Fixing Instruction: Resolving Major Issues with a Core Body of Knowledge for Critical Instruction

(Paperback)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A professional core includes a common language of practice, foundation principles and skills, and related standards. Such a core is present in the medical, engineering, and legal professions. Instructionally, it is not present in the teaching profession. There is no core foundation for critical instruction. Such instruction, long sought but unrealized, leads students to think, read, and write critically for content comprehension. These issues obstruct critical instruction:

There is no uniform use of instructional terms.Conventional serialism-based instruction blocks the minds nature to think critically. Rote learning is the result.Teaching is based on thinking directed at subject matter. Yet, we practice without a universal foundation in either.Teacher preparation programs have no foundation courses for critical instruction.There are no teacher-educator, teacher, or student standards for critical thinking for comprehension, the basis of critical reading and writing.
These issues result in weak instructional preparation and practice and poor student achievement. Fixing Instruction resolves the issues. It provides, for the first time, teacher-educators, teacher-candidates, teachers, and professional developers with an explicit core body of knowledge for critical instruction.

Reviews

Fixing Instruction is a must read for all prospective classroom teachers and educators. It is a valuable tool to critique present instructional practices and foster the development of a core foundation for critical instruction. The concepts defined in Fixing Instruction demonstrate a new paradigm for successful instruction to better prepare educators to meet the needs of students in the 21st century. The tenets of the book must be infused into present teaching practices.
Fixing Instruction introduces a core body of knowledge for critical instruction, an area that has been largely ignored. Education programs and teacher training will benefit from the supposition to include critical thinking in the process of subject matter comprehension, the development and utilization of uniform instructional terms and the desperately needed creation of educational standards for critical thinking.
I have just concluded 55 fulfilling years as an educator. My teaching expertise spans from elementary education to graduate level. As a seasoned teacher and teacher trainer, I can say with authority that this is the finest and most comprehensive attempt to prepare the new generation of teachers with a core body of knowledge necessary to meet the challenges and educational expectations of the future.

-- Louis DeLuca, EdD
I was especially impressed with how Dr. Maiorana explained how doctors, engineers and lawyers are trained as opposed to teachers. He is right in saying that content should be taught last, and that learning how to explain the content should come first. I believe that his work will be extremely helpful to colleges who train teachers. It is very thorough, well planned, and logical. -- Dolores Edwards, High School and College English Teacher

What excites me the most about Dr. Maioranas book is that he recognizes the professions unfulfilled need for a core body of knowledge for instructional preparation and practice. He not only recognizes the need, he fills it with specific, clearly presented, solutions.
Included in the core is a common language of instruction, a foundation for thinking standards (which he calls cogeracy), and an explicit and much-needed instructional strategy that achieves students comprehension of subject matter in the context of learning to think, read, and write critically. No longer must teachers and students accept the premise that one must already be familiar with subject matter before thinking critically of it.
Teacher educators and the undergraduate and graduate students they train, principals, elementary through college faculty, administrators, and professional developers will all find much to learn and use here. The publication of Dr. Maioranas book represents a groundbreaking event for the teaching profession and all students.

-- Sandra C. Hassan, retired teacher, principal, program director, and teacher educator
American education is in dire need of being fixed. Victor Maiorana makes an important contribution to education theory and practice in identifying the systemic roots of the ignoration that passes for education in our classrooms today. His anti-dote addresses the sources of the problem. These include the need for a common language of instruction, the need for thinking standards, and the lack of core preparation courses for the practice of critical instruction and learning in our nations teacher preparation programs and classrooms. Schools, colleges, and universities need critical instruction skills and acumen to teach competently and effectively. There is no surer resource for the teaching profession than Fixing Instruction to which teacher-educators; school and college teachers, new and seasoned; and administrators can turn to improve significantly their effectiveness and promote achievement and inspire in their students a love of learning. -- Joseph A. Volker, PhD, Religion & Society; MEd Education & Behavioral Sciences; M. Div. Pastoral Administration

Author Bio

Victor P Maiorana earned his doctorate in curriculum and instruction at New York University for his research on critical thinking and subject matter comprehension. For this work, he won a scholarship and leadership award, and a research award. Dr. Maiorana is the originator of mind grammar for subject matter, which develops and applies the minds innate ability to think critically to reading, writing, and comprehending content in all disciplines.