Critical Issues in Education: Dialogues and Dialectics

by Jack L. Nelson, Stuart B. Palonsky, Mary Rose McCarthy

There is a great need for critical thinking in schools, and by teachers. Current educational reform efforts emphasize student testing on basic information and rote memorization. What is lost is education that involves critical thinking, creativity, and consideration of alternatives. The essential framework for this book is the stimulation of critical thinking―to include dialogue and dialectic approaches.


Critical Issues in Education includes opposing sides of the issues presented and illustrates, through competing essays on each topic, how critical thinking, dialogue, and dialectic approaches improve understanding and the evaluation of available evidence and reasoning.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

444 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 1999

Reviews

[Jenna]

Discussing any controversial topic can be difficult. I appreciate the thoroughness the author and editors brought to compiling these topics and the opinions on each side of the arguments. It has been very helpful as I continue to work toward my Master's degree.

[Andrea]

A pretty good overview.
If you've taught, have conversations and arguments in your head with the text.

[Nguyen Le]

The book was good. It discusses lots of contemporary issues in education from many perspectives. I do like this approach of discussion because I can see mainly two sides of a problem, and how issues emerged and created debates among teachers, scholars, or educators. Lots of controversies are described in the book and it was very eye-opening such as teaching religion, sex education, standardized tests, inclusion or separation of special need children etc.

That said, the fact that all the problems are written in only two positions make it dichotomous which do not truly reflect reality. There are more perspectives towards an issue, and giving them two can be very perplexing.

Also, the price of the book is very expensive, which is not worth it. A collection of educational issues can be found everywhere on the web, and that this book only covers American issues, and did not take a global perspective, let alone other regional stances on the same issues. It’s worth reading once, but it’s not worth the price.

[Talycat45]

3.5 rating but I'll round to 4 stars:)

I read this book for my Schooling in America course, and overall I liked the layout. The beginning was slower to read, but as I got into the second part about the debates on certain school issues, I liked the layout and felt it didn't say too much or too little. However, some of the chapters felt outdated and could be updated to reflect more present opinions about certain issues such as the gender equality chapter. Overall the textbook gave me lots of great information on issues I didn't know as much about, and I also liked the first part on critical thinking even if it was difficult to read at first.

[Jordan Fernandez]

I read this book for graduate school and rated it according to other educational texts.

I really enjoyed the style of this book. I was impressed by the authors' abilities to use dialectic reasoning so seamlessly. It was truly impossible to tell which side of each argument they personally favored.

Some of the educational issues were more interesting than others. At times, the arguments also felt a bit repetitive.

This is the most "highbrow" text I have encountered since I was an undergraduate, and it was nice to feel intellectually challenged again through this reading!

[David Burns]

Critical Issues in Education: Dialogues and Dialectics ** Read in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia (November 2022)

[Steve Whitney]

Good but dated, needs a new edition.

[ToeToe]

Read for a class, was very informative.

[theelizzz]

Goes over several issues in education. What is great about this book is it goes over both sides of each issue, allowing one to form their own opinions on each dilemma.

[Annie]

co-written by my dear friend and mentor stuart palonsky. stu passed me this book as i was leaving college, and it has shaped the way i approach the debate around public education.

[Stephanie]

I enjoyed this book, for the first part.