Char Booth

This book made my head hurt.

Booth displays a remarkable grasp of education theory - the sheer volume of research and detail here is impressive and well-presented. I wouldn't mind sitting in on one of her instruction sessions, as I suspect she'd be lively, engaging, and entertaining. But unfortunately, the simple, cookbook-style presentation her introduction promises disappears into a forest of theory and historical perspective, a multitude of acronyms, dense text and copious footnoting.

I am so not kidding about the headache!… (mer)

Char Booth's "Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning" looks to be another great resource for trainer-teacher-learners well beyond its primary target audience of library staff members. The book is an engaging, concise, and welcome guide to creating engaging learning experiences for learners of all ages; includes brief surveys of key instructional design techniques and learning styles; and introduces Booth's own variation on the familiar ADDIE--Analysis, Development Design, Implementation, and Evaluation--model through her four-step USER--Understand, Structure, Engage, and Reflect--model that, through its name, continually reminds us who we are working to reach through formal and informal learning opportunities. Booth's approach never loses sight of the fact that we are well served both by having formal learning models from which we can draw and also by remembering that not every learning opportunity requires that we engage in every step of an instructional design assessment, development, delivery, and evaluation process. "More than anything, it should remind you to teach simply, reflectively, and with the learner at the center," she reminds us (p. 94). The overall message she delivers is that "reflective and design-minded teaching leads to effective, learner-centered instruction. Librarians are redefining our value in a changing information paradigm, and it is essential that we perceive the role of education in this process" (p. 151)--a goal that any teacher-trainer-learner is likely to embrace.… (mer)