Schools Reimagined: Unifying the Science of Learning With the Art of Teaching

by Jacqueline Grennon Brooks, Martin G. Brooks, Michael Fullan (Foreword)

The pause in the traditional structure of schooling due to COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity for openness on many different levels: openness to the science of learning, openness to schoolwork centered around big ideas and authentic problems, openness to responsible assessment practices, and openness to a renewed ethic of social justice. In this book the authors make the case that now is a timely moment to reimagine schools and put the intellectual and social-emotional health of students and teachers at the center of the educational process. They offer practical classroom examples across disciplines and grade levels based on constructivist pedagogy, neuroscience research, psychological theory, and design thinking, as well as on their own experiences in observing and advancing instructional practice that fosters human development. Schools Reimagined will help administrators and teachers to structure their settings in ways that maximize the likelihood of meaningful and enduring student learning.

Book Features:

An approach for placing the well-being of students, teachers, and community at the center of schools. An accessible explanation of the sophisticated cognitive processes in which all people engage. Strategies and innovations that focus educators on student learning and the student agency that promotes it. Research-based approaches to schooling with specific examples of what they look like in action. Rolling summaries of the main points of each chapter throughout the text.

192 pages, Paperback

Published February 12, 2021

About the author

Jacqueline Grennon Brooks is Professor Emerita in the Department of Teaching, Literacy and Leadership at Hofstra University. She is a co-founder of the Long Island Explorium, a children’s museum of science and engineering in Port Jefferson, NY. She served as the founding director of the Biotechnology Teaching Lab and the Discover Lab at Stony Brook University and directed its Science Teacher Preparation Program. At Hofstra University, she directed the Institute for the Development of Education in the Advanced Sciences, the Science Education Program, and STEM Studio, a clinical practice site for new teachers.

Grennon Brooks has been recognized by the American Educational Research Journal for Outstanding Service in Publications, by Hofstra University with the Distinguished Teacher of the Year award, by Girls, Inc with its Strong Smart Bold Award, by the National Science Teachers Association for creation of Discover Lab, and by United University Professions with its Nuala McGann Drescher Award.

Grennon Brooks earned a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is an international consultant and author of books, articles and chapters on constructivist pedagogy and design-based STEAM education.