Books by Brights
Fifty Nifty Ways to Help Your Child Become a Better Learner
Author: Philip E. Johnson, Ph.D.
To Purchase: LearningToLearn.org, or send a check for $18.95 plus $2.00 postage and handling to Dr. Philip E. Johnson, 1755 E. Deer Hollow Loop, Tucson, AZ 85737
If the Brights movement is to continue and prosper, we must find ways to help young people become Brights. Traditional transfer education, “I-know-you-don’t-and-I’m-going-to-tell-you”, does precious little to help kids to become independent thinkers, creative, self-learners; their own teachers. But a naturalistic world view, the realm of the Bright, can not be established in a child by indoctrination. We must walk the talk.
I have written a simple 130 page handbook, designed for parents of school age children, to help kids learn the skills of learning and independent creative thought rather than merely learn the school curriculum.
Topics go from the simple technique of asking your third grader, when she comes home from school, not only “What did you learn in school today?”, but follow it with “That’s interesting! How did you learn that?”, to more exotic skills like being able to evaluate controlled research, and the use of systems thinking.
Some of the topics are: Get the focus on learning as a process; the “how” of learning / Emotions in learning • Figure it out! / Learning to learn and computers / Be a discriminating learner / Learning other than in school / Grades and report cards / Asking good questions / Research methods / Study skills / Listening / Help your child to be an independent thinker / Mathematics and Science as learning to learn / Formation of values / Learn to learn and gender / Competition and cooperation
About the Author
Philip E. (Ed) Johnson has been a teacher for many years - from graduate programs to the elementary school level. He has been an elementary school principal, and holds an M.Ed. degree, and a Ph.D. in education. Ed has been Director of Faculty Development at the college level, and has written extensively on the concept of Learning to Learn and process education. He is the father for four children, and lives in Tucson, Arizona.