Engaging Troubling Students: A Constructivist Approach

Filled with rich narrative anddesigned for educatorsworking with troubling students each day, this insightful, practical guide leads you in developing helpful, trusting student-teacher relationships.

Danforth (teaching of learning, U. of Missouri-St. Louis) and Smith (special education, National-Louis U.) and contributors seek to help teachers develop nurturing, supportive, and enjoyable relationships with troubled students. They present the conceptual and historical foundations for understanding childhood misbehavior and creating a classroom community. They explain the pedagogy of their concept of "constructivism," including working together and reflective teaching. They describe helpful programs and practices such as using conflict resolution, working with families, considering inclusive education, and honoring and developing teachers. They provide many practical ways to apply their theories and a strong list of references. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Dr. Scot Danforth is well-known leader in the growing area of Disability Studies in Education, a multidisciplinary field of educational research exploring disabilities as sociopolitical constructions and construing the disabled community as an oppressed minority group. He is co-founder of the Disability Studies in Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association (http://ced.ncsu.edu/2/dse/). His research has explored the roles of professional and layperson discourses in the social and political construction of disability. Additionally, his publications have analyzed the historical and philosophical development of the field of special education. He has written a wide range of books and articles in the areas of special education teacher preparation, working with students with social and emotional difficulties, and classroom management. He is Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Division of Teaching of Learning, University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Terry Jo Smith is an Associate Professor of Special Education at National Louis-University in Chicago.  She has extensive experience teaching students labeled emotionally/behaviorally disordered in inner-city schools.  She has an abiding interest in teacher research, particularly in relationship to the social, cultural and political dimensions of schooling and how these are enacted in school relationships and curriculum.  She has worked with a group of teacher/researchers for several years, researching theimpact of constructivist pedagogy in a broad range of educational settings.  Currently, she is engaging in research at a school in a youth detention center where she is developing constructivist curriculum with teachers and students.  Smith's teaching, research and scholarship spring from a passionate commitment to social justice.