Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues

by Glenn L. Koonce

The Taking Sides Collection on McGraw-Hill Create® includes current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. This Collection contains a multitude of current and classic issues to enhance and customize your course. You can browse the entire Taking Sides Collection on Create or you can search by topic, author, or keywords. Each Taking Sides issue is thoughtfully framed with Learning Outcomes , an Issue Summary , an Introduction , and an " Exploring the Issue " section featuring Critical Thinking and Reflection, Is There Common Ground?, Additional Resources, and Internet References . Go to the Taking Sides Collection on McGraw-Hill Create® at www.mcgrawhillcreate.com/takingsides and click on "Explore this Collection" to browse the entire Collection. Select individual Taking Sides issues to enhance your course, or access and select the entire Taking Clashing Views on Educational Issues, 20/e book here at for an easy, pre-built teaching resource. Visit for more information on other McGraw-Hill titles and special collections.

Genres: Teaching, Read For School, Education, School, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2014

Reviews

[Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Taking Sides” is a detailed response to controversial educational issues. The book is organized by questions and below is a response based off of his research. The author shows two sides to every story, the, ‘ yes,’ answer and the, ‘no.’ For example, the first issue he discusses is, “Should Schooling Be Based on Social Experiences?“ Although I cannot focus on each individual topic he mentions, a few examples of topics he touched on more are: “Should Behaviorism Shape Educational Practices?”, “Should Multiculturalism Permeate the Curriculum?”, and, “Should Tracking and Ability Grouping Be Eliminating?”. The first question I mentioned pertains to the psychological and environment of schools: whether it is better to be strict and prison-like or nurturing with a lot of freedom. There are a lot of different perspectives on this and it is difficult to draw a conclusion right away because of the ethos of people on both sides of this issue. The second question that he spends more time addressing (“Should Multiculturalism Permeate the Curriculum?”) begs the question if multiculturalism belongs in schools and if it should be a part of how students learn (should there be more focus on cultural understanding in every class?). The third question he focuses more attention on has to do with how students are placed, depending on their, “abilities” or lack thereof. On one hand, people are in a class with other people who are learning at the same pace. However, this draws more attention to people who struggle and puts people on the lower track at a disadvantage because less resources and opportunities are given to these students. It is also a blow to self-confidence.

The author’s point throughout this entire book is to provide factual evidence on both sides of controversial questions, not just his opinion, to educate the reader issues in American schools. The issue I was most interested in was, “Should the Curriculum Be Standardized at All?” I was interested to see both sides of this issue because I strongly believe a curriculum should not be standardized at all. I understand more why it is now, but still disagree with everything standardized.

This book is good for anyone looking for information on a specific issue and for my own purposes, this was an informative source. However, unless you are really interested in fixing these issues it is difficult to just sit down and read this entire book. Overall, I was satisfied with this book. I would warn anyone else interested in reading that the author does have a wide vocabulary and it sometimes difficult to understand what he is saying immediately. Adjusting to his wording does not take a lot of time though. I would recommend this book to teachers, school board members, and anyone with will and means to make a change in the current educational system.

[Tiara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This textbook was required for an American government class and I had to read most of its articles. Each chapter of this textbook has yes/no questions on a certain topic, and within each chapter, there is a source stating a case for the "yes" side of the question, and another source stating the case for the "no" side of the question. There is also an introduction to each topic with necessary background information and brief summaries for each side of the argument.

For the most part, it wasn't too bad and it gives the reader a broad view of the topic at hand. A lot of the time, the sources chosen provided adequate evidence and reasoning to prove their side of the argument. However, some of the articles chosen didn't seem to answer the question at hand very directly, while others were difficult to comprehend or extremely outdated.

As mentioned earlier, there is only one source provided for each side of the argument, and many times, the sources chosen were fairly narrow and didn't give the greatest overview. Added onto the fact that this book simply states a "yes" or "no" answer to a question, I think it misses lots of key points, making it seem like there are only two distinct sides to an argument which is definitely not true with the big topics discussed in this book.

While the formatting obviously comes with some flaws, I personally thought it worked well, especially when using it for schoolwork. It was definitely easy to use because of how clear and distinct each section was.

[Rlees S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is meant for educators and is full of information on issues they would be interested in.

On the plus side, the introductory and concluding parts to each issue (written by Koonce) were good summaries of the arguments on each side of the issue.

On the minus side, I could not understand some of the article choices that represented the "yes" and "no" side to the issue. To me, many of them were on the same side of the issue. For example, maybe both authors thought collaborative learning would be good thing, but one of them wrote his article to point out difficulties in implementing it. This is not to me a true "no."

It was interesting to see all of this material gathered in one place, but I would have liked to have clearer distinctions in viewpoint in the contrasting articles.

[Britanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most interesting textbook to use, but still had some great viewpoints.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting format discussing today's educational challenges, everything from the Common Core to extended time in school. I thought it was objectively written allowing you, the reader, the opportunity to do further research and make educated decisions based on data and fact.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenged current educational issues. I enjoyed how the book was set up, and the articles that were chosen in support for each issue. It definitely accomplished what it was set to do.