This second edition provides an updated functional and realistic approach to applying human learning to classroom instruction. This book is written for classroom teachers who may have limited background and experiences in applying theories of educational psychology. Frequently, teachers may be aware of the many theories of learning, but may not be aware of how to transpose those theories into practical classroom application. This book is designed to accomplish such a purpose. Several new chapters in the areas of emotions and motivation have been added, and major revisions have been made in chapters dealing with learning styles, brain-based learning, improving memory, and integrating reading into the content areas.
Whether you teach at the elementary, secondary, community college, or university level, you will find ideas and methods here that suit your classroom. Beginning teachers and graduate teaching assistants will be inspired to “act” the part of a confident, experienced teacher, and those with more years in the classroom will be supported in expanding the “roles” in their repertoire.
In this second edition, we have brought the ideas and pedagogical principles of the first edition into the twenty-first century by including new chapters covering instructional technology and classroom entrances and exits.
Second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language learning (FLL) have been and continue to be viewed by many as largely unrelated fields of research or at best being only weakly connected disciplines. Over ten years ago, Frechette (1976: 377) noted that, 'By and large, observation of classroom practices and talks with classroom teachers have revealed that many feel a large portion of [SLA research] efforts are of little relevance to them'.
The research in this book refl ects a convergence of two long-standing interests of mine: language learning and the organization of social interaction. Classrooms represent a unique opportunity to see the intersection of these two interests. The technological capacities of the corpus of data I’ve had to work with (the Multimedia Adult English Learner Corpus, Reder, 2005) allow for focused investigations of learner–learner interaction in and around language learning tasks. This corpus of classroom video recorded interaction that includes six camera views of each classroom is allow researchers and practitioners new insights into what learning looks like in the classroom.
The following elements will be found in this second edition: • Strategies for dealing with problems of disruption in the classroom • Expanded discussions related to diversity and special needs • Increased attention to methods of evaluation and mandated testing programs • Reorganization of chapter sections to make them more useful to readers • A new chapter on Play and the Fine Arts • Integration of electronic teaching technology into all chapters • Extensive in-text annotations of children’s literature, discussions of new titles in children’s literature, cultural literatures, book clubs,series books, and the influence of books published internationally • Updated reports of research and best-practice studies • New classroom observations
