The Lingo of Learning: 88 Education Terms Every Science Teacher Should Know
Posted on: Friday, 3 September 2004, 06:00 CDT
The Lingo of Learning: 88 Education Terms Every Science Teacher Should Know. Alan Colburn,. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. 2003. 109 pp. $19.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0-87355-228-8.
The author aimed this book at teachers, including practicing science teachers and those in training, both of whom need a readily available guide to the education concepts described. These concepts appear regularly in scholarly journals, reports, popular press, and books, often without much of an explanation of their meaning. The author is a university science educator, someone who employs these terms on a regular basis. He has succeeded in reaching his objective with this concise, well-written book, filling a genuine need.
This book is not a dictionary; rather, it is more like an encyclopedia, with concise discussions of 88 important topics. These topics are grouped into 11 chapters, with titles designed to make it easy to find a specific topic. The chapters include: educational outcomes, instructional approaches, instructional models, teaching techniques, assessment, diversity, learning theories, research concepts, teacher education, documents (standards), and finally, the nature of science.
Each chapter includes a list of useful references. For many of the references, the author has annotated exactly how the referenced material might be of interest and value to the reader. There is a detailed subject index and a list of those who provided a review of the book's contents. Each chapter covers 6-11 topics, with each topic taking one page or less. The book includes only three diagrams, one on the concept map and two on the Vee map-both useful ways for students to organize their thoughts before writing a paper. The author has a good sense of humor, which makes the reading much more interesting. For example, he discusses the "alphabet soup" of curricula-the many different curricula developed for K-12 schools known by acronyms. These include the Elementary School Study (ESS), the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), and many others.
This book is a product of the National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA) Press, which has published a number of good resources for science teachers. This resource is handy to have at the fingertips to help overcome barriers of educational jargon as they are encountered.
Donald F. Logsdon Jr., Ph.D
Online Facilitator, University of Phoenix,
Sacramento, California
Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Summer 2004
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