Teaching as a Performing Art

by Seymour B. Sarason

Book Overview

In his most recent work and with his usual perceptiveness, Seymour Sarason probes the topic of teaching as a performing art. Refreshingly, Dr. Sarason focuses on the often-overlooked role of teachers in galvanizing an audience--their students. Sarason argues that teachers will better engage learners if they are prepared in the artistry of doing so. Sarason sees teachers as actors and thus uses the traditions of stage performance to inspire ways...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807738905
• ISBN13: 9780807738900
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Tour de Force by a Uniquely Accomplished Observer

This remarkable book explains that teachers need to be just as accomplished performers as are successful artists - actors, orchestra conductors, dancers, or singers. It discusses how this need could be dealt with in teacher preparation programs. It will be heartwarming for teachers who already know this; it will be an eyeopener for anyone who believes that teachers require only knowledge of the subject to be taught. I believe that the problems of teacher quality will not be resolved until the observations in this book are widely understood and acted upon. Moreover, this book is very timely. The issue of teacher preparation and teacher quality has now become central to education reform nationally, thanks to pressures from teachers themselves, from their unions, from the existence of the National Board on Professional Teaching Standards, and from a growing political focus on teacher quality. Another eyeopener is "The Teaching Gap" by James Stigler and Jmaes Hiebert, which explains how and why teaching is different in Japan from what it is here. (The differences are partly due to a visit to Japan by John Dewey early in this century.)