New Priorities for Teacher Training and School Curriculum

This book had its origins in 1948 when I realized just how profoundly unprepared I was to teach the underachieving students for whom I was responsible. I knew I was only going through the motions. Consequently I developed an interest in pedagogy* and particularly in testing the effectiveness of its precepts in the classroom. My Putting Minds to Work Brown (1972) was an attempt to describe the components of a pedagogy that would help teachers be better prepared. Its underlying theme was the need for greater teacher sophistication in communication. However a comment by Resnik (1987) on the hiatus in pedagogy between motivation and cognition led me to realize the potential of communication to bridge that gap. More recently I realized that the New Taxonomy of Marzano and Kendall (2007) enabled me to resolve a problem I had with the Bloom (1956) definition of intellectual ability that appeared so incompatible with current understanding of information processing. <br><br>Explication of the interrelationships of communication motivation and cognition uncovered principles and practices of special significance for the teaching of students who are on the path of underachievement. I realized the insights gained from that perspective had general application i.e. to all students.