Product Overview

Note: Each chapter concludes with A Final Word.
I. Schools and Students
1. Why Teach?
Examining Your Motives for Teaching
The Rewards of Teaching
Sources of Useful Experience
Case Studies in the Motivation to Teach
2. What Is a School and What Is It For?
Education and Schooling
Schools as Cultures
Schools as Transmitters or Re-Creators of Culture
Four Basic Purposes of School
What Do Studies Reveal About the Nature of Schools
What Is a Good School?
The Unfinished Work of the Schools
3. Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society?
Sources of Student Diversity
Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity
English Language Learners
Diverse Abilities
Diverse Needs
Gender
Sexual Orientation
The Teacher's Response to Diversity
4. What Social Problems Affect Today's Students?
Recognizing Risk Factors
New American Family Patterns
Poverty
Teenage Parenting
Abused and Neglected Children
Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Adolescent Suicide
School Violence and Vandalism
School Dropout Rates
5. What Is Taught?
What Is the Curriculum?
What Is the Present Curriculum?
Assessing Student Academic Performance
Additional Influences on Curriculum
Is the Existing Curriculum Relevant to Today's Society?
II. Teachers
6. What Makes a Teacher Effective?
Framework for Professional Practice
The Teacher as a Reflective Decision Maker
Aspects of Reflective Decision Making
What Attitudes Does the Effective Teacher Posses?
What Subject-Matter Knowledge Does the Effective Teacher Need?
What Theoretical Knowledge Does the Effective Teacher Need?
Personal Practical Knowledge
What Teaching Skills are Required of an Effective Teacher?
7. What Should Teachers Know About Technology and Its Impact on Schools?
A Brief Look at Education's Technological Past
How Are Schools Being Pressured to Change?
How Are Technologies Affecting Student Learning
How Are Technologies Affecting Teaching?
How Are Computer Technologies Organized for Student Use?
What Are the Key Issues in Educational Technology?
8. What Are the Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Teachers?
The Ethics of Teaching
The Teacher and the Law
Lifestyle and the Teacher
Law, Religion, and the School
Students and the Law
III. Foundations and the Future
9. What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education?
What Is Philosophy?
The Terrain of Philosophy
Schools of Educational Philosophy
The Influence of Psychological Theories
Your Philosophy of Education
10. What Is the History of American Education?
Themes in American Education
Elementary Education
Secondary Education
Private Education
Education of Minorities
11. How Are Schools Governed, Influenced, and Financed?
Who Legally Governs Public Education?
Who Influences American Public Education?
How Are Schools Financed?
12. How Should Education Be Reformed?
What Ought to Be the Elements of Educational Reform?
Current Reform Initiatives
The Current State of School Reform
IV. The Teaching Profession
13. What Are Your Job Options in Education?
Will There Be Job Openings in Education?
How Do You Obtain a Teaching Position?
How Do You Become Licensed?
If You Don't Teach, What Then?
14. What Can the New Teacher Expect?
The School Milieu: The Shock of the Familiar
Administrators: Mixed Bag and Many Hats
Peers: A Mixed Blessing
Instruction: So Much to Learn
Students: Friends or Fiends?
Parents: Natural Allies with Different Agendas
Surviving the First Year of Teaching
15. What Does It Mean to Be a Professional?
The Status of Teaching: A Profession or Not?
Professional Associations
Your Own Professional Development
16. Why Teach? A Final Word
Opinions About Teaching
Why Teachers Teach