Customer Reviews

Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a public school teacher and teacher trainer I feel strongly that the best reform schools can make is involving teachers and administrators in professional conversations as colleagues about teaching and learning. This book is a very good "how to do it" manual.

I needed this book for a college class. The price of the book was very reasonable and I was quite pleasantly surprised that the book was actually interesting. This is one book that I plan to keep and not sell back to the school. I think the book will be a good resource even after I've finished my degree work.

In the movie Inherit the Wind, the story of Golden Dancer is related to the audience. Golden Dancer was a beautiful and expensive wooden rocking horse that a family bought for its child after saving for it. The first time the child rode the horse, it collapsed as the wood was rotten to the core; so, is the DuFour premise as found on page 37. His conclusion that all students can achieve at the same level (learn specified topics) is asinine. He argues that all that is needed for struggling students is more time and support. He refuses to take into account intelligence and student effort (responsibility) in his equation. If his premise has any chance of coming true, teachers will have to dumb down what they teach to the lowest common denominator. Additionally, he and his colleagues lump all "traditional schools" into the same problem heap. His approach is simplistic and insulting. I would give this book zero stars, but that is not an option.