In this new book from the author of e-Learning on a Shoestring and Better than Bullet Points, Jane Bozarth has gathered a wealth of tools from leading... training practitioners. Anyone—from the interested manager to the experienced training professional—can depend on this book when designing or delivering training. This single book contains all the valuable tools of the trade: worksheets for assessing training needs and writing goals and objectives; checklists for organizing the venue; and tools for analysis and structuring content. This remarkable resource also includes instant evaluation and measurement surveys, which can be customized freely from the companion CD-Rom. In addition, Bozarth includes a wealth of invaluable advice for trainers at all levels on how to make effective use of props, staying energized, marketing training programs, and other things they don't tell you in train-the-trainer courses.

Distinguished historian and policy analyst Maris Vinovskis examines federal K-12 education policies, beginning with the publication of A Nation at Risk... and focusing on the National Education Goals, America 2000, Goals 2000, and No Child Left Behind. In addition to discussing key policy debates, he also addresses the practical aspects of implementing and evaluating school and classroom reforms. Drawing on the author's unique experiences working in the Department of Education during both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, this important book:* Examines the changing social, economic, and family contexts of education and schooling.* Assesses the strengths and weaknesses of national education goals, standards-based reforms, and the role of accountability.* Evaluates key policies such as increased federal spending, comprehensive White House education packages, and research-based education strategies.* Critiques NCLB and recommends more realistic expectations and policies for the successful education of all children.

Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Left Behind series are but the latest manifestations of American teenagers' longstanding fascination... with the supernatural and the paranormal. In this groundbreaking book, Lynn Schofield Clark explores the implications of this fascination for contemporary religious and spiritual practices. Relying on stories gleaned from more than 250 in-depth interviews with teens and their families, Clark seeks to discover what today's teens really believe and why. She finds that as adherence to formal religious bodies declines, interest in alternative spiritualities as well as belief in "superstition" grow accordingly. Ironically, she argues, fundamentalist Christian alarmism about the forces of evil has also fed belief in a wider array of supernatural entities. Resisting the claim that the media "brainwash" teens, Clark argues that today's popular stories of demons, hell, and the afterlife actually have their roots in the U.S.'s religious heritage. She considers why some young people are nervous about supernatural stories in the media, while others comfortably and often unselfconsciously blur the boundaries between those stories of the realm beyond that belong to traditional religion and those offered by the entertainment media. At a time of increased religious pluralism and declining participation in formal religious institutions, Clark says, we must completely reexamine what young people mean--and what they may believe--when they identify themselves as "spiritual" or "religious." Offering provocative insights into how the entertainment media shape contemporary religious ideas and practices, From Angels to Aliens paints a surprising--and perhaps alarming--portrait of the spiritual state of America's youth.

From an Ontological Point of View is a highly original and accessible exploration of fundamental questions about what there is. John Heil discusses such... issues as whether the world includes levels of reality; the nature of objects and properties; the demands of realism; what makes things true; qualities, powers, and the relation these bear to one another. He advances an account of the fundamental constituents of the world around us, and applies this account to problems that have plagued recent work in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics (color, intentionality, and the nature of consciousness).

This work introduces, through story and essay, a disciplined descriptive process for understanding children's strengths as particular learners and... thinkers. The descriptive review is a method of collaborative inquiry that draws on the detailed knowledge teachers and parents have of children.

Martin and his friends are helping their parents turn an old Brazilian coffee plantation into an inn. The children have a fun time helping to renovate... the old place and they sleep in a shed that is being converted into a guest room. But one night they hear the sound of a young girl crying. Gradually, the ghost of a slave girl from the late 1800s named Rosario appears to them. Rosario tells them the story of her life and in doing so reveals the danger and instability that existed in Brazil after slavery ended. Martin promises Rosario to record her story in the form of a book. Though the experience of slavery seems remote to Martin and his friends, by the time they've heard Rosario's story, the evil of slavery is made painfully clear.Ana Maria Machado’s deft storytelling skills and social conscience come together in this powerfully moving book that explores the history and impact of slavery.

"From Apocalypse to Way of Life" is the most stirring, comprehensive account of the environmental crisis since Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." In vivid... prose, Frederick Buell illustrates the growing complexity of our ecological catastrophe as well as the suffocating political and cultural forces that blunt our response to it.In some quarters, the prophecies of doom have produced a Chicken Little syndrome: If the sky has not yet fallen, why should we believe it will? Buell counters with the hard facts about contemporary threats to human health--deforestation freshwater depletion, ocean pollution, biodiversity loss, synthetic hormones--while tracing the expressions of environmental apocalypse in popular culture.With passion and eloquence, From Apocalypse to Way of Life shows us the crisis that is staring us in the face, and explains why we can no longer see it.

As OPEC approaches its 50th anniversary, the paperback edition of Nathan J. Citino's well-received study advances a challenging, revisionist... interpretation of U.S.-Saudi relations and OPEC's historical significance. Citino re-examines the relationship between President Eisenhower and King Sa'Å«d in the context of the transition from British imperial hegemony to an American capitalist order in the Middle East. He shows how the political realignment that resulted in OPEC ensured that wealth and power subsequently remained in the hands of oil-producing governments. Using American and British archives, corporate records, and Arabic sources, this work reinterprets the foundations of U.S. Middle East policy, the modern Saudi state, and the global politics of oil.

Through a detailed examination of a renowned Arab mystical poet, Th. Emil Homerin provides one of the first case studies to illustrate an obscure aspect... of popular Islamic faith--the sanctification of saints and the creation of shrines in medieval times. Despite the fact that Muslims have venerated saints for more than a thousand years, Islam has never developed a formal means of canonization, and the process of sanctification remains an important but largely neglected dimension of Islamic scholarship. In "From Arab Poet to Muslim Saint", Homerin explores this uncharted territory by following the fortunes of a single Sufi saint over seven and a half centuries. Regarded as a saint within a generation of his death, 'Umar Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235) is still venerated at his shrine in Cairo. Contemporary religious singers and writers, including Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, continue to cite the poet's verse. Using biographies, hagiographies, polemics, legal rulings, histories, and novels, Homerin traces the course of Ibn al-Farid's saintly reputation. He relates the rise and fall of Ibn al-Farid's popularity to Egypt's changing religious, cultural, and political environment.

Murray Edelman holds a unique and distinguished position in American political science. For decades one of the few serious scholars to question dominant... rational-choice interpretations of politics, Edelman looked instead to the powerful influence of signs, spectacles, and symbols—of culture—on political behavior and political institutions. His first, now classic, book, The Symbolic Uses of Politics, created paths of inquiry in political science, communication studies, and sociology that are still being explored today.In this book, Edelman continues his quest to understand the influence of perception on the political process by turning to the role of art. He argues that political ideas, language, and actions cannot help but be based upon the images and narratives we take from literature, paintings, film, television, and other genres. Edelman believes art provides us with models, scenarios, narratives, and images we draw upon in order to make sense of political events, and he explores the different ways art can shape political perceptions and actions to both promote and inhibit diversity and democracy."Elegantly written. . . . He brilliantly contends that art helps create the images from which opinion-molders and citizens construct the social realities of politics."—Choice"It is perhaps the freshness with which he puts his case that is what makes From Art to Politics, as well as his other works, so challenging and invigorating."—Philip Abbott, Review of Politics

This is the first book to show how the Norse myths have resonated from era to era: from Viking-age stories of ice and fire to the epic poetry of... Beowulf; and from Wagner's Ring to Marvel Comics' Mighty Thor. Heather O'Donoghue considers the wider contexts of Norse mythology, including its origins, medieval expression and reception in post-medieval societies right up to the present. From Asgard to Valhalla is a book that will intrigue and delight anyone with an interest in how the Norse myths have so profoundly shaped the western cultural heritage.

College students in the United States are becoming increasingly incapable of differentiating between proven facts delivered by scientific inquiry and... the speculations of pseudoscience. In an effort to help stem this disturbing trend, From Atoms to Galaxies: A Conceptual Physics Approach to Scientific Awareness teaches heightened scientific acuity as it educates students about the physical world and gives them answers to questions large and small. Written by Sadri Hassani, the author of several mathematical physics textbooks, this work covers the essentials of modern physics, in a way that is as thorough as it is compelling and accessible. Some of you might want to know …. . . How did Galileo come to think about the first law of motion?. . . Did Newton actually discover gravity by way of an apple and an accident?Or maybe you have mulled over…. . . Is it possible for Santa Claus to deliver all his toys? . . . Is it possible to prove that Elvis does not visit Graceland every midnight?Or perhaps you’ve even wondered …. . . If ancient Taoism really parallels modern physics? . . . If psychoanalysis can actually be called a science? . . . How it is that some philosophies of science may imply that a 650-year-old woman can give birth to a child? No Advanced Mathematics RequiredA primary textbook for undergraduate students not majoring in physics, From Atoms to Galaxies examines physical laws and their consequences from a conceptual perspective that requires no advanced mathematics. It explains quantum physics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, gauge theory, quantum field theory, quarks and leptons, and cosmology. Encouraging students to subscribe to proven causation rather than dramatic speculation, the book: Defines the often obscured difference between science and technology, discussing how this confusion taints both common culture and academic rigor Explores the various philosophies of science, demonstrating how errors in our understanding of scientific principles can adversely impact scientific awareness Exposes how pseudoscience and New Age mysticism advance unproven conjectures as dangerous alternatives to proven science Based on courses taught by the author for over 15 years, this textbook has been developed to raise the scientific awareness of the untrained reader who lacks a technical or mathematical background. To accomplish this, the book lays the foundation of the laws that govern our universe in a nontechnical way, emphasizing topics that excite the mind, namely those taken from modern physics, and exposing the abuses made of them by the New Age gurus and other mystagogues. It outlines the methods developed by physicists for the scientific investigation of nature, and contrasts them with those developed by the outsiders who claim to be the owners of scientific methodology. Each chapter includes essays, which use the material developed in that chapter to debunk misconceptions, clarify the nature of science, and explore the history of physics as it relates to the development of ideas. Noting the damage incurred by confusing science and technology, the book strives to help the reader to emphatically demarcate the two, while clearly demonstrating that science is the only element capable of advancing technology.

The reigns of the Julio-Claudian emperors were characterized by murder and debauchery. This book presents a narrative of these reigns, ranging from... Augustus to Nero, with passages in original Latin from Tacitus, Suetonius and Seneca. The text accordingly exposes Augustus' adulterous affairs; the depraved Tiberius; the extravagance and madness of Caligula; the ineffective Claudius; and Nero's artistic pretensions. Featuring a comprehensive introduction, detailed notes and an appreciation of each writer, the volume is essential reading for students who have completed an introductory Latin course.