable experiment—eliminating the traditional public education system and completely replacing it with charter schools and school choice. Fifteen years later, the results have been remarkable, and the complex lessons learned should alter the way we think about American education. New Orleans became the first US city ever to adopt a school system based on the principles of markets and economics. When the state took over all of the city’s public schools, it turned them over to non-profit charter school managers accountable under performance-based contracts. Students were no longer obligated to attend a specific school based upon their address, allowing families to act like consumers and choose schools in any neighborhood. The teacher union contract, tenure, and certification rules were eliminated, giving schools autonomy and control to hire and fire as they pleased. In Charter School City, Douglas N. Harris provides an inside look at how and why these reform decisions were made and offers many surprising findings from one of the most extensive and rigorous evaluations of a district school reform ever conducted. Through close examination of the results, Harris finds that this unprecedented experiment was a noteworthy success on almost every measurable student outcome. But, as Harris shows, New Orleans was uniquely situated for these reforms to work well and that this market-based reform still required some specific and active roles for government. Letting free markets rule on their own without government involvement will not generate the kinds of changes their advocates suggest. Combining the evidence from New Orleans with that from other cities, Harris draws out the broader lessons of this unprecedented reform effort. At a time when charter school debates are more based on ideology than data, this book is a powerful, evidence-based, and in-depth look at how we can rethink the roles for governments, markets, and nonprofit organizations in education to ensure that America’s schools fulfill their potential for all students.

Too often, we think of school as a fixed-rail path we all have to follow: teachers teach, students learn, exams are taken, futures set. That's how it's been since the introduction of compulsory schooling in the 19th century. But parents, teachers and corporations around the world are now voicing their dissatisfaction with education systems that are no longer fit for purpose. Too many of our young people are not being adequately prepared for the unprecedented challenges they will face in a world that is changing as rapidly as ours is. We should be preparing them for the test of life, not a life of tests. A group of distinctive voices – working in education and beyond – has produced a collection of essays that presents a call to action, a positive way forward, and a programme of change. Education Forward challenges us all to find another story for the future of schools.