Exploring Teaching

by Richard I. Arends, Margaret D. Tannenbaum, Nancy E. Winitzky

This book is intended for people contemplating careers in teaching. It takes them on a journey of exploration into the world and work of teaching and into themselves as future inhabitants of that world. Most introductory texts provide descriptive accounts of the contemporary world of education-teaching, schooling, and the foundation disciplines underlying it all-but none make a sustained effort to help students explore themselves in terms of that world. Part 1 provides an overview of teaching and teachers, while parts 2 through 5 profile the various contexts of teaching (classroom, school, sociopolitical, and professional) and examine the role demands of each context. Each part ends with a series of self-assessment activities (reflection, observation, interview) that helps students evaluate themselves in terms of these roles and settings. The overall structure of the book involves an ongoing attempt to match self against the job of teaching.

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998