"More than other professionals, teachers must learn through on-the-job experience, using both their successes and failures as road maps for future actions and decisions. Every day, the modern teacher must resolve countless conflicts and contradictions, both inside and outside the classroom. As the complexity of our school systems increases, teachers find it more and more difficult to make informed, problem-solving decisions that will increase their effectiveness as educators and help their students concentrate on learning." "In Teacher as Decision Maker, authors Dale L. Brubaker and Lawrence H. Simon first explain how schools function as social systems. Then they present a series of case studies and exercises drawn from the day-to-day experience of teachers dealing with students, parents, administrators, and other teachers." "To capture the real world of schools, the authors use two different kinds of cases for study.^

The first is a philosophical one and requires teachers to acknowledge their own personal orientation toward teaching. After presenting each philosophical case situation, the authors describe two responses at different ends of a continuum --^

from extreme essentialist to extreme progressive. Teachers then decide which response is closest to their orientation and whether they are responding consistently in all cases." "In the second type of scenario, which is called "technical," teachers must select the best of several possible responses. The authors provide an analysis of each of the choices, identify the best response for a given situation, and tell why the others are not appropriate." "These well-documented examples will help educators at all levels hone their people skills and gain a clearer understanding of the many important variables that are so crucial to making effective decisions." "Teacher as Decision Maker is not a jargon-filled manual that spoon-feeds the reader prepackaged "right answers" to dry, theoretical problems. It is a lively, stimulating guide, filled with real-life situations and creative solutions to the scores of decision-making dilemmas a teacher faces each day. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.