Productive Learning.

Productive Learning by Stanislaw D. Glazek and Seymour B. Sarason, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2007, 262 pp., $3595 softcover 

Productive Learning is like an afternoon meeting with classmates at the student union over a few beers.

The authors, Stanislaw D. Glazek and Seymour B. Sarason speak to the need for educational reform and acknowledge the past failures of so many reform efforts. They rattle a list of fads and fashions, including new curricula, open classrooms, site-based management, charters and vouchers--each of which they say has failed to bring about fundamental change for the better.

Just as splitting the atom changed the world of science, the authors believe education needs a similar event to release a burst of reform. This unique approach to discussing education reform comes from Glazek, a physics professor.

In contrast, Sarason, a social scientist who has written widely about education and policy matters for much of his life, says he cringes when he hears of scientific theories and mathematical models. These two professors set out to become teacher and student to model and demonstrate teaching and learning practices that bring about productive learning.

The discussion of Einstein's thinking through story rather than mathematical formulas gives the learner successful insights into an area most often seen as obscure and reserved for the few mathematics and science majors. Though a science major will certainly appreciate the teaching of the relationship between mass and energy, the writing is such that the greatest beneficiaries are those who have struggled with this subject.

This book reveals the power and possibility of learning.

Reviewed by Joseph W. Rudnicki, superintendent, Sunnyvale, Calif.