Learning to Trust: Transforming Difficult Elementary Classrooms Through Developmental Discipline (Jossey Bass Education Series) - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Marilyn Sheehan Watson has worked for more than two decades with teachers, teacher educators, and education researchers to effectively promote children's social, moral, and intellectual development. As program director of the Developmental Studies Center's award-winning school change effort, the Child Development Project, and as director of the center's national Teacher Education Project, she has been instrumental in defining education that has children's basic developmental needs at its heart. Laura Ecken has shared sixteen thoughtful years with the elementary school children of Louisville, Kentucky. She is one of the teachers we never forget.

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"Page by page, Watson's riveting documentary teaches us what it truly takes to leave no child behind."
— Chip Wood, cofounder, Northeast Foundation for Children

"With test scores predicting no human virtue one might name, surely it is past time to bring back the guiding narrative for our schools we apparently have forgotten: the education of the young for responsible citizenship and leading a good life. Not only does Marilyn Watson tell us, particularly teachers, how the necessary education might take place, she focuses on the most neglected young learners and ignored teachers of a democracy that presumably stands for equal educational opportunity and justice for all."
— John I. Goodlad, president, Institute for Educational Inquiry, Seattle, Washington

"Caring educators who have ever questioned the importance of nurturing a teacher-child relationship will find Laura's journey both insightful and moving. A must read for all educators facing the challenge of teaching children in the twenty-first century."
— Karen M. Smith, principal, Mark Twain Elementary, Brentwood, Missouri

"In Learning to Trust, Watson,s account of one inner-city teachers experiences highlights the importance of nurturing caring and trusting relationships in the classroom. Her understanding of child development and her recommendations for effectively implementing 'developmental discipline' make the book a practical and powerful tool for all educators."
— James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center and associate dean, Yale School of Medicine

Aus dem Klappentext

Most teachers today are faced with increasing pressure to teach to higher academic standards. At the same time the social climate has become especially challenging, with many children appearing more distressed and difficult than ever. Yet the focus on academic achievement has led some teachers, against their better judgment, to reduce their attention to students' social and ethical growth and to building relationships with and among their students. In Learning to Trust, an educational psychologist and a classroom teacher collaborate on an in-depth case study in an inner-city classroom, told through the teacher's own voice. Using these real-life examples, they demonstrate the power and importance of caring, trusting relationships for fostering not only children's social and ethical development but their academic growth as well.

This book applies attachment theory to the school setting, showing how this perspective can help teachers build collaborative, trusting relationships even with their most challenging students. Marilyn Sheehan Watson explains and describes the ups and downs of Laura Ecken's classroom through the lens of attachment theory, while Laura describes in vivid detail the ongoing life of her classroom, revealing throughout her challenges, thoughts, fears, failures and successes. Together they explore strategies for helping children develop the emotional skills needed to live harmonious and productive lives, the social and communication skills to be a friend and work collaboratively with classmates, the self confidence and curiosity to invest wholeheartedly in learning, and the empathy and personal and moral understanding to be caring and responsible young people.

Learning to Trust will help teachers meet the challenge to care, balance their need for authority with their students' need for autonomy, and support their students' intellectual growth without abandoning their obligation to educate for responsible citizenship and an ethical life.