As the best-selling introductory education text, Those Who Can, Teach, 11/e, maintains its current, dynamic, and reader-friendly approach to help students make informed decisions about entering teacher education programs. Using multiple sources, including biographies, narratives, profiles, and interviews with top educators and scholars, the text promotes student interaction and exposes students to the realities of teaching. This acclaimed author team's direct, conversational tone invites students to reflect on the problems and satisfactions of teaching in the United States, casting a career in teaching as a positive challenge.

As the best-selling introductory education text, Those Who Can, Teach, 11/e, maintains its current, dynamic, and reader-friendly approach to help students make informed decisions about entering teacher education programs. Using multiple sources, including biographies, narratives, profiles, and interviews with top educators and scholars, the text promotes student interaction and exposes students to the realities of teaching. This acclaimed author team's direct, conversational tone invites students to reflect on the problems and satisfactions of teaching in the United States, casting a career in teaching as a positive challenge.

Note: Each chapter concludes with A Final Word. I. Schools and Students 1. Why Teach? Examining Your Motives for Teaching The Rewards of Teaching Sources of Useful Experience Case Studies in the Motivation to Teach 2. What Is a School and What Is It For? Education and Schooling Schools as Cultures Schools as Transmitters or Re-Creators of Culture Four Basic Purposes of School What Do Studies Reveal About the Nature of Schools What Is a Good School? The Unfinished Work of the Schools 3. Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society? Sources of Student Diversity Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Diversity English Language Learners Diverse Abilities Diverse Needs Gender Sexual Orientation The Teacher's Response to Diversity 4. What Social Problems Affect Today's Students? Recognizing Risk Factors New American Family Patterns Poverty Teenage Parenting Abused and Neglected Children Alcohol and Drug Abuse Adolescent Suicide School Violence and Vandalism School Dropout Rates 5. What Is Taught? What Is the Curriculum? What Is the Present Curriculum? Assessing Student Academic Performance Additional Influences on Curriculum Is the Existing Curriculum Relevant to Today's Society? II. Teachers 6. What Makes a Teacher Effective? Framework for Professional Practice The Teacher as a Reflective Decision Maker Aspects of Reflective Decision Making What Attitudes Does the Effective Teacher Posses? What Subject-Matter Knowledge Does the Effective Teacher Need? What Theoretical Knowledge Does the Effective Teacher Need? Personal Practical Knowledge What Teaching Skills are Required of an Effective Teacher? 7. What Should Teachers Know About Technology and Its Impact on Schools? A Brief Look at Education's Technological Past How Are Schools Being Pressured to Change? How Are Technologies Affecting Student Learning How Are Technologies Affecting Teaching? How Are Computer Technologies Organized for Student Use? What Are the Key Issues in Educational Technology? 8. What Are the Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Teachers? The Ethics of Teaching The Teacher and the Law Lifestyle and the Teacher Law, Religion, and the School Students and the Law III. Foundations and the Future 9. What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education? What Is Philosophy? The Terrain of Philosophy Schools of Educational Philosophy The Influence of Psychological Theories Your Philosophy of Education 10. What Is the History of American Education? Themes in American Education Elementary Education Secondary Education Private Education Education of Minorities 11. How Are Schools Governed, Influenced, and Financed? Who Legally Governs Public Education? Who Influences American Public Education? How Are Schools Financed? 12. How Should Education Be Reformed? What Ought to Be the Elements of Educational Reform? Current Reform Initiatives The Current State of School Reform IV. The Teaching Profession 13. What Are Your Job Options in Education? Will There Be Job Openings in Education? How Do You Obtain a Teaching Position? How Do You Become Licensed? If You Don't Teach, What Then? 14. What Can the New Teacher Expect? The School Milieu: The Shock of the Familiar Administrators: Mixed Bag and Many Hats Peers: A Mixed Blessing Instruction: So Much to Learn Students: Friends or Fiends? Parents: Natural Allies with Different Agendas Surviving the First Year of Teaching 15. What Does It Mean to Be a Professional? The Status of Teaching: A Profession or Not? Professional Associations Your Own Professional Development 16. Why Teach? A Final Word Opinions About Teaching Why Teachers Teach