Fixing Instruction

Reviews / Votes

Fixing Instruction is a must read for all prospective classroom teachers and educators. It is a valuable tool to critique present instructional practices and foster the development of a core foundation for critical instruction. The concepts defined in Fixing Instruction demonstrate a new paradigm for successful instruction to better prepare educators to meet the needs of students in the 21st century. The tenets of the book must be infused into present teaching practices.
Fixing Instruction introduces a core body of knowledge for critical instruction, an area that has been largely ignored. Education programs and teacher training will benefit from the supposition to include critical thinking in the process of subject matter comprehension, the development and utilization of uniform instructional terms and the desperately needed creation of educational standards for critical thinking.
I have just concluded 55 fulfilling years as an educator. My teaching expertise spans from elementary education to graduate level. As a seasoned teacher and teacher trainer, I can say with authority that this is the finest and most comprehensive attempt to prepare the new generation of teachers with a core body of knowledge necessary to meet the challenges and educational expectations of the future. -- Louis DeLuca, EdD I was especially impressed with how Dr. Maiorana explained how doctors, engineers and lawyers are trained as opposed to teachers. He is right in saying that content should be taught last, and that learning how to explain the content should come first. I believe that his work will be extremely helpful to colleges who train teachers. It is very thorough, well planned, and logical. -- Dolores Edwards, High School and College English Teacher What excites me the most about Dr. Maiorana's book is that he recognizes the profession's unfulfilled need for a core body of knowledge for instructional preparation and practice. He not only recognizes the need, he fills it with specific, clearly presented, solutions.
Included in the core is a common language of instruction, a foundation for thinking standards (which he calls cogeracy), and an explicit and much-needed instructional strategy that achieves students' comprehension of subject matter in the context of learning to think, read, and write critically. No longer must teachers and students accept the premise that one must already be familiar with subject matter before thinking critically of it.
Teacher educators and the undergraduate and graduate students they train, principals, elementary through college faculty, administrators, and professional developers will all find much to learn and use here. The publication of Dr. Maiorana's book represents a groundbreaking event for the teaching profession and all students. -- Sandra C. Hassan, retired teacher, principal, program director, and teacher educator American education is in dire need of being fixed. Victor Maiorana makes an important contribution to education theory and practice in identifying the systemic roots of the ignoration that passes for education in our classrooms today. His anti-dote addresses the sources of the problem. These include the need for a common language of instruction, the need for thinking standards, and the lack of core preparation courses for the practice of critical instruction and learning in our nation's teacher preparation programs and classrooms. Schools, colleges, and universities need critical instruction skills and acumen to teach competently and effectively. There is no surer resource for the teaching profession than Fixing Instruction to which teacher-educators; school and college teachers, new and seasoned; and administrators can turn to improve significantly their effectiveness and promote achievement and inspire in their students a love of learning. -- Joseph A. Volker, PhD, Religion & Society; MEd Education & Behavioral Sciences; M. Div. Pastoral Administration