Patricia A. Alexander – författare

Every day in classrooms, teachers and students think about and with text. Their beliefs about what text is, who created it, and how to evaluate it are an influence, often a profoundly important one, on how they use text. This book brings together research on epistemology, belief systems, teacher beliefs, and text -- research that is usually presented separately, and in different disciplines. The editors illustrate what a cross-disciplinary body of work looks like, what varied insights are possible, and when the central concerns are beliefs and text. Written by respected researchers in the fields of psychology and education, the chapters are clustered thematically into three sections: * childrens'' and adults'' beliefs about text. * beliefs about what should be taught and how particular content should be taught and assessed in classrooms. * commentary on knowing versus believing, on the literatures that inform this body of work, and on belief systems. The first to address this important topic in a single volume, this book provides an essential synthesis of current research in an active area of inquiry. The chapters are pieces framed in a time and place with particular intentions -- one of those intentions is that they separately and as a whole stimulate discussion about beliefs and text.

Every day in classrooms, teachers and students think about and with text. Their beliefs about what text is, who created it, and how to evaluate it are an influence, often a profoundly important one, on how they use text. This book brings together research on epistemology, belief systems, teacher beliefs, and text -- research that is usually presented separately, and in different disciplines. The editors illustrate what a cross-disciplinary body of work looks like, what varied insights are possible, and when the central concerns are beliefs and text. Written by respected researchers in the fields of psychology and education, the chapters are clustered thematically into three sections: * childrens'' and adults'' beliefs about text. * beliefs about what should be taught and how particular content should be taught and assessed in classrooms. * commentary on knowing versus believing, on the literatures that inform this body of work, and on belief systems. The first to address this important topic in a single volume, this book provides an essential synthesis of current research in an active area of inquiry. The chapters are pieces framed in a time and place with particular intentions -- one of those intentions is that they separately and as a whole stimulate discussion about beliefs and text.

Recognize and promote exceptional teaching based on how students learn! To improve teaching, school leaders must understand how students learn. Authors P. Karen Murphy and Patricia Alexander explore key psychological dimensions of learners and explain how these dimensions can be incorporated into more effective teaching strategies. Their accessible overview of classic and current educational research is part of the Leadership for Learning initiative of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). Understanding How Students Learn provides guiding principles that school leaders can use to help their teachers develop a learner-centered approach to instruction that enables all students to learn at high levels and do well on common measures of academic achievement. Concepts explored in-depth include:

In addition to outlining specific guidelines for research-based action, the authors provide leaders with an understanding of student learning that empowers them to work more productively with teachers, parents, community leaders, and students. Designed for principals and school administrators who have assumed the role of instructional leader, this book will also be an invaluable resource for those contemplating a career in school administration or teachers concerned with improving academic performance.

Edited by Patricia Alexander (University of Maryland), Felice J. Levine (AERA), and William Tate (Washington University in St. Louis), this centennial volume of RRE takes a “retrospective, prospective” approach on a diverse range of education research topics spanning the last 100 years. While using historical trends as foundations for their chapters, the authors also look ahead to the most challenging issues and promising directions for the next century. The chapters contribute to cumulative knowledge, capture research developments and findings of sustained significance, and address research innovations anchored in their time or place, which could ultimately shape directions of scholarly promise and potential for the future. To bring conceptual cohesion to the volume, the editors nested the chapters in four thematic sections: (1) the Research Enterprise and the Doing of Education Research, (2) the Contexts of Education, (3) the Process of and Substance of Learning, (4) and the Changing Attention to Diversity and Difference.