In his February Commentary for "Adults Learning" (Volume 16, Number 6), NIACE Director Alan Tuckett warned that without greater public investment, provision for many adults would be under threat. This article presents several responses from some important players, from across the learning and skills sector. These include: (1)…

This article finds Michael's Hand's argument for the abolition of faith schools to be deficient because key premises of his argument seem false. I argue that the concept of knowledge that Hand employs in arguing that no religious proposition is known to be true is overly strict. I reject Siegel's attempt to amend Hand's argument to make it…

"Educational Knowledge: Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society, and the Educational Community," edited by Tom Popkewitz, is generally a collection of essays which emphasizes theoretical explications of the linkages between the state, society, and educationists. The author found that the book makes critically important…

Religious education in England and Germany is similar in many respects and different in others. In both countries the subject must embrace religious plurality, and in both there are questions about the role of the religious communities in their relation to religious education. In recent his book, "Religious Education in a Plural, Western…

This article explores young readers' fascination with particular authors. It begins with a brief analysis of the contents of fifth graders' letters to their favorite authors. It then juxtaposes their range of responses with the varying perspectives that teachers typically adopt when designing an author study, advocating a model of author study…

This article discusses a reading instruction applicable to widely diverse classrooms, because it weaves together dynamic strands from three approaches to teaching reading: literature circle method, reciprocal teaching, and modern literary theories. The author presents three stages to achieve reading success: (1) applying the key features of…

In this article, the author explains why he considers "Animal Dreams" by Barbara Kingsolver, "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko, and "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan as the most desirable books for students. He cites that several questions guide him in selecting these books. These questions include the following: (1) Why recommend certain texts to…

This study involved fourth grade children as co-researchers of their engaged, aesthetic reading experience. As members of the "Readers as Researchers Club," they documented their engagement with text--how they create, enter, and sustain the story world. The children, who self-identified as avid readers, explored the activities central to their…

The goal of this practicum was to increase the opportunities of secondary African American and Latino students to critically read, think, and write about literature that was diverse both in terms of culture and gender. Although the students (61 students in grade 11) had completed 2 years of high school English classes, the overwhelming majority of…

This book, intended for teachers of grades 4-8, is organized into 9 units with distinct genres or subgenres of literature. Each of the units begins with an overview for the teacher summarizing the essential characteristics of the genre, followed by pre-reading activities to help students recall and organize their previous reading, followed by a…

Pointing out that influential movements in psychology, reading instruction, and curriculum development have greatly altered the terrain formerly occupied by the "teaching of literature," this literature review outlines the different ways education researchers have examined the following questions about literature instruction: (1) What…

A response-based pedagogy encourages the exploration of multiple perspectives regarding literary works and student construction of defensible interpretations of the same, with the quality of students' critical and creative thinking being the focus of assessment. The National Center for Research on Literature Teaching and Learning's ongoing…

Intended as a guide for teachers of grades 3-6, this book presents ideas for the use of literature groups in the classroom. In chapter 1, the author talks about her own reading background and her discovery of teaching methods for literature, and presents ideas for forming literature groups. Chapter 2 offers advice on selecting and collecting good…

A study analyzed the discourse in a variety of Hong Kong newspapers to assess how an individual takes on the role of reader in relation to the rather complex public discourse of a daily newspaper, particularly in a multicultural, politically charged context. Four categories of newspaper (Hong Kong English, Hong Kong Chinese, non-Hong Kong Chinese,…

"Questioning the Author" is a particular style of classroom discussion that tries to get young students (fourth and fifth graders) to actively grapple with the ideas they read about in class. It may be distinguished from other reading strategies by the following approaches: (1) it addresses a text as the product of a fallible author; (2)…