在社会生活信息化和经济运行全球化的世界格局中，一国教育的发展更能受到他国教育的影响，并在接受新理念引进新技术中寻求与世界教育的对接，推动人类文明的共同进步。美国教育在长期贯彻实用主义指导思想之后，痛感执行这一教育观所导致的数代人的道德沦丧，于是锐意改革，提出了强调“人性”、“个性”、“人的自我实现”和“完整的人”等概念的人本主义教育观。世纪之交的美国政府对教育改革尤为重视，相继出台的《美国2000年教育战略》、《教育技术行动》、《教育行动纲领》以及《高等教育修正案》等就是很好的例子。基于这一认识，译者在世纪之交的美国《教育文摘》中遴选了有关教师素质、教学技能、教学管理和教学拓展四个方面的各10篇文稿编译成书，试图以此40篇论文的论点及其论述来反映当代美国教育执行人本主义教育思想的基本情况。40篇文摘有如沧海一粟，但译者认为仍然可起“窥一斑而知全豹”之功效。正在从事或将要从事教育工作的读者可从中获取异国教育风情并以此与自己已有的教育、教学或管理经历片段相比较，从中受益。

本书40篇文稿选自美国《教育文摘》，内容涉及教师素质、教学技能、教学管理和学生管理。这些文章均出自美国教育专家或一线教师之手，选题针对性强，观点新颖独到，论述充分翔实，既是理性探索的成果，又是宝贵经验的总结，对我国师范专业学生的教师素质培养与在岗教师解决问题的实用能力提高具有重要的参考价值。

本书分为“教师素质”、“教学技能”、“教学管理”和“教学拓展”4个部分，各部分均由10篇文稿组成。文中涉及的背景知识、专业术语、常用短语和习惯用语等采用脚注加以说明。

本书阅读对象为：师范院校各专业学生、在职中小学教师和教学管理工作者。本书尤其适合英语专业在校师范生和在职中小学英语教师阅读。

Part Ⅰ：Teacher Quality

 Now More than Ever, Show Kids Your Care！

 Now More than Ever, Help Kids Build Character

 "My Morale Has Fallen, and It Can't Get Up!"

 Will New Teachers Be Prepared to Teach in a Digital Age?

 What Teachers Think of Teacher Education

 Teach with Gusto!

 Why Teachers Leave

 An Advisor's Advice on Student Activities

 SCAMPER for Student Creativity

 A Lesson to Enhance Student Self-Esteem

Part Ⅱ：Teaching Skills

 Teaching to All Learning Styles

 De-densify Information Overload

 Creativity Reigns (Not Reined) in the Regular Classroom

 Lightening the Load for the Pressured Child

 "Humor" Your Students !

 Active Learning Promotes Reading Skills

 Cooperative Learning: Abused and Overused7

 Higher Quality Questioning

 Seven Steps to Teach Critical Thinking

 Three Basics for Better Student Output

Part Ⅲ: School Management

 A Caring Alternative to Suspension

 In Good Discipline, One Size Doesn't Fit All

 Three Cheers for School Spirit

 Public and Private School Differences Go Deeper than Dollars

 School Rule-Making and Citizenship Education

 Should "Good Work" Mean More Work?

 School Size Counts

 Working Magic on the School Image

 Building a Better Physical-Education Program

 Anti-Dropout Interventions

Part Ⅳ: School Extension

 Battling Busywork Helps De-hassle Homework

 Targeted Homework Motivates Kids

 Making Homework Work

 Doing Our Homework on Homework

 Use Test Results as Tools to Improve Teaching

 Design Your Tests to Teach, Not Just Test

 Securing High-Stakes Tests from Cheating

 Do's and Don'ts of Parent-Teacher Conferences

 Involving Parents Lets Students and Teachers Win

 Better Parent-Teacher Conferences