Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science

Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science
Author: Denny Taylor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 476
Release: 1998
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

Suggesting that the contention that phonemic awareness must be taught directly and that children need explicit systematic instruction in phonics is less of a scientific "fact" than an exercise in political persuasion, this book presents the story of the political campaign that is taking place to change the minds of Americans about how young children learn to read. The book begins with a close look at the empirical research being used to support a massive shift in the national understandings about language, literacy, and learning and concludes by revealing the ways in which research studies on early reading instruction are being used by the federal and state governments to support a new methodology that has turned early reading instruction into "a massive business of unprecedented commercial worth." The chapters in the book are: (1) In Which We Are Told Training in Phonemic Awareness Is the Key to Reading Success; (2) In Which Phonemic Awareness Research Is Analyzed from an Experimental Psychological Perspective; (3) In Which Phonemic Awareness Research Is Analyzed from a Sociocultural Perspective; (4) In Which We Find Foorman's Research Does Not Support the NICHD [National Institute of Child Health and Human Development] Proposition That "Phonological Processing Is the Primary Area Where Children with Reading Difficulties Differ from Other Children"; (5) In Which Teachers Are Turned into Clerks and We Discuss Power, Privilege, Racism and Hegemony; (6) In Which Governor Bush's Business Council Holds a Pre-Summit Meeting in Texas; (7) In Which We Have an"If-They-Say-It's-So-It-Must-Be-So" Attitude toward Experimental Research; (8) In Which the Kindergarten Children in North Carolina Are No Longer Expected To Try To Read and Write; (9) In Which I Become the Documentation on Which I Build My Case; (10) In Which We Are Told That in America We Are All Equal. Are We or Aren't We?; (11) In Which We Find the Desks and Chairs Are Broken and the Toilets Don't Work; (12) In Which We Ask: Do You Think America Likes Children?; (13) In Which We Consider If We Are Comfortable Mandating Reading Programs based on Neuroimaging Research and Genetic Studies of Reading Disabilities; (14) In Which California Politically Reinvents How Young Children Learn To Read; (15) In Which California Ends Local Control and the State Board of Education Leads the Jihad; and (16) In Which We Enter the Central Chamber of the Hegemonic Labyrinth. (Contains approximately 250 references; an appendix that offers a response to preliminary statistical analyses used to support the nationally publicized findings of the NICHD Houston reading studies, and an appendix that offers "late-breaking" news about the NICHD Houston reading studies are attached.) (RS)

Making Sense of Science

Making Sense of Science
Author: Cornelia Dean
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2017-03-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 067497896X

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Most of us learn about science from media coverage, and anyone seeking factual information on climate change, vaccine safety, genetically modified foods, or the dangers of peanut allergies has to sift through an avalanche of bogus assertions, misinformation, and carefully packaged spin. Cornelia Dean draws on thirty years of experience as a science reporter at the New York Times to expose the tricks that handicap readers with little background in science. She reveals how activists, business spokespersons, religious leaders, and talk show hosts influence the way science is reported and describes the conflicts of interest that color research. At a time when facts are under daily assault, Making Sense of Science seeks to equip nonscientists with a set of critical tools to evaluate the claims and controversies that shape our lives. “Making Sense of Science explains how to decide who is an expert, how to understand data, what you need to do to read science and figure out whether someone is lying to you... If science leaves you with a headache trying to figure out what’s true, what it all means and who to trust, Dean’s book is a great place to start.” —Casper Star-Tribune “Fascinating... Its mission is to help nonscientists evaluate scientific claims, with much attention paid to studies related to health.” —Seattle Times “This engaging book offers non-scientists the tools to connect with and evaluate science, and for scientists it is a timely call to action for effective communication.” —Times Higher Education

Spin Doctors

Spin Doctors
Author: Nora Loreto
Publisher: Fernwood Publishing
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2021-11-24T00:00:00Z
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1773635069

As Canada was in the grips of the worst pandemic in a century, Canadian media struggled to tell the story. Newsrooms, already run on threadbare budgets, struggled to make broader connections that could allow their audience to better understand what was really happening, and why. Politicians and public health officials were mostly given the benefit of the doubt that what they said was true and that they acted in good faith. This book documents each month of the first year of the pandemic and examines the issues that emerged, from racialized workers to residential care to policing. It demonstrates how politicians and uncritical media shaped the popular understanding of these issues and helped to justify the maintenance of a status quo that created the worst ravages of the crisis. Spin Doctors argues alternative ways in which Canadians should understand the big themes of the crisis and create the necessary knowledge to demand large-scale change.

Spin Doctors

Spin Doctors
Author: Paul Benedetti
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1459720873

Canadians visit chiropractors about 30 million times a year, and surveys show that patients are generally satisfied with their treatment. But studies also show that as many as two hundred Canadians a year suffer strokes brought on by neck manipulation. Spin Doctors takes a hard, dramatic, and spine-chilling look into the world of chiropractic medicine. You will be surprised to learn what chiropractors treat and why and how much it costs you as a taxpayer. Most importantly, you'll learn how to protect yourself and your family from dangerous adjustments, practice-building tactics, bogus treatments, and misleading information.

A History of Literacy Education

A History of Literacy Education
Author: Robert J. Tierney
Publisher: Teachers College Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2021
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807779687

In this volume, two notable scholars trace the monumental shifts in theory, research, and practice related to reading education and literacy, with particular attention to what they consider the central goal of literacy—making meaning. Each section describes a specific epoch, including a brief snapshot of how the reader of that period is envisioned and characterized by researchers and teachers, as well as a deep discussion of the ideas and contextual events of that era. These developmental waves are organized in rough historical sequence by a series of shifts in underlying theoretical and scholarly lenses—from the behavioral to the psycholinguistic to the cognitive to the sociocultural to the critical to the multimodal to the global. The book closes with a discussion of the various research frames and methodological approaches that paralleled these developments. Throughout, there is a profound recognition that all research and practice are ultimately directed toward how students make meaning, from sound to letter to word, to ideas and images. Book Features: Animates some of the revolutionary developments related to reading education and literacy in modern times. Each development is accompanied by a discussion of the aspirational reader that sets the stage for contemplating these shifts and their significance.Traces the research and theoretical developments to illustrate the origins of the shifts and their influences. Supported by a website with video lectures and conversations tied to the various waves of development.

Reading Across International Boundaries

Reading Across International Boundaries
Author: Roger Openshaw
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2007-06-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1607526395

Reading Across International Boundaries, edited by Roger Openshaw and Janet Soler, clearly demonstrates these broader characteristics of debates about the teaching of reading. It sets the educational issues firmly in the context of the social, cultural and political dynamics that inform and animate them and give them their meaning. It does so by setting out to understand their historical and comparative dimensions. Establishing the historical context highlights the origins and also the longevity of the problems and conflicts that are now widely familiar. The comparative approach also gives purchase on the wide range of approaches taken to these issues in nations around the world. More than this, however, this collection takes us into the realm of international influences. It underlines how debates in this area are not simply national, but are international and global in their scale. Moreover this is the case not only in relation to the broad fabric of policy debate, but also in the everyday struggles of pupils, parents and teachers in schools, classrooms and homes. Such an agenda is unsettling and provocative. It has the potential to challenge received opinion, to hustle preconceptions. It may also propose alternative visions for the improvement of teaching in this area that might be taken up and taken seriously in different localities or even more broadly. Most of all, it enables us to enrich and broaden our understanding of the learning and the teaching of reading at a time when awareness and vision are sorely needed. This collection of articles by leading scholars based in several different countries will be a significant contribution to the research field, but also a major resource when put to good use by policy makers and practitioners, as it should surely be.

An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education

An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education
Author: Rebecca Rogers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2011-04-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136861483

Accessible yet theoretically rich, this text introduces key concepts and issues in critical discourse analysis and situates these within the field of educational research. Beyond providing a useful overview, it contextualizes CDA theories and methods in accounts of discourse in classroom and other settings.

Early Childhood Curricula and the De-pathologizing of Childhood

Early Childhood Curricula and the De-pathologizing of Childhood
Author: Rachel Heydon
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2009-04-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1442692456

Educators have become increasingly interested in the diverse learning environments of young children and the ways in which children and childhood are positioned within those environments. The documentation and analysis of processes of pathologization and de-pathologization in early childhood may provide scholars with the understanding needed to develop more responsive educational approaches. Early Childhood Curricula and the De-pathologization of Childhood examines what is possible for young children when their education addresses their assets and is organized in ways that expand their identity options. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Rachel M. Heydon and Luigi Iannacci shed light on the ways in which joint notions of normality and abnormality are used to pathologize childhood. As teachers and educational researchers, they offer first-hand accounts of processes that take individual children and turn them into 'others' who are seen as deficient or 'at risk.' Through a variety of critical, qualitative case studies that examine general literacy education, special education, early childhood education, and intergenerational learning environments, this book highlights the theoretical underpinnings of asset-oriented curricular practices and suggests what is possible for young children when their education begins from and cultivates their funds of knowledge. Written for those interested in improving the lives of children through interdisciplinary studies, this volume offers sustained theoretical engagement that will appeal to educators around the world.

Whole Language Teaching, Whole-hearted Practice

Whole Language Teaching, Whole-hearted Practice
Author: Monica Taylor
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2007
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780820463100

This seminal collection brings together the multiple perspectives of whole language educators over the course of the past thirty-five years. The essays illustrate the complex ways in which whole language teachers have been and continue to be political activists through their interactions with students; the teachers' beliefs about teaching, learning, and curriculum; their commitment to critical thinking and social justice; their collaborative engagements with other teachers; their role as leaders of change in schools and communities; and, finally, their activism in society. Although many believe that we are living in a climate where the term «whole language» is considered taboo, the contributors to this book demonstrate hopefulness for the future of whole language: as Yetta and Ken Goodman write in the concluding chapter, «whole language is alive and well.»