What If?: Promising Practices For Improving Schools

Today, there is little deviation from the standard, business-as-usual practices in the world of education. What If? challenges these stale practices and asks the important questions that can improve schools beyond the current state of mediocrity. Written for administrators, supervisors, teachers, parents—even politicians and corporate executives—this book provides more than 25 specific problem-solving strategies for improving education without increasing costs. Rita Dunn and Shirley A. Griggs use more than 40 years of background in education, as well the renowned Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model, to focus on the ways in which we can truly improve schools. The model, which identifies elements within environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological, and psychological domains, reveals how individuals best understand and retain information. This basis is then applied to the What If? situations to unearth the most promising practices for school improvement. What If Students Were to Write Their Own Honor Code? What if Principals Understood Each Teacher's Learning Style? What If Parents Knew How to Help Their Children Study at Home? These are just a few of the important situations analyzed by this book. The appeal is clearly widespread and covers the concerns of nearly every essential action-oriented community stakeholder group.

Today, there is little deviation from the standard, business-as-usual practices in the world of education. What If? challenges these stale practices and asks the important questions that can improve schools beyond the current state of mediocrity. This book provides more than 25 specific problem-solving strategies for improving education without increasing costs.

Rita Dunn is the director of the Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles and coordinator for the instructional leadership doctoral program at St. John's University in New York. Dr. Dunn is the author of 26 books and more than 450 published articles, research papers, and chapters. Shirley A. Griggs is professor emeritus of counselor education at St. John's University in New York. Dr. Griggs has authored/edited 8 books and more than 170 published articles and chapters in books.