This book contrasts authentic approaches to education with classroom practices based primarily
on standards external to the individuals who are supposed to learn. While other books tend to
promote either a desperate scramble for meeting standards or determined resistance to
neoliberal reforms this book fills that gap in ways that will inspire practitioners
prospective teachers and teacher educators. Mandates pay only lip service to constructivist
and social constructivist principles while thwarting the value of both students and teachers
actively creating understandings. Authors in this book assert the central importance of a range
of constructivist approaches to teaching learning and thinking inviting careful reflection
on the goals and values of education.
