Skip to main content
Home » Resources » Resource

Resources

The Power of the Social Brain: Teaching, Learning, and Interdependent Thinking

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: Research has demonstrated that cooperative learning is one of the most highly effective teaching strategies, while new findings from neuroscience confirm the brain’s natural inclination to think socially. But simply putting students in a group is not enough. The authors of The Power of the Social Brain see “interdependent thinking” as the missing piece of the collaborative puzzle. This authoritative book provides practical strategies, informed by research from neuroscience and education, to help groups function more effectively and thoughtfully. By adding the “cognitive dimension” to cooperative learning, this book will help readers apply new protocols and strategies for more successful, affirming, and productive group work in classrooms and professional educational learning communities. Book Features: Fresh parallel insights on interdependent thinking from the arts, architecture, business, the community, and sports. Approaches for leveraging cooperative learning to improve thinking, problem solving, performance, and mutual support across a wide range of settings, including classrooms, teams, and professional learning communities. Instructional strategies from experienced classroom teachers for teaching young people to think and work interdependently at home and at school. Reflective questions at the end of each section to help guide thinking, stimulate conversation, and catalyze change within a learning community or classroom. (From the Publisher)

Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World

If leaders are made, not born, what is the best way to teach the skills they need to be effective? Today's complex times require a new kind of leadership--one that encompasses a mind-set and capabilities that can't necessarily be taught by conventional methods. In this unique leadership book, Sharon Daloz Parks invites readers to step into the classroom of Harvard leadership virtuoso Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues to understand this dynamic type of leadership and experience a corresponding mode of learning called "case in point." Unlike traditional teaching approaches that analyze the experiences of past leaders, case in point uses individuals' own experiences--and the classroom environment itself--as a crucible for learning. This bold approach enables emerging leaders to work actively through the complex demands of today's workplace and build their skills as they discover theory in practice. Through an engaging, you-are-there writing style, Parks outlines essential features of this approach that can be applied across a range of settings. In the process, Leadership Can Be Taught reveals how we can learn, practice, and teach the art of leadership in more skilled, effective, and inspired forms. Sharon Daloz Parks is director of leadership for the New Commons--an initiative of the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, WA. She has held faculty and research positions at the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Business School, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. (From the Publisher)

The Teaching Professor, Volume 27, Number 10
The Teaching Professor, Volume 27, Number 9
The Teaching Professor, Volume 28, Number 1
The Teaching Professor, Volume 27, Number 8

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a theoretically based coding framework for an integrated analysis and assessment of critical thinking in online discussion. Design/methodology/approach – The critical thinking assessment framework (TAF) is developed through review of theory and previous research, verified by comparing results to previous research, and checked for reliability by comparing results for multiple coders. Findings – Although process, structure, and quality of online discussions are assessed independently, a standard framework integrating these aspects for comprehensive assessment of critical thinking in online discussions is not found in literature review. The critical TAF described here offers a reliable and valid tool for integrating process, structure, and quality to assess critical thinking in online discussions. Research/limitations/implications – The critical TAF serves as a methodological tool for assessing critical thinking in online discussion. Further research should further assess the validity and reliability of this tool and should integrate the framework with assessments for other aspects of discussion such as social or instructor presence. Practical implications – The implementation of the critical TAF in future studies will ultimately help identify online educational activities and tools which best support development and application of critical thinking skills. Furthermore, it might be used to assess critical thinking of individual participants or small groups in a discussion. Originality/value – The critical TAF described in this paper provides a valid and reliable tool for integrated assessment of the process, structure, and quality of critical thinking in online discussions.

Offers a view on teaching Islam. Reason instructors do not look to Muslim scholarship; Role of the instructor in the modern university; Impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on teaching the religion.