What's the best new book about education?
by Edutopia Staff
May 23, 2008
Credit: iStockphoto
New York Times education columnist Samuel G. Freedman calls education a switchboard through which all the most defining forces in society flow. Our readers' favorite books touch on such issues as globalization (Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century), immigration (Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56), environmental degradation (Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder), and race (James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks's Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives).
Among the popular subjects were two of the most important frontiers in science, society, and, through the aforementioned switchboard, education: technology and the human brain. Readers appreciated books that taught them about how brain science and new technologies can and should intersect with their teaching, books such as Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, by Gwen Solomon, and Lynne Schrum and How People Learn, from the Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning and the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
On the whole, the answers we received suggested that our readers want both instruction and inspiration. The education life being what it is, however, several readers responded with laments such as "I do not have time to read!" But summer's coming, and if the reading urge strikes such respondents, their peers' recommendations will provide them with plenty to choose from.
What do you think? Weigh in on the results.
Links:
[1] http://www.edutopia.org/edutopia-staff
[2] http://www.edutopia.org/node/5517/results
[3] http://www.edutopia.org/readers-survey-2008
[4] http://www.edutopia.org/best-blog-educators-2008
[5] http://www.edutopia.org/best-educational-podcast-2008
[6] http://www.edutopia.org/best-virtual-field-trip-2008
[7] http://www.edutopia.org/best-site-download-free-lessons-2008
[8] http://www.edutopia.org/best-site-grant-information-2008
[9] http://www.edutopia.org/best-technology-product-less-100-2008
[10] http://www.edutopia.org/best-technology-tool-students-2008
[11] http://www.edutopia.org/best-education-software-2008
[12] http://www.edutopia.org/amount-spend-classroom-supplies-2008
[13] http://www.edutopia.org/best-way-get-need-classroom-2008
[14] http://www.edutopia.org/best-public-advocate-education-role-model-2008
[15] http://www.edutopia.org/top-concern-parents-2008
[16] http://www.edutopia.org/top-concern-teachers-2008
[17] http://www.edutopia.org/what-missing-degree-certification-program-2008
[18] http://www.edutopia.org/who-teach-class-day-2008
[19] http://www.edutopia.org/subject-should-be-taught-2008
[20] http://www.edutopia.org/new-teachers-burning-out-2008
[21] http://www.edutopia.org/best-way-find-inspiration-2008
[22] http://www.edutopia.org/best-way-create-educational-community-2008