Craftsmanship in Teaching

Bagley, William C. (William Chandler), 1874-1946Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 358K words
Chapters: 36

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Craftsmanship in Teaching by William C. BagleyAuthor: Bagley, William C. (William Chandler), 1874-1946,Language: English, Class: LB: Education: Theory and practice of education, Release Date: Nov 2, 2005

Editor's review

This book is Bagley's classic discussion of teaching as a "craft." Bagley, an American education scholar, compares teaching to the artisan's craft, stressing that teaching requires finely honed training, transferable standards of skill, and continuous self-refinement rather than mere talent or enthusiasm. This perspective remains instructive for reflecting on teachers' professional growth today: it turns attention from abstract theory back to concrete methods, habits, and skill development in the classroom. The book is written in English, in the argumentative style of early twentieth-century educational writing, with examples drawn mostly from schools of the time; readers need to understand it in historical context. It suits supplementary reading in history of education and teacher-education courses, and leisurely reading by classroom teachers interested in pedagogy, from which they can extract transferable principles without being bound to specific practices.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of history of education and teacher education, for understanding early twentieth-century American views of teaching
Classroom teachers who wish to reflect on their own classroom skills from a craft perspective
General readers interested in classic texts on education who can read English originals

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting ready-to-use modern lesson plans and operational templates
Readers who struggle with English and want a Chinese translation
Readers who only want to skim educational slogans without following the arguments

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and the opening of each chapter first to grasp the core argument that teaching is a craft, then read chapter by chapter.
Jot down passages that resonate with current classroom situations and write a short review afterward.
Read alongside other books on teachers' professional growth to compare the concerns of different eras.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is an English original, a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, in English. If English is difficult, use a dictionary or Chinese materials on the history of education to understand the background before deciding whether to read it through.

How should the idea that teaching is a craft be understood?

The author uses the artisan's craft as a metaphor to stress that teaching requires long training, clear standards, and repeated refinement, not just personal talent or momentary enthusiasm. It can be understood as a perspective that values the development of teachers' professional skills.

Are the examples in the book still applicable today?

The school situations belong to early twentieth-century America, and specific practices may not suit today. But the discussion of skill training, habit formation, and professional standards has value across eras; extract principles rather than copying details.

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About the author

Bagley, William C. (William Chandler), 1874-1946 Author · American · 1874–1946

William C. Bagley (1874–1946) was an American educator. Publicly available information about his life is limited, yet his educational thought and textbook writing have had a certain influence in the history of American education. He advocated social efficiency and pragmatic education, stressing that education should serve social needs and should emphasize the cultivation of practical abilities. This position gave his writings a distinct practical concern and reflected the widespread emphasis on efficiency and utility in early twentieth-century American education. The library holds one of his works, Craftsmanship in Teaching. Judging from its title and subject matter, the book centers on the craft of teaching and discusses how teachers should approach their work in a rigorous and practical manner, embodying the author's consistent pragmatic orientation. His writing style is plain and concrete, emphasizing the combination of experience and method, and offers some reference value for educational practitioners of his time and later.