Sivanes Phillipson

Shane N. Phillipson

Throughout the world, the challenges facing modern education are formidable. Although some of the challenges facing are unique to each educational jurisdiction, there are also some important commonalities that transcend jurisdictions. Irrespective of the nature of these challenges, there is an increasing focus on teacher quality - what it is and how to enhance it. To date, research tells us what expert teachers should be doing in their classrooms. This approach is based on the idea that teaching expertise is nothing more than the accumulation of specific skills and knowledge, and as teachers acquire these skills and knowledge most of our educational challenges can be overcome. This book questions this idea by asking 37 teachers who are already recognised as experts to share their classroom secrets. Importantly, the teachers come from diverse cultural contexts, including Australia, Finland, Hong Kong and the US, and they share: how they became expert teachers; their expectations for every student when they enter their classroom; how they view and encourage teacher-parent partnerships; and what skills and knowledge they consider important for expert teaching. To our knowledge, this is the first book that compares and contrasts the approaches taken by expert teachers from four very different cultural groups. The book helps to demystify the work of the modern teacher - what they do and the challenges they face. If you aspire to be an expert teacher, this book provides a clear model of how to approach the process. If you are an education researcher searching for 'impact', this book outlines what are some of the emerging hot topics in education research. If you are involved in teacher education then this book offers some new approaches to initial teacher education. If your focus is on educational policy, this book helps make sense of the links between the classrooms of expert teachers, education research and academic achievement. Finally, this book will help parents understand how best to partner with their child's teacher in order to enhance their learning.

Lessons for Modern Education

The Power of Expert Teaching

Throughout the world, the challenges facing modern education are formidable. Although some of the challenges facing are unique to each educational jurisdiction, there are also some important commonalities that transcend jurisdictions. Irrespective of the nature of these challenges, there is an increasing focus on teacher quality – what it is and how to enhance it. To date, research tells us what expert teachers should be doing in their classrooms. This approach is based on the idea that teaching expertise is nothing more than the accumulation of specific skills and knowledge, and as teachers acquire these skills and knowledge most of our educational challenges can be overcome. This book questions this idea by asking 37 teachers who are already recognised as experts to share their classroom secrets. Importantly, the teachers come from diverse cultural contexts, including Australia, Finland, Hong Kong and the US, and they share: how they became expert teachers; their expectations for every student when they enter their classroom; how they view and encourage teacher–parent partnerships; and what skills and knowledge they consider important for expert teaching. To our knowledge, this is the first book that compares and contrasts the approaches taken by expert teachers from four very different cultural groups. The book helps to demystify the work of the modern teacher – what they do and the challenges they face. If you aspire to be an expert teacher, this book provides a clear model of how to approach the process. If you are an education researcher searching for ‘impact’, this book outlines what are some of the emerging hot topics in education research. If you are involved in teacher education then this book offers some new approaches to initial teacher education. If your focus is on educational policy, this book helps make sense of the links between the classrooms of expert teachers, education research and academic achievement. Finally, this book will help parents understand how best to partner with their child’s teacher in order to enhance their learning.

Heidrun Stoeger

Albert Ziegler

The continual successes of students from East-Asia are confirmed in a variety of international tests of academic achievement and yet, despite this attainment, many scholars have realised that a substantial proportion of these students are also underachieving. Using the actiotope model of giftedness to integrate a broad range of research, this innovative book features a number of chapters written by internationally recognised scholars in a frank and lively discussion about the origins of exceptionality in students from East Asia. With the actiotope model as the theoretical framework, the book distinguishes between trait models of giftedness and systems approaches to exceptionality. Breaking new ground in understanding the complex interactions between a learner’s environment, goals, intelligence and motivations in the development of their ever-expanding knowledge and skill set, this book will: describe, with examples, a systems approach to the development of exceptionality, allowing educators and researchers the ability to track students with greater precision; influence the means by which educators identify and support students with the potential for exceptional performance; suggest possible reasons for the variability in the achievement of potentially gifted students; provide strategies to support these students; have a profound effect on the way that exceptionality and giftedness are defined and understood, not only in East Asia but also in the West. Covering issues that have firm theoretical foundations and which are based on cutting edge ideas, Exceptionality in East Asia has significant implications for gifted education and is essential reading for scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in the psychological and social basis of exceptionality.

Shane N. Phillipson

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