Product Description
This Fourth Edition of TAKING SIDES: SPECIAL EDUCATION presents current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. An online instructor’s manual with testing material is available for each volume. USING TAKING SIDES IN THE CLASSROOM is also an excellent instructor resource with practical s… More >>
There’s a fundamental flaw with this book. Issues are fashioned as false dichotomies. Then two articles, at times written by journalists or even political think tanks, are included to illustrate the two sides.
Why is this a problem? Many teachers I’ve met never critically examine their profession, it’s larger social/political function, and how they may inadvertently serve to further agendas masked as curriculum. Polarizing serious issues and then choosing articles full of logical fallacies, misrepresentations, and gross generalities only contributes to simplification of complex topics.
The counter argument is this- since teachers may not have exposure to these topics, it’s best to introduce them in this manner. Yet I fail to see how any neophyte in any discipline benefits from such simplistic division into “sides”.
A very very frustrating read. I give it 3 stars because I recognize it has value for some students, there are some good articles, and it’s inexpensive.
I hope professors considering this book will instead poll their class on day one, find out the issues they’re facing and interested in, then use their formidable access to journals and periodicals to find articles that are more up-to-date, relevant, and sophisticated than what Ms. Byrnes has compiled for us.
It’s time to raise the bar on special education. This begins with a critical, thoughtful examination of the practice of teaching and it’s larger social function. This book does a fair to poor job at that.
Rating: 3 / 5
The book is uniquely organized around specific “issues” in special education, which act as the chapters. The author writes a brief introduction and post-script on each issue, and oppossing sides of the topic are relayed with reprints of published articles written by various educational researchers, public, private, and governments organizations. Designed to engage educators in thinking about both sides of the issue, the author poses questions, and refrains from appearing committed to either side, which leaves many topics up for debate and allows readers to form their own opinions based on the evidence presented.
Great for educators and administrators or anyone interested in educational law, public policy and recent legislation. I highly recommend it!
Rating: 5 / 5
This book had some great opinions, but I could not use it a lot for my class because I had to have more research based information. It did have some interesting comments and topics.
Rating: 4 / 5
This was an interesting book with many good debates. My only problem is that both sides conclusions were usually middle ground and never really coincided with their original stance YES or NO.
Rating: 3 / 5