Education Reform and the Concept of Good Teaching

<p>In an effort to address the problems confronting the American education system, the Obama administration has issued structural and systematic reforms such as <i>Race to the Top</i>. These initiatives introduce new statistics and accountability systems to gauge what constitutes "good" teaching, both from an administrative standpoint and the perspective of teacher training programs. This volume offers a direct critique of this approach, concluding that it does not respond adequately to the issues of education reform but rather raises new problems and actively stymies progress.</p> <p></p> <p>The author argues that at the heart of the confusion lies a misguided and rationalistic view of teaching and learning. He draws on the philosophical strategies of Ludwig Wittgenstein to break down the guiding assumptions of <i>Race to the Top</i>, allowing both the positive and the negative aspects of the policies to be heard. The author then proposes a different view of teaching and learning which considers how to effectively address the problems <i>Race to the Top</i> seeks to confront. </p>