Spatial Intelligence examines public and professional conceptions of the relationships between thinking about spatial attributes and active engagement in spatially related constructions and designs. Even though children’s and adolescents’ spatial propensities in constructive activities parallel the skills needed by professionals in both established and emerging fields, spatial education is often missing from K–12 curricula and is easily impeded by teachers, parents, or other indiv...

Writing can be a tortuous process in any discipline. However, it can be particularly daunting in science, technology, engineering, the arts or architecture, and mathematics (henceforth, STEAM). In fact, it is not uncommon for most STEAM professionals to say things like, "As an engineer, I write only when I have to…" or "engaging in science is easy for me but sitting down and writing my manuscripts are so painful" or "I’m really good at math but I’m a terrible writer…" However, writing can ...

This comprehensive handbook delves into timely issues in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts/architecture, and mathematics) curriculum and praxis. Cutting-edge research will help STEAM educators and researchers recognize and appreciate students’ understanding of STEAM concepts, as well as capture contemporary educational, psychological, and social issues within the STEAM context. Drawing on the work of over 50 international contributors, this volume covers both emergent and estab...

Block Parties examines young children’s spatial development through the lens of emergent STEAM thinking. This book explores the physical and psychological tools that children use when they engage in constructive free play, and how these tools contribute to and shape the constructions they produce. Providing readers with the tools and understanding necessary to develop children’s spatial sense through the domains of mapping and architecture, this cutting-edge volume lays the ground...

The relentless bombing of cities, dismantling of democracies, projection of hate as kindness, and masquerading lies as truth are emerging realities of the 21st century. In reconsidering curriculum epistemicide, this edited collection converges on the erasure of unique ways of knowing. However, differences arise as we examine the definition of curriculum epistemicide, and who gets to define it. The chapters in this book are uniquely braided in the ever-expanding encounter with various theor...

Stop High-Stakes Testing: An Appeal to America's Conscience is a compelling indictment of the use of high-stakes assessments with punitive consequences in our public schools. The authors trace the history of the policy and document the inequities for children of poverty that undergird high-stakes testing practices. Lack of dental and medical care, environmental violence, insufficient school funding, racism, and classism-all factors that contribute to this dire situation-are discus...

This comprehensive and exhaustive reference work on the subject of education from the primary grades through higher education combines educational theory with practice, making it a unique contribution to the educational reference market. Issues related to human development and learning are examined by individuals whose specializations are in diverse areas including education, psychology, sociology, philosophy, law, and medicine. The book focuses on important themes in education and human d...

Trivializing Teacher Education: The Accreditation Squeeze presents a critical analysis of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). This accreditation organization has been in existence for 50 years and claims to accredit approximately 700 teacher education programs that prepare two-thirds of the nation's teachers. There is no convincing research, however, that NCATE's "stamp of approval" makes a difference in teacher preparation programs or in beginning...

Through conversations in honor of Dale D. Johnson, this booktakes a critical view of the monoculture in curriculum and policy that has developed in education with the increase of federal funding and privatization of services for public education, and examines the shift from public interest and control to private and corporate shareholder hegemony. Most states’ educational responsibilities—assessment of constituents, curriculum development, and instructional protocols—are increasingly being...

Knowledge under Construction investigates how young children develop spatial, geometric, and scientific thinking skills-particularly those associated with architecture. Based on original research and analysis of videotapes of children's play with blocks, the authors' findings suggest that such play is anything but pointless. Their conclusions fill in gaps in our current understanding of how children learn to think spatially and scientifically even while challenging portions of tha...

The Importance of Average calls attention to the policies and practices that discriminate against the silent majority of students in the American educational system. Arguments presented emphasize the collateral damage caused to average students by legislative mandates, administrative policies, teaching practices, parenting beliefs, and adherence to strict psychological constructs. Each of these factors has created a pervasive psycho-educational belief of average ability. The authors challe...

When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind, Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross t...