R&L Education
Pages: 136
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-8108-4601-2 • Paperback • December 2002 • $46.00 • (£35.00)
Ronald J. Newell spent 27 years as a high school history teacher and coach, 4 years in teacher preparation programs at the university level, helped begin the Minnesota New Country School, and now works with the Gates-EdVisions Project replicating the project-based model.
Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Acknowledgments
Chapter 4 Chapter One: What is Project-Based Learning?
Chapter 5 Chapter Two: What Is Learning?
Chapter 6 Chapter Three: What Shall We Assess and How Shall We Assess It?
Chapter 7 Chapter Four: What Is the Role of the Teacher?
Chapter 8 Chapter Five: What Should the School Look Like?
Chapter 9 Chapter Six: How Does the Project Process Work?
Chapter 10 Chapter Seven: What Do Projects Look Like and How Do They Affect the Learners?
Chapter 11 Chapter Eight: Can You Overcome the Obstacles?
Chapter 12 Appendix A: 2001-2002 Project Proposal Form
Chapter 13 Appendix B: Performance Rubric for Minnesota New Country School
Chapter 14 Appendix C: Project Check List
Chapter 15 Appendix D: Presentation & Exhibition Evaluation Form for Minnesota New Country School
Chapter 16 References and Suggested Readings
Chapter 17 About the Author
[This book] has great strengths, especially the detailed profile of students and projects.
— Irving Buchen, Education and Business Management Consultant and faculty member at Capella University
At a time when education is too frequently defined in traditional, outmoded ways, this book describes an excitingly different model of schooling. And it's written by one of the people who made this unusual design a successful reality. Those concerned about the relentless pressures to overstandardize public schools will find in this book a refreshingly different approach. It's not just theory; it's really happening. Passion for Learning tells how you can make it happen in your community.
— Ron Brandt, senior research associate for the National Study of School Evaluation
I enjoyed it greatly. It was straightforward and vivid with examples. Should be a great help for all who believe schools can be so much more powerful for students.
— Carl Glickman, Institute for Schools, Education, and Democracy, Inc.
Minnesota New Country is one of the most important schools in the country: it demonstrates what can happen when students take ownership for their own learning and when teachers take ownership for the learning environment; it demonstrates that small rural schools can thrive and help all students succeed.
— Tom Vander Ark, CEO, Getting Smart; former executive director, Education, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; author, "Smart Cities That Work for Everyone"
Passion for Learning is an excellent blend of analysis of project-based learning and concrete examples of how to create the conditions for students' passionate learning.
— Walter Enloe, coauthor of Project Circles and Learning Circles and former lead teacher and principal of the Paideia School and Hiroshima International School