Bücher von Anthony Weston

Elegant and audacious possibilities that push the boundaries of contemporary environmentalismDysfunctional cities, catastrophic climate change, ever-deepening distance from nature-today we see environmental disaster everywhere we look. In Mobilizing the Green Imagination , philosophical provocateur Anthony Weston urges us to move beyond ever more desperate attempts to "green" the status quo, toward entirely different and far more inviting ecological visions: Life after transportation-decentralized work, inventive infill and self-sufficient micro-communities to facilitate life in place Adaptation with attitude-cities that welcome the rising waters A Great Second Chance-moving beyond exploitation of the whole natural world A cosmic ecology-why not a green space program? These postcards from beyond the leading edge of today's green thinking are bold, audacious, extravagantly hopeful and profoundly inspiring-the perfect antidote to the despair brought on by too many "doom and gloom" scenarios. Nothing less than a complete reinvention of contemporary environmentalism, Mobilizing the Green Imagination belongs in the back pocket of anyone who dares to dream of a brighter future and a better world.

College teachers all too often still play Sage on the Stage - lecturing to rooms full of passive and supposedly absorbed students. The cutting-edge opposite is still supposed to be the Guide on the Side - facilitating wherever students themselves are already going, mentoring and coaching them along the way. But who says that these are the only - or the best - alternatives? This book advances another and sharply different model: the Impresario with a Scenario, a teacher who serves as class mobilizer, improviser, and energizer, staging dramatic, often unexpected and self-unfolding learning challenges and adventures with students.In this book, the author argues that to pose a single alternative to lecturing is profoundly limiting. In fact, he says there is no reason to have to choose between "e;student-centered"e; and "e;teacher-centered"e; pedagogies. The best ways to teach and learn are both. The same applies to the false choice between "e;active"e; students and "e;active"e; teachers - there can be more than enough activity for everyone. In particular, the author argues that we need a model in which the teacher is notably pro-active - a kind of activity for which certain theatrical metaphors seem especially appropriate.Picture a college teacher who regularly sets up classroom scenarios - challenging problems, unscripted dramas, role-plays, simulations, and the like - such that the scenario itself frames and drives most of the action and learning that follows. For teaching as staging, the primary work of the teacher is staging such scenarios. The basic goal is to put students into an urgently engaging and self-unfolding scenario, trusting them to carry it forward, while being prepared to join in as needed.This book offers a conceptual and practical framework for Teaching as Staging, grounding the approach with illustrative and sometimes provocative narrative from the literature as well as the author's own practice.Teaching as the Art of Staging offers a visionary challenge to the prevailing models of pedagogy. The book presents a thoroughly practical model that opens up new possibilities for anyone interested in dramatic new directions in teaching and learning.