Teaching Is A Human Interaction

This book contains an argument supported by education philosophers as well as composite stories, data, and personal experiences. The author mentions a number of scholars (e.g., Benjamin, 1988; Buber, 1970; Noddings, 2005, 2013; Palmer, 1983; van Manen, 1986, 1991, 2000) who address important human issues in the field of education, and she ties their work and hers to show common themes within the issues of care, responsivity, and relational ethics. The first part of the book (Introduction and Chapters 1-3) is primarily philosophical, and the author shares the thoughts of the aforementioned scholars and others on topics relating to the very human work teachers do. The next section of the book (Chapters 4-6) combines theoretical works and empirical data to address the complexity and humanity of teaching. While the work described in the aforementioned chapters may appear to present an idea of ethical teacher perfection, this is not the case. Teachers are not supposed to be, nor are they logistically able to be, all things to all children. The final chapter instead addresses how stakeholders (e.g., educators, administrators, parents) can gently move our traditional education system toward this ideal. This conclusion shares the ways teachers and teacher educators can conceptualize the work on teaching-as-human-interaction and use it to improve the teaching perception. ENDORSEMENTS: "Readers of this superb book will be convinced by the end of it that kindness and care are fundamental to good teaching. Based on vast teaching experience and a philosophy of care ethics, Alexis Jones portrays teaching as a far ‘messier’ human interaction than is ever formally recognized. Using scholarly debate and wonderfully narrated examples, the book advocates an ethics of care for teachers navigating interminable choices in almost every moment. But beware thinking that teaching-the-Alexis-Jones-way is a soft option. Quite the contrary, striving similarly for academic attainment and caring teacher – student relationships involves challenging endeavors for both teacher and student alike." — David Walker, The University of Alabama

“A significant contribution to understanding the interaction among teachers, students, the environment, and the content of learning” (Herbert Kohl, education advocate and author). What is at work in the mind of a five-year-old explaining the game of tag to a new friend? What is going on in the head of a thirty-five-year-old parent showing a first-grader how to button a coat? And what exactly is happening in the brain of a sixty-five-year-old professor discussing statistics with a room full of graduate students? While research about the nature and science of learning abounds, shockingly few insights into how and why humans teach have emerged—until now. Countering the dated yet widely held presumption that teaching is simply the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, The Teaching Brain weaves together scientific research and real-life examples to show that teaching is a dynamic interaction and an evolutionary cognitive skill that develops from birth to adulthood. With engaging, accessible prose, Harvard researcher Vanessa Rodriguez reveals what it actually takes to become an expert teacher. At a time when all sides of the teaching debate tirelessly seek to define good teaching—or even how to build a better teacher—The Teaching Brain upends the misguided premises for how we measure the success of teachers. “A thoughtful analysis of current educational paradigms . . . Rodriguez’s case for altering pedagogy to match the fluctuating dynamic forces in the classroom is both convincing and steeped in common sense.” —Publishers Weekly

TOP NAVIGATION BARThe Teacher and the Child: Personal Interaction in the ClassroomClark E. MoustakasBOOK COVER SPACER LIST PRICE: $44.95MEMBER/AFFILIATE PRICE: $44.95284 pagesITEM #: 4320225ISBN: 1-59147-710-7ISBN 13: 978-1-59147-710-5PUBLICATION DATE: 1956EDITION: SoftcoverView the Table of ContentsSPACER YOUR SHOPPING CARTTOP OF SHOPPING CART BOXADD TO CARTVIEW CARTCHECK OUTSPACERCopyright and PermissionsRequest permission to reuse material from this book.This book is not meant as a prescription for the ideal relationship between teacher and child, but rather as an opportunity for the individual teacher to experience something creative in his own right through the personal interactions of other teachers and of children. It presents a point of view regarding the individual experience of reality and principles of individual psychology with special reference to education and learning. It attempts to show in detail how the perceptions of teachers are expanded and enriched as they explore in the classroom the essence of their relationships with individual children.The attempt throughout the book has been to create a meaningful experience in which the value of unqualified personal being in human interaction is stressed. Thus the reader is encouraged to approach this book perceptually in the light of his own special personal experiences, and to perceive ideas and meanings imaginatively from the perspective of his unique self. The book may stimulate and open up possibilities for a more genuine understanding of the interpersonal process in the classroom and a more spontaneous, true relationship between the teacher and the child. Thus, in general, this book is addressed to anyone interested in human interaction and the creative potentiality existing within the essential being of individuals, and, more specifically, to teachers who want to bring their own specialized and unique beings to a more personally meaningful and satisfying experience with children.