Engaged Learning

"No other book on teaching has excited me as much as this one. It should be the core text for prospective teachers in any field."
—Jonathan Potter, English and Drama Teacher
Camden Hills Regional High School, Rockport, ME

"VanDeWeghe presents powerful instructional practices to help students use both their hearts and their minds in learning."
—Louann Reid, Professor
Colorado State University

Spark genuine enthusiasm in your classroom by engaging students' hearts and minds!

To generate truly compelling learning experiences and increase retention of new information, educators need the knowledge and tools to engage students from both a neurological and humanistic perspective.

Richard VanDeWeghe provides an inside look at what happens in students' minds and hearts when they are engaged and "in the groove." Based on Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's idea of "flow"—a state of intrinsic control, curiosity, interest, and inquiry that is the ultimate experiential goal for learning—this book provides holistic strategies for encouraging students to become motivated, engaged learners. Teachers will find:

1. Information on brain function and memory pathways
2. Spiritual and emotional principles of the heart that influence learning
3. Strategies for guiding open-ended discussions, quality questioning, and teacher modeling
4. Immediate, practical applications for language arts, science, math, and social studies
5. Vignettes illustrating effective teacher dialogue and classroom involvement

Engaged Learning is a clear, concise, and elegant resource that helps teachers understand what it means to be a highly motivated learner.

About The Author:
Richard VanDeWeghe is an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado Denver. He has taught middle school and high school, he has been a faculty member at two universities, and he is a field director for the National Writing Project. He has directed two sites of the National Writing Project; supervised preservice teachers in the Initial Professional Teacher Education program at the University of Colorado Denver; and worked with practicing teachers in numerous schools and districts on reading, writing, and thinking across the curriculum.

VanDeWeghe has been awarded Teacher of the Year at the University of Colorado Denver, where he was also named a President's Teaching Scholar. He was selected as Outstanding Educational Leader (1992) by the Colorado Language Arts Society, and he was a recipient of the 2006 National Network for Educational Renewal, Richard W. Clark Partner School Award.

His research interests concern theoretical and empirical issues that inform instructional practice—engaged learning; reading, writing, and thinking across the curriculum; teacher education; teacher professional development through inquiry; and the intersection of brain research and humanistic education. He has published articles in such resources as Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, English Education, English Journal, and the Journal of Teaching Writing. He was writer and column editor for the "Research Matters" column for English Journal for six years. He has presented workshops and papers for the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Writing Project, College Composition and Communication, Modern Language Association, and the Australian Reading Association.

VanDeWeghe has a bachelor’s degree in English and speech education from Western Michigan University, a master of arts degree in English from Michigan State University, and a doctorate in English with a specialty in the teaching of writing from Michigan State University.