The Contemporary Applications of a Systems Approach to Education : Models for Effective Reform

This work is written through an authentic systems perspective, by five coauthors with diverse expertise in a variety of areas. The contents include past and current roles in k-12 classroom teaching, special education, administration, college teaching, and state education administration. Concrete applications for use in the classrooms are presented, which utilize the systems approach and provides real life experiential strategies for implementing the concepts highlighted in the section. As readers are asked to translate theory into practice, the authors model this effort seamlessly and realistically. For example, the 'Parent-Teacher Communication' chapter supplies an abundance of promising practices from the individual teacher level, to the school level, to the district-level involvement among the elements of the system. The 'Technology' chapter discusses the best practices for teaching and learning through technology and highlights examples that are in use in schools today. In the 'Cultural Diversity' chapter, educators are given case studies and exemplars on how other districts, schools, or individual teachers have integrated diversity in their settings. The text invites the reader to absorb the theoretical aspects and view these through real life applications. The reader easily becomes a participant in the process of creating applications in classrooms through the discussion questions for each chapter, and the vignettes interspersed throughout the book.