Ebook: Smart schools: better thinking and learning for every child

Smart schools -- The alarm bells -- Teaching and learning : theory one and beyond -- Content : toward a pedagogy of understanding -- Curriculum : creating the metacurriculum -- Classrooms : the role of distributed intelligence -- Motivation : the cognitive economy of schooling -- Victory gardens for revitalized education -- The challenge of wide-scale change.;In order to improve American education, the author argues that we cannot solve the problems in this area by redistributing power or by asking students to take tests. Rather we must ask what kinds of knowledge students typically acquire in school. Drawing on years of research, the author reveals the common misguided strategies student use in trying to understand a topic, and then shows teachers and parents what strategies they can use with children to increase real understanding.