Motivating Humans
Motivating Humans by Martin E. Ford. Newbury Park, Calif.: SAGE Publications, 1992.
Anyone interested in the subject of motivation will find Motivating Humans one of the most detailed accounts on the subject. The extent to which behavior can be energized and directed is easily at the very core of teaching and learning. Motivating Humans contains a wealth of information—from theory to application—to help educators increase school learning and achievement.
Twenty-five pages of bibliography alone in this book attest to its thoroughness. A chapter of theories of motivation can only be regarded as definitive—some 31 theories of motivation are described and arranged in a table format. In addition, the author provides his very own Motivational Systems Theory, which integrates three fields of concern: (1) how people get “turned on” or “turned off,” (2) where people are heading (personal goals), and (3) how people decide to try something, stick with it, or give it up.
Ford regards facilitation, not control, as the guiding idea for motivating people; an idea that fits nicely with the growing role of teacher as facilitator. Wisely, he offers no ready formula for facilitating motivation, for “there are no magic motivational buttons that can be pushed to `make' people want to learn, work hard, and act in a responsible manner.” But Ford does offer a comprehensive glimpse into the mechanism of motivation for those who are trying to find their own paths toward inspiring it.
This book reveals the full range of the important aspects and critical elements of motivation. It deserves the highest praise and the widest reading for its treatment of such a complex subject in such an accessible and thorough a manner. Motivating Humans should serve long as the standard source and reference on motivation.
Available from SAGE Publications, 2455 Teller Road, Newbury Park, CA 91320, for $21.95.
—Reviewed by Edwin Kulaweic, University of Southern Maine, Gorham.
The Schools We Have, The Schools We Want
The Schools We Have, The Schools We Want by James Nehring. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International Publishing Company, 1992.
According to this high school teacher from New York who is “on the front lines, ” the schools we have are outdated, underachieving, and virtually impossible to change.
In The Schools We Have, The Schools We Want, Nehring takes the reader along on a two-year “school improvement” journey of fictitious Amesley High School. The failure of the school's improvement process is revealed through the story of a teacher who works very hard to implement some changes that he and his closest colleagues believe will improve the learning lives of their students.
As the story opens, a steering committee decides to change the kind of toilet paper used in the restrooms. The book ends with the installation of the new kind of toilet paper. In between, the saga of a change process that really changed nothing unfolds.
How, then, do we get the schools we want? A voucher system, concludes Nehring, in which the state collects and redistributes school revenue to the parents of learners in the form of a uniformly valued education voucher. Nehring believes that the marketplace will empower good teachers, reward good schools and punish poor ones, ultimately leading to the best schools for learners.
This is a fresh look at the world of school reform from inside the trenches—it's a book educators will want to read.
Available from Maxwell Macmillan International Publishing Company, 866 Third Ave., New York, NY 10022, for $22.95.
—Reviewed by Richard Benedict, Shelby Township, Michigan.
Myths of Educational Choice
Myths of Educational Choice by Judith Pearson. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993.
A veteran Minnesota educator, Judith Pearson urges Americans to put the brakes on the rapid drive toward freedom of choice in schools so that they can examine the idea and its tremendous consequences more closely. Her book serves as a wake-up call and warning that choice itself may be a “cop out,” an avoidance of the larger problems of education.
Pearson reminds us that the current condemnation of schools is largely based on results of flawed tests that are out-of-date. This, coupled with international comparisons that compare 80 percent of American students with 20 percent of students elsewhere, causes Pearson to question the broad-brush bashing of public schools. The crisis, she suggests, is not nationwide.
The author furnishes evidence to show that choice is made for reasons other than academic excellence. She relates the ironies of choice, where the choices of some limit the choices of others. She warns of applying business principles to education and urges us not to forget the abuses of competition there. And she cites the frustration of those who oppose the American-as-apple-pie choice; alas, they are branded as “professionals” or bureaucrats.
Pearson's book should be read by those educational outsiders who champion choice: politicians, businesspeople, think-tankers, members of the media. For insiders, the book offers some reassurance and much hope.
Available from Greenwood Publishing Group, 88 Post Road West, Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881, for $37.95.
—Reviewed by Henry Zabierek.
The Incompetent Teacher
The Incompetent Teacher: Managerial Responses by Edwin M. Bridges. Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, 1992.
Any research topic has an “invisible college,” a small group of men and women who devote their lives to the global postulates and questions of the problem. Ed Bridges would surely be the dean of the invisible college centered on evaluating, improving, or removing incompetent teachers. His current book is the result of years of study and reflection of what to do about teachers who cannot or will not meet the standards of professional performance.
Bridges and his associates at Stanford conducted three research studies to determine how California districts identify and respond to incompetent teachers. Their findings were reported in the first edition of the book (1986). Since that time, Bridges has heard from school administrators from across the United States and from other nations and has concluded the problems and responses are universal.
In revising the original edition, Bridges kept the chapters on tolerance and protection of the poor performer, salvage attempts, induced exits, managing the poor performer and education at the crossroads. He added two new chapters; one is a discourse on how his own thinking about the problem of teacher quality has changed since the initial publication. The second added chapter deals with what Bridges describes as a relatively rare response of administrators to the problem of incompetence—dismissal.
The Incompetent Teacher is easy to read. The harsh statistics of the problem's magnitude are explained and illustrated through case studies and scenarios. Bridges is a good storyteller. His conclusions are not easy to take, however! Identification of incompetent teachers is generally complaint-driven. Incompetence is only rarely defined in state statutes. Tenure and competence need to be redefined. The centrality of the problem is ownership: “It's not my problem,” is the usual response of superintendents, principals, teachers, and unions.
The book is a must-read for all of these groups. Bridges notes the irony of due process protection, which sends the incompetents to the poor schools, where no one will complain. Whatever happened to the Fourteenth Amendment provisions for equal protection and educational opportunities for students from disadvantaged backgrounds?
Available from Taylor & Francis, 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007–1598, for $19.95.
—Reviewed by Richard Manatt, Iowa State University, Ames.
