Foreword
As educators, our role is not to make things easier for our students. Instead, we must learn to guide, monitor, culturally reinforce and adjust our interventions to align with the incessantly shifting winds experienced in learning. We must deepen our resilience while providing comfort and instilling the strength of will. When asked questions about learning, the late, great Susan Sontag borrowed from an Italian philosopher to say: “We should be driven less by the pessimism of the intellect, more by the optimism of the will.”
The scope of the material in this NUA Strategies: A Comprehensive Guide handbook is wide, ranging from highly specific to broad approaches to learning and teaching, from strategies that promote group interaction to those that are primarily content-centered. Overall, the effort calls attention to the vital role teachers play in student achievement.
As we know, teacher quality is the single most important in-school factor related to student achievement. In using the strategies and practices summarized here, students can transfer what they learn to a variety of learning circumstances. Doing so, they establish a “growth mindset” that enables them to push toward deliberative excellence. This volume reminds educators of how to achieve that while meeting the needs of diverse learners.
Eric J. Cooper
President and Founder, NUA