The author eloquently contrasts a false and fabricated "official theory" that learning is work (used to justify the external control of teachers and students through excessive regulation and massive testing) with a correct but officially suppressed "classic view" that learning is a social process that can occur naturally and continually through collaborative activities. This book will be crucial reading in a time when national authorities continue to blame teachers and students for failures in education. It will help educators and parents to combat sterile attitudes toward teaching and prevent current practices from doing further harm.
Author(s): Frank Smith
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 148
Tags: Psychology of Learning, Memory
Preface vii
I What’s Going on Here? 1
1. A Tale of Two Visions 3
II The Classic View of Learning and Forgetting 7
2. A Question of Identity 9
3. The Immensity of Children’s Learning 14
4. Joining the Literacy Club 25
5. Learning Through Life 30
III The Official Theory of Learning and Forgetting 41
6. Undermining Traditional Wisdom 43
7. Fabricating a Theory of Learning 49
8. The Entry of the Testers 60
9. More Spoils of War 66
10. The Official Theory Goes On-line 73
IV Repairing the Damage 81
11. Liberating Our Own Learning 83
12. Liberating Schools and Education 90
vi Contents
Notes 103
References 121
Name Index 127
Subject Index 130
About the Author 133
