Creating Thinking Classrooms: Leading Educational Change for This Century

My work with Garfield Gini-Newman and Roland Case spans almost two decades.  As a principal and community superintendent, I observed firsthand how transformational their work is in the classroom, in the school community, and on a systemic level.  Creating Thinking Classrooms takes theory and research and places it directly into the hands of practitioners by offering thoughtful and immediately-useful strategies.  Not only does this work transform student engagement and achievement, but it also transforms thinking for both teachers and their students.  Teaching and learning go from passive acquisition of information to active, purposeful, and deliberate interaction with the curriculum.  It is a must-read!

What impresses me most about Creating Thinking Classrooms is the notion of framing the retooling of schools as renovation or reinvigoration rather than as revolution. Too many seem to ignore that there are many good things worth preserving in our schools and others that need to be reframed or recast to give them greater currency.  This book builds on what has worked and makes it better. The message – being purposeful and patiently focused on long-term success – is a powerful one that needs to be heard above the din.

Creating Thinking Classrooms is an outstanding resource for educational leaders.  The plethora of charts and examples illustrate in practical detail how some concepts can show up or be implemented.  Very practical, very user-friendly.

Creating Thinking Classrooms is a must-read for all instructional leaders wanting to use a new lens on sustained school improvement. This book helps educators establish a thinking orientation, provides enriching goals, and lays out invigorating practices. Too often there is a focus to abandon practices rather than strengthen them in educational reform.  However, Roland Case and Garfield-Gini Newman challenge such thinking by suggesting a renovation mindset.  Through such a mindset, a renewal takes place in classrooms that is transformational, actionable, and meaningful.

Creating Thinking Classrooms offered our faculty practical and powerful ways to nurture creative, critical, and collaborative thinking throughout our school. Our teachers found the ideas clear, concise, and relevant. The book offers ways to “make little tweaks to the good things we are already doing” that will “enhance learning substantially.” Our application of the book’s student-centered approach and clear criteria has had a significant impact on our school.