U.S. Education James W. Guthrie, Paul T. Hill, Lawrence C. Pierce. (1997) Reinventing Public Education: How Contracting Can Transform America's Schools Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.

This book presents a creative approach to the current dilemma of raising public school performance levels. The author suggests that the incremental reforms and improvements attained over the past decade are not enough, and the system needs to consider a radically different structure in order to create incentive within the system to improve, rather than simply implement the latest strategy, and hope for better results. He suggests that individual school contracts, which give the school individualized control over funding and results will create incentive to change.

This book is an interesting approach to the educational competitive forces which are entering the marketplace. As a teacher, I want to maintain the cohesiveness of the public school system. But as a parent, I understand that small steps toward change, while maintaining the overall social bureaucratic structure of public school system may not allow the schools the freedom, or incentive to change for the better. This book challenges me to think about how individual control and accountability can raise performance standards and achievement levels in the overall school system. If the approach works for the school system as a whole, maybe the principles can be applied to my classroom.

Lyn D. English, Graeme S. Halford. (1995) Mathematics Education: Models and Processes New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mathematics education is no longer considered a function of memorixing facts, figures, and formulae. The current redsearch on math education takes into conderation the cognitive, and formulative process of the brain, and how these processes contribute to the successful integration of mathematic education. This book covers extensive research into cognition, cognitive development, and how the reasoning process affects mathematics education.

As a math and science teacher, understanding the physiological process which are occruing in my students brains at the time of my instruction can assist me to understand both the strengths and weaknesses of individual students. Each student will develop their own learning mechanisms, and as a teacher, if I can help students develop these mechanisms according to their individual development, I will have greater success as a teacher.

Anthony E. Kelly, Richard A. Lesh (2000) Handbook of Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Authors from Purdue and Rutgers worked on this book, which is aimed at clarifying the nature of principles that govern the effective use of emerging new research designs in mathematics and science education. The project on which this book is based involved a series of conferences in which leading researchers in mathematics and science education developed detailed specification, as well as planning for chapters. The research and theoried presented in the chapters also were field tested and revised during a series of doctoral research seminars that were sponsored by the National Center for Improving Student Learning & Achievement in Mathematics & Science at the University of Wisconsin.

This book presented a wide variety of teaching methodologies which could be used in a science classroom when performing experiments. The methodologies are creative, and based in current reseach. I found the suggested theories in this book to be stimulating. They have helped me think 'outside the educaitonal box' when it comes to designing research and experimentation in the science classroom.

Bill Atweh, John A. Malone, Jeffrey R. Northfield. (1998) Research and Supervision in Mathematics and Science Education. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

The purpose of this book is to take into account the changes in math and science education, and to formulate a new perspectrive on mathematics and science education. BEcaue researchers now have access to a much wider choice of research methodologies than they had two decades ago, these "emerging" methodologies are being increasingly used by researchers in the social sciences. There also has been a significant increase in the number of novice researchers now working in the fields of mathematics and science education, and this rapid increase in the number of postgraduate students in universities has placed considerable pressure on those institutions to hire staff qualified to supervise, and to maintain the quality of that supervision. This book evaluates the pressures of the changing research methodologies, and their effects in the classroom.

The crucial question approached by the authors and contributors to this book is 'why, or why not do people learn mathmatics. In the same light of the previous book, this book helped me understand the physiuologiacl and social issues behind mathematics education. There are social patterns, cultural patterns and other...

By understanding these as a teacher, I can become more effective in the classroom.
Michael J. Jacobson, Robert B. Kozma. (2000) Innovations in Science and Mathematics Education: Advanced Designs for Technologies of Learning. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Information technology is significantly changing the deliver methods for mathematics and science teaching. This book reviews the current IT delivery methods, and how math, science, and chemistry teaching are being altered. The social abilities of students to undersand and ingterface with information technologied can limit the teachers ability to utilize these deliver vehicles, but none the less, computer-based mathematics and science learning is seiftly becoming the most effective way to deliver this information in the classroom.

Far from touting the bells and whistles of IT in the classroom, this book addresses the fact that the mere availability of powerful, globally connected computers is not sufficient to insure that students will learn. Even in the math and science fields, areas that pose considerable conceptual difficulties such as in science and mathematics, the true challenge for myself as a teacher is not just to put advanced technologies in our schools, but to identify advanced ways to design and use these new technologies to enhance learning. This book helped me connect the dots between IT features, and turning them into benefits for my students in the classroom.

Jerry L. Ashe, Douglas K. Brumbaugh, David Rock. (1997) Teaching Secondary Mathematics. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This took takes a look at the topic of teaching high school mathamatics from introductory levels to trigonometry and calculus. The authors present both methodology and theory as they engaqge the reader to develop their own teaching style. The authors intent is to lay a foundation within the teacher to become a lifelong learner.

A enjoyed this book because of its casual style. The authors make it clear that their intent is not to suggest that they know all the answers. They strike a printed dialogue between themselves and the reader to be a silent partner as the teacher grows and transitions into a secondary teacher of mathematics. The book used a variety of approaches to stimulate your thinking, including technology, reflective-thought questions, mathematical challenges, student life-based applications, games and tricks, and group discussions.

Lyn D. English, Graeme S. Halford. (1995) Mathematics Education: Models and Processes New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This book is primarily targeted for those anyone interested in mathematics education, and approaches the subject from the resources of cognitive development and cognitive science. The purpose of this book is to identify and define techniques of mathematics education by combining a knowledge of cognitive science with mathematics curriculum theory and research. Because the understandings of human reasoning process have been changed fundamentally by cognitive science in the last two decades, cognitive science provides the most accurate account so far of the actual processes that people use in mathematics, and offers the best potential for genuine increases in efficiency.

As a teacher, having a complete understanding of the congnitive development of my students helps me understand their strengths, and weaknesses in grasping mathematics education. I found this book extremely interesting, and it will help me look at my students in a new light. Education should be fun, and interesting at the same time. This book helped me see the 'why' behind the 'what' of math education.

Odette Parry. (2000) Male Underachievement in High School Education in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Canoe Press.

Whenever an identifiable trend exists in educational progress, whether that trend is positive, or negative, the information is worth of consideration in order to ask the questions as to the applicability of the trend to our own experiences. This book considers a developmental trend among black males in the tropical islands, and their poor performance in secondary education. The authors of this study cite cultural influence which they believe are some of the underlying causes of poor levels of achievement among this population.

A found this book interesting and valuable to my educational career because it helped me see the wider perspective of cultural influences on education. This group of young men do not perform well as a groupBy investigating their cultural surroundings, the authors helped me understand the importance of cultural and peer influence on the abilities and desires of children to learn.

Arkady Plotnitsky, Barbara Herrnstein Smith. (1997) Mathematics, Science and Postclassical Theory. North Carolina: Duke University Press.

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