Educational Reviews - Book Report/Review Example

They also project a view of the future direction of education, which every teacher should reflect on. This paper presents reviews of three books in education published from 2006–2010. Commonly, the books reviewed tackle the trends in teaching. One of the books is for teaching education in general, whereas the two others are focused on teaching Mathematics. Book One: Differentiated Teaching Strategies: Same Size Doesn’t Fit All Authors Gregory and Chapman (2007) collaborate to uphold the view that each learner is unique and has different needs, which teachers must address differently by having a differentiated classroom.

The authors believe that teachers can differentiate content, assessment tools, performance tasks, instructional strategies to cater to the various needs of students. Therefore, it is important for teachers to know the learners through assessment to identify their intelligences, skills, weaknesses, learning styles, and so on. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter serves as the introduction in which the authors expound their view that “one size doesn’t fit all” (1). .

Chapter 2 espouses the need to create a climate for learning based on the students’ emotional intelligence. To create the proper climate for learning, the authors emphasize the need to establish the importance of learning. Learners should realize that “what they are learning is useful, relevant, and meaningful for them…effective teachers believe that all students can learn and be successful” (Gregory & Chapman, 2007, p. 9). This implies that respect is an important factor in the way the teachers treat their students.

In addition, the authors promote a climate of fun, freedom, belongingness, and ease to motivate the students. To establish an ideal climate for learning, teachers should get to know the learners, identify their needs, learning styles and preferences. This style reflects a constructivist’s view of the learner where teachers vary or adjust their style to accommodate differences. However, other strategies proposed by the authors reflect a behaviorist approach through the use of written agreements, music, cheers to celebrate learning and classroom routines.

The combination of behaviorist and constructivist approaches is far better than using one approach alone to achieve a well-managed climate for learning. In Chapter 3, the authors mention some models for assessing needs and learning styles of learners. Among the most commonly used are Anthony Gregorc’s learning styles, McCarthy’s 4MAT Model, Silver, Strong & Perini’s four learning styles, and Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. The authors introduce four symbols to characterize the learning process, namely, the beach ball, clipboard, microscope, and puppy.

The baseball signifies freedom, spontaneity, manipulativeness,