From Library Journal:
Perkins, best known for his work in cognitive development ( The Mind's Best Work , LJ 11/1/81. o.p.), does not believe that inner-city poverty and social problems constitute the essence of the challenge to schools. Children are poorly educated and lack motivation because they are not intellectually stimulated. Learning is a consequence of thinking, Perkins reiterates. Illiteracy is not the problem, inertia is. Instead of knowledge-centered schools, he recommends "smart schools," where students learn to think, integrate the knowledge they acquire, and use it. The author combines contemporary psychological advances with the ideas of progressive educators, especially John Dewey. He also joins their current counterparts Mortimer Adler and Theodore Sizer in their call for a humanistic approach to education. Smart Schools reflects all the best of past thinking in education with new insights into the psychology of learning and intellectual development. Recommended for most education collections.
- Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., Jamaica, New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly:
A curriculum based on vague notions of cultural literacy won't work for the same reasons that rote learning doesn't--because people accumulate knowledge through understanding, argues Harvard cognitive learning theoretician Perkins, who here plumbs the essences of learning, understanding and knowledge. Summoning recent pedagogical research, he addresses teachers, setting forth fresh goals and showing how to help students apply new knowledge beyond the classroom. Thinking leads to knowledge, as do effort and the right mental images, Perkins stresses. He offers the novel idea (to which many may object) that teachers need larger and fewer classes so they will have more time to build their own knowledge base. And teachers shouldn't have to cover every fact in a textbook, either, he adds. Instead, he contends that they should expend more effort helping students learn their "metacurriculum," which is how they learn. This is an enjoyable read, peppered with interesting examples.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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