Sharon Friesen - Böcker

An accessible text that assumes no prior knowledge, this book is grounded in the realization that "STEM" and "STEM Education" have not yet evolved into fully coherent fields of study, and fills this gap by offering an original model and strategy for developing coherences in a way that both honors the integrity of each of STEM’s constituent disciplines and explores the ways they can amplify one another when used together to address complex contemporary issues. This book demonstrates how STEM can and should be understood as more than a collection of disciplines; it is a transdisciplinary, possibility-rich domain that is much more than the sum of its parts. Building on the actual work of scientists, engineers, and other professionals, the authors disrupt preconceptions about STEM domains, and provide the tools and evidence-based approaches to create new possibilities for all learners. Covering historical influences, theoretical frameworks, and current debates and challenges, this book positions teachers and students as agents of change. Each chapter features In Brief openers to introduce the topic; Opening Anecdotes to reflect the chapter’s key themes; Sidebars to put core principles in context; Consolidating Key Points activities to summarize and highlight important details; and Challenges to build upon and extend topics explored in the chapter from different angles.

An accessible text that assumes no prior knowledge, this book is grounded in the realization that "STEM" and "STEM Education" have not yet evolved into fully coherent fields of study, and fills this gap by offering an original model and strategy for developing coherences in a way that both honors the integrity of each of STEM’s constituent disciplines and explores the ways they can amplify one another when used together to address complex contemporary issues. This book demonstrates how STEM can and should be understood as more than a collection of disciplines; it is a transdisciplinary, possibility-rich domain that is much more than the sum of its parts. Building on the actual work of scientists, engineers, and other professionals, the authors disrupt preconceptions about STEM domains, and provide the tools and evidence-based approaches to create new possibilities for all learners. Covering historical influences, theoretical frameworks, and current debates and challenges, this book positions teachers and students as agents of change. Each chapter features In Brief openers to introduce the topic; Opening Anecdotes to reflect the chapter’s key themes; Sidebars to put core principles in context; Consolidating Key Points activities to summarize and highlight important details; and Challenges to build upon and extend topics explored in the chapter from different angles.

In this text Jardine, Clifford, and Friesen set forth their concept of curriculum as abundance and illustrate its pedagogical applications through specific examples of classroom practices, the work of specific children, and specific dilemmas, images, and curricular practices that arise in concrete classroom events. The detailed classroom examples and careful philosophical explorations illustrate the difference it makes in educational theory and classroom practice to think of the curriculum topics entrusted to teachers and students in schools as abundant.The central idea is that viewing what is available to teachers and students in classrooms as abundant, rather than scarce, makes available the unseen histories, language, images, and ideas in everyday classroom life–makes it possible to break open the flat, literal “ordinariness” of classroom events, makes their complex and contested meanings visible, understandable, and pedagogically useful. Understanding the disciplines entrusted to schools (such as mathematics, writing, reading) as living inheritances, not as inert, finished, static, manipulable objects, means that the work of the classroom requires getting in on the real, living conversations that constitute these disciplines as they actually function in the classroom. This view of curriculum as abundance has a profound effect on classroom practice.Curriculum in Abundance addresses curriculum and teaching topics such as mathematics, science, environmental education, social studies, language arts, and the arts curriculum; issues that arise from inviting student-teachers and practicing teachers into the idea of curriculum of abundance; the issue of information and communications technologies in the classroom; and the philosophical underpinnings of constructivism and the dilemmas it poses to thinking about curriculum in abundance. All of the chapters provide images of how to conduct interpretive research in the classroom.This critically important text for undergraduate and master’s-level courses on curriculum methods, curriculum theory, teacher research, and philosophy of education speaks eloquently to students, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers across the field of education.

Engaging in Educational Research-Practice Partnerships guides academic researchers into forming mutually respectful, collaborative, and scalable partnerships with school practitioners. Despite robust theoretical and conceptual planning, research on learning is often removed from real settings and generates findings with limited practical relevance, yielding frustration for K-12 stakeholders. This book provides invaluable resources to researchers seeking to work with practitioners as they solve problems and improve outcomes while answering fundamental questions about who gets to generate knowledge, from where, to whom, and in what contexts. A range of illustrative case studies and strategies explores how to apply appropriate theories and methodologies, negotiate agendas that ensure mutually beneficial goals, determine the role of pracademics, establish institutional supports, policies, and procedures that amplify impact and sustainability, and much more.

Engaging in Educational Research-Practice Partnerships guides academic researchers into forming mutually respectful, collaborative, and scalable partnerships with school practitioners. Despite robust theoretical and conceptual planning, research on learning is often removed from real settings and generates findings with limited practical relevance, yielding frustration for K-12 stakeholders. This book provides invaluable resources to researchers seeking to work with practitioners as they solve problems and improve outcomes while answering fundamental questions about who gets to generate knowledge, from where, to whom, and in what contexts. A range of illustrative case studies and strategies explores how to apply appropriate theories and methodologies, negotiate agendas that ensure mutually beneficial goals, determine the role of pracademics, establish institutional supports, policies, and procedures that amplify impact and sustainability, and much more.