Category: Education
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Sire’s Habits of Mind Review
Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling builds upon a line of publications, decrying the ascent of mindless Christianity that according to the author, James W. Sire, diminishes the effectiveness of the gospel to contemporary cultures. The difference between Sire’s work from those of Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind or…
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The Christian Teacher
What distinguishes the Christian teacher from the secularistic teacher? Is it the fact that they have believed Christ to be their Lord and Savior? Is it that they regularly attend worship services? When they become an active part of the church? Is it possible for a teacher to do all of the above, yet remain…
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Addressing the Teacher Presence Problem
Addressing the Teacher Presence Problem Much research literature attests that social presence correlates with student perception and performance (Richardson & Swan, 2003). Although the results of many surveys assert a lack of teacher presence in distance education courses positively correlates to student performance, analyzing the design of the studies shows a glaring omission. In many…
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Resolving the Mystique of the Learning Objective
Resolving the Mystique of the Learning Objective Some instructional designers insist that Learning Objectives drive the design process (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, & Kemp, 2013). Others contend that it is the natural outgrowth of the instructional and enabling analysis and should evolve somewhere in the design process (Hoffman, 2012). Still others see them as the metric…
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Compendium on Richardson & Thayer’s The Charisma Factor
The Charisma Factor: How to Develop Your Natural Leadership Ability asserts that charismatic leadership has been mischaracterized by being limited to a gift of the select few. In the book, the authors attempt to identify the traits of charismatic leaders that can be emulated by any leader. Richardson and Thayer, the authors first contend that…
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Compendium of Leman & Pentak’s The Way of the Shepherd
The Way of the Shepherd: 7 Ancient Secrets to Managing Productive People by Kevin Leman and William Pentak provides timeless council on leadership from the sage Dr. Neumann, highly successful CEO, who mentors a young business reporter fresh from college. Recently acquiring a new assignment at a large firm, the young protégé becomes quickly aware that…
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Compendium of Harvey’s The Abilene Paradox
Compendium of Harvey’s The Abilene Paradox counters the litany of books on conflict management, divulging the insidious side of agreement management. The author, Jerry Harvey, contends that group agreement can be no less debilitating, and provides some prescriptive antidotes. Setting around a domino table in the sweltering summer heat of Coleman, Texas, Dr. Harvey endures…
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Compendium on Senges’ The Fifth Discipline
Compendium on Senges’ The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization addresses the essentials of a healthy, growing organization. He asserts that when personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking converge, a dynamic is unleashed to move any institution forward. For him, the often overlooked, fifth discipline is…
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Compendium on Kim & Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy
Compendium on Kim & Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant is a persuasive call for schools and businesses to rethink their market strategies. W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (K&M), the co-authors and Harvard Business pro-fessors, contend that successful companies in the new economy are not those…
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Analysis of Aseltine & Faryniarz’s Supervision for Learning
Supervision for Learning: A Performance-Based Approach to Teacher Development and School Improvement by James MAseltine and Judith O Faryniarz In Supervision for Learning, the authors reaffirm the latest research on teacher accountability and the impact on student learning. They advocate a system entitled, “Performance-Based Supervision & Evaluation (PBSE).” In this system, the place to begin the…