A. Alexandrou, K. Field, H. Mitchell,Editors, ,The Continuing Professional Development of Educators:...

A. Alexandrou, K. Field, H. Mitchell (Eds.), The

Continuing Professional Development of Educators:

Emerging European Issues, Symposium Books,

Oxford, ISBN 1-87392-725-8, 2005 (152pp., price

£24).

For those confused by EU initiatives, Chapter 1by Magnus Persson gives a concise backgroundhistory and makes a good case for the professionaldevelopment of educators on a European basis.The chapters that follow tend to move awayfrom a European perspective to focus upon nationalissues and problems. These range from mentoringin England to teacher education in Portugal,Italy and Scotland. There are also chapters onlearning at work, the introduction of union learning

representatives in England, plus a chapter onthe health service and nursing education. Asthe concluding chapter (by the editors) remindsus, it is not an easy task pulling together all thestrands into one single coherent model. The editorspropose that professional development is aboutcreating a single model drawn from all that isgood within each competing model. Easier said thandone—perhaps this is the European challenge!A somewhat eclectic collection but definitely wortha read.

Norman LucasInstitute of Education, University of London, UK

E-mail address: n.lucas@ioe.ac.uk

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2006.06.008

Resource Materials for Multi-Grade Teaching, Quist

Dawn. Commonwealth Secretariat, London (2005).

(273pp. in all, £17.50), ISBN: 0-85092-790-0.

The term ‘multigrade teaching’ generally refers toa teaching situation where a single teacher has totake responsibility for teaching pupils across morethan one curriculum grade within a timetabledperiod, in contrast to ‘monograde teaching’ whereone teacher is responsible for a single curriculumgrade within a timetabled period. This informal(spiral-bound) publication comprising seven mod-ules (each separately numbered) has the potential tobecome a valuable resource for multigrade teachersas the majority of the multigrade teachers cope withvery little specific training and support.

The resource manual is well organised. Eachmodule is subdivided into 3–6 Units. Each moduleopens with an overview of the module, followed bythe different units, a conclusion and lastly acomment on activities for the users to refer to aftercompleting the activities suggested in a specificmodule. The activities suggested are innovative andmotivating for the user to engage in them. Thecomments given on the activities at the end of eachmodule provide the learner with the necessaryfeedback related to the activity. The user friendli-ness of the modules is enhanced with the presenta-tion of case study anecdotes, examples and samplematerial. The text is laid out well and the print isalso very clear.

The first Module is entitled ‘‘An Introduction toMultigrade Teaching’’. This module will help multi-grade teachers to gain an understanding of thefeatures of multigrade teaching and enable them torelate to their own experiences. The use of themodule will result in developing a favourableattitude towards the challenging task of multigradeteaching.

Module 2 is entitled ‘‘Effective Teaching andLearning in Multigrade Classrooms’’. This modulepresents theoretical aspects of teaching and learningwhich are common to any teaching–learning situa-tion. The simplified content would help the teacherto develop favourable beliefs about student learn-ing. However, there seem to be a few missedopportunities where possibilities of taking advan-tage of learner diversity in multigrade teaching andlearning could have been highlighted.

Module 3, ‘‘Classroom Management and Orga-nisation’’, includes useful strategies for classroommanagement. However, Unit 2 of this module,which focuses on lesson management could havebeen included either in Module 4 or 7.

Module 4 is entitled ‘‘Approaches to Teachingin Multigrade Classes’’. This module is somewhatless effectively organised than others. The three unitsincluded are Teaching and Learning in MultigradeClasses; Teaching Approaches in Multigrade Class-rooms; and Organisational Strategies for MultigradeClasses. Except for the second unit, the others couldhave been integrated into Modules 3 and 7.

ARTICLE IN PRESSBook reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 27 (2007) 114–124 115