Changing Attitudes and Behavior

Practice Makes Permanent

By (author) John Jensen

Publication date:

20 July 2012

Length of book:

176 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781610488037

Changing Attitudes and Behavior: Practice Makes Permanent, the second of the Practice Makes Permanent series, argues that school performance is directly correlated to student motivation. If school administrators and teachers adopt Jensen’s easy, direct, and effective ways to help students manage their feelings and focus their attention, the results will be two-fold: schools will foster a cooperative and high-performing learning community, and students will succeed academically while also mastering important social skills.

To do so, both schools and students must make permanent learning their first priority—rather than temporary, superficial knowledge—so that students can take pride in- and ownership of their achievements in the classroom. Maintaining this standard will require educators to build learning activities systematically: they must understand, record, organize, and deepen knowledge. It will also require that they know simple and direct ways to change and improve the thinking that drives students’ behavior, in addition to the points of leverage available to teachers when redirecting even the most distracted or distracting students. Although identifying and modifying behavior patterns can be difficult, Jensen provides tried methods that will address student motivation, unify class instruction, and get teachers and students back on track for their long-term, permanent learning goals.

For more information about the author's work, please check out his educational blog here: http://johnjensen.edublogs.org/

Preface
Chapter 1. Pursue Continuous Conscious Mastery - A goal that unifies methods
Chapter 2. Sequence Learning Activities Optimally – Arrange a reliable learning system
Chapter 3. Arrange for Good feelings - Why bring balance to students’ feelings
Chapter 4. Practice Good Feelings - Methods for generating good feelings
Chapter 5. Practice with the Imagination - Drawing most benefit from imagination
Chapter 6. Practice Sustaining Attention - Hold students’ attention steadily
Chapter 7. Draw on Social Roots - Students cue each other’s learning
Chapter 8. Alter Thinking To Gain Order - Change behavior by changing thinking
Chapter 9. Turn Around a Dysfunctional Class - Bring multiple influences to bear
Chapter 10. Hone Your Viewpoint - Key zones for teacher intent
Chapter 11. Know What You Are Doing - Grasp the difficulties of change
Chapter 12. Hold Out for the Plus Element - Even good education is not enough
References

In this three-book series, John Jensen provides educators with strategies for helping students to 'master learning with great pleasure.' This goal is a truly worthy one since students’ experiencing mastery and pleasure is the exception in America’s schools and school systems. Jensen’s philosophy for transforming children’s educational experiences is powerful and his aim to help teachers help their students to achieve remarkable learning outcomes provides readers with a compelling view of what teaching and learning can be.