Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education »

David Perkins, Ph.D., is a senior professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and senior co-director (with Howard Gardner) of Project Zero, an educational research group known particularly for its work on learning for understanding, thinking, and multiple intelligences. Perkins is a noted international speaker and author of several books, including Smart Schools and The Eureka Effect.

Making Learning Whole

"One summer I participated in Little League baseball . . . Baseball for me was a triumph of mediocrity. I wasn't especially good at it but I wasn't awful either . . . In the years since those days I've come to an odd conclusion about those early learning experiences: The results were only so-so but the process was pretty good . . . It was pretty good because from the beginning I built up a feel for the whole game. I knew what hitting the ball or missing the ball got you. I knew about scoring runs and keeping score. I knew what I had to do to do well, even though I only pulled it off part of the time. I saw how it fit together."

—from the IntroductionIn Making Learning Whole, David Perkins—a noted authority on teaching and learning and senior co-director of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education—introduces a new, practical, and research-based framework for teaching. Using learning the game of baseball as a metaphor, Perkins illustrates how teaching any subject at any grade level can be made more effective if students are introduced to the "whole game," rather than isolated pieces of a discipline.

Filled with real-world examples, Making Learning Whole describes how learning can be organized for deep and lasting impact by using these seven principles:

• Play the Whole Game
• Make the Game Worth Playing
• Work on the Hard Parts
• Play Out of Town
• Uncover the Hidden Game
• Learn from the Team
• Learn the Game of Learning

At the end of each chapter, Perkins includes "Wonders of Learning," a summary of the key ideas and "I wonder . . ." questions, which can be answered in real contexts of teaching and learning.

Introduction A Whole New Ball Game 1

1 Play the Whole Game 25

2 Make the Game Worth Playing 53

3 Work on the Hard Parts 79

4 Play Out of Town 109

5 Uncover the Hidden Game 133

6 Learn from the Team 169

7 Learn the Game of Learning 193

Afterword: The Future of Learning 213

Notes 227

Index 243