Teaching for Tomorrow: Teaching Content and Problem-Solving Skills

by Ted McCain (Editor)

McCain concisely lays out the argument for preparing students for their world, guiding them to become independent and successful critical thinkers.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to project and process based education. I like how McCain explains that the important first step involves having students think about what they need to know/aquire in order to start the project. That's been a key component of the Big 6 approach to library media research. I observe that this component of a research project is, unfortunately,often rushed through. I think teachers and librarians working together can ensure that students have time and respect for the preparing the work of the project--asking questions before diving into the research gathering phase.

[Heather McChesney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This text was giving to the faculty by our administrative team to be used in this year's staff book discussions. I'm half way through my second reading of this textbook. I'm frustrated because of the "duh" factor. The author spends most of his time discussing the things we used to do in education, currently do in education, and need to do in education. However, he NEVER really dives into the world of HOW. Quite frankly, it is the "HOW" I'm interested in. He is very negative in his language and to be honest, his writing is stiff. The only bit of information that I can gather from it is this...in education today there seems to be a problem with application. In short, students can gather all sorts of skills and information, but there is some kind of glitch that keeps them from appropriately applying the information to a task. Hence, the issue individuals have with real world problem solving.

[Kirsten Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good thoughts here about how we (educators) need to step back a bit and let students do some thinking for themselves instead of preparing everything for them from start to finish. A difficult task because we (educators) have so much to share with our students. Yet, the point made by the author of being the type of educators who take a step back and find interactive ways to let students make more of the discovery in learning is one that I agree with fully.

The one thing about this book that can easily be hard to move past is the focus on his experiences in applying this method as a teacher of high schoolers. The point of this book still applies to those of us who work with younger students, but there is a need for us to stretch our own thinking to discover how we might apply this within our own grade levels.

[Sarah Hanawald · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate this book, because either it works for you or it doesn't. For me, it worked. I wrote all over the book and filled up the end pages with notes. There's a lot here we've heard before, but McCain pulls together discovery learning, differentiation, project based learning and technology in one slim volume.

I was particularly impressed with McCain's discussion of the value of role-play in learning. He doesn't just say it matters, he gives concrete examples of the roles students can assume to learn content area skills. He gives just enough description of the projects to make them clear, but this is far from a lesson plan cookbook!