Youth Learning On Their Own Terms: Creative Practices and Classroom Teaching

by Leif Gustavson

Book Overview

Youth Learning On Their Own Terms convincingly shows how developing a respect and understanding of the youth-initiated creative practices that occur outside schools can offer educators the opportunity... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415954444
• ISBN13: 9780415954440
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Great philosophy, great perspective on learning, great read.

As Gustavson uncovers the lives of these 3 individuals he enables the reader to think about why and in what way students are driven to learn outside the classroom. He allows us to see how we as teachers can harness this intrinsic motivation students have for their own activities (like zine writing, turntablism, and grafitti)and shift it into our schools and classrooms. He taps into ideas by John Dewey and other teaching greats whom have emphasized the importance of experience in education and adds to it his own modern non-lofty slant. It is book that makes you think deeply about what it means to teach with your students instead of at them. Read this book!

Groundbreaking

This book is a must for teachers and scholars alike. Gustavson argues that current educational practice ignores (at best) or actively discourages how youth actually engage creative practices in their daily lives. Through in-depth ethnographic interviews with three student-artists (a graffiti artist, a 'zine writer, and a turntablist), Gustavson teases out the sophisticated habits of mind and body these youth actively engage while doing their thing. In the process, he provides the reader with useful thumbnail histories of graffiti art, 'zines, and turntablism that help the reader appreciate the deep socio-historical roots of each. More importantly, he shows that far from merely "wasting time" or "vandalizing property" these youth are engaged in real learning as they practice their respective crafts. We ignore how these youth learn "on their own terms" Gustavson argues, at our peril. A skillful weave of theory and practice, Gustavson not only diagnoses the problem with much contemporary education, but also addresses how we as scholars, educators and adminstrators might change the way we structure our curricula, classrooms and schools to transform them into places of genuine inquiry and learning. In helping us think about how to bridge the gap between learning in and outside of school, Gustavson's book is truly visionary. Check it out and change the way you think about graffiti, 'zines, turntablism and your students forever.