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Posted on October 24, 2014 by Books That Inspire — 1 Comment

Critical Aesthetic Pedagogy: Toward a Theory of Self and Social Empowerment (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies)

This book has received the AESA (American Educational Studies Association) Critics Choice Award 2012.
This book introduces a progressive type of education called Critical Aesthetic Pedagogy. This pedagogy utilizes the arts to promote critical learning, and incorporates particular types of aesthetic experiences into pedagogical practices to increase students’ social empowerment and commitment to social justice. The first coherent body of work that marries critical pedagogy and aesthetics, the book guides theory and practice for teacher educators interested in infusing their critical pedagogical practices with the arts. It also proposes tangible reforms in the public school system that will enable a critical aesthetic process to take root and thrive.
Critical Aesthetic Pedagogy can be used in upper-level undergraduate and graduate teacher education and art education courses. It can also help P-12 teachers and art organizations to successfully develop and carry out critical aesthetic practices at all levels. In addition, it provides a rationale for school administrators, community leaders, and educational policymakers for embracing critical aesthetic practices as a way to improve the education of all children.

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Books That Inspire — 3 Comments

Building Confidence: Get Motivated, Overcome Social Fear, Be Assertive, and Empower Your Life For Success

SKYROCKET CONFIDENCE: Learn the Evidence-Based Skills of Building Your Confidence

Want to feel completely at ease with yourself and your capacity for success in work and life? Right now, you might know exactly what you want for your life, the goals you want to achieve, the people you want to meet, the skills you want to learn. You have the intelligence and know-how to improve your life. But there’s one thing missing — confidence. Without confidence in yourself and your abilities, you remain stuck in fear and self-doubt, even as you long for change. But there is a solution. You don’t have a life sentence of low confidence. You CAN learn the proven skills of confidence and upgrade your entire life!

Determine + Deconstruct + Develop = A Confident New You

The first step toward confidence is to determine exactly where you’re missing it and the beliefs and behaviors holding you back. Next you need to deconstruct old ways of thinking and patterns that keep you bound to the status quo and prevent you from taking confident action. Finally, you need to develop new mindsets and skills to practice regularly in order to rebuild your confidence muscle and help you develop into the self-assured, pro-active, confident person you want to be. As you practice new thoughts and behaviors, you’re actually creating new neural pathways in your brain, supporting your real-world efforts.

Buff It Up: How Confidence Can Change Your Life

Whether you’re lacking confidence in general, or simply need support in a particular area, the techniques taught in Building Confidence can improve your entire life. Confidence is such an important factor that it’s been proven to increase one’s yearly salary by thousands of dollars, improve your relationships, and supercharge your career trajectory. By committing to a confidence buff up, you’re taking control of your destiny and positioning yourself for personal and professional success. Most of the limitations that keep us from confidence are illusions and limiting beliefs. Once you learn to shatter those illusions and break through limiting beliefs, you’ll be empower to accomplish anything you set your mind to.

ORDER: Building Confidence: Get Motivated, Overcome Social Fear, Be Assertive, and Empower Your Life For Success

Building Confidence is your blueprint for a better you. It’s your formula for change so you have the boldness to go for it — whatever it happens to be for you! Every chapter concludes with specific action steps you can implement and practice right away to facilitate change. You’ll learn: ** The Hidden Reasons You’ve Been Blocked from Confidence ** The “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” that Traps You ** The “Addiction” Making It Impossible to Trust Yourself ** How to Define Your “POS” to Regain Control of Your Life ** How to Have Social Poise and Speak with Ease ** How to Set Yourself Up for Financial Success ** Why Your Relationships Might Be Suffering and How to Fix Them for Good **

Want to Know More?

Order and begin building your confidence starting today. Scroll to the top of the page and select the “buy” button.

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Books That Inspire — 3 Comments

Empowered Women of Social Media: 44 Women found their “Voices” using the Power of Social Networking (Volume 1)

Compiled by Carla Wynn Hall, author of The Paradigm: Success Codes for Life and the founder of the Women’s Empowerment Network, a Facebook Support group with over “25,000” members – Empowered Women of Social Media: 44 Women found their Voices using the Power of Social Networking is a book about women who were able to write their story and have their voice be heard. Read the stories of women who have survived breast cancer, were born with Cerebral Palsy and conquered misconceptions to become published authors, brave women who escaped domestic violence as well as educational material from experts in the fields of social media and marketing. When you read this book think about how social media has impacted your life. Our life coaches give you tips from their programs and our health coaches show you how to incorporate holistic and healthy habits into your life. Each author has a vibrant story, a unique style and a message hidden within. Social Media is a unique form of communication. Some women said that they were a little skeptical about Facebook until they found support. Compiler Carla Wynn Hall says “Facebook saved her life” during a time of emotional turbulence. VIP Angel Sponsor Elizabeth Hassan writes from Australia about how Facebook and the Internet in general has helped her friend Sarah who has “Liver Cancer” to find support groups to help her heal. The stories go on and on and each one is worthy of your attention. You can learn more about each author and endorser at our website EmpoweredWomenofSocialMedia.com We proudly support the Breast Cancer Foundation and Break the Silence against Domestic Violence and our women who have written their story so their voice can be heard. Women women write, the whole world is a better place to be.

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Books That Inspire — 3 Comments

Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare: Critical Thinking Perspectives

Karen K. Kirst-Ashman’s introductory book enhances the reader’s ability to grasp the essence and spirit of generalist social work and the issues in social welfare that social workers address every day. Giving those contemplating a career in social work a solid introduction to the profession, Kirst-Ashman presents a balanced introductory look within a unifying theme of critical thinking that trains readers to be more evaluative of key concepts. The topics covered include practice concepts, social welfare policy concepts, history and current state of the profession, the contexts of practice and populations served, and professional development.

Product Features

Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter are organized alphabetically and reinforced clearly throughout the text and in the test materials available in the instructor’s resources. This change represents a new emphasis on student learning outcomes and demonstration of core competencies as strongly recommended by CSWE.
Themes integrated throughout the text include the pursuit of social and economic justice for populations at risk; client empowerment; dimensions of human diversity; the significance of professional values and ethics; a generalist approach interrelating micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice; and the inclusion of various global and international perspectives.
Kirst-Ashman includes such CSWE-mandated areas as diversity, empowerment, social justice, and ethics, thus ensuring that students are well prepared to enter the world of social work.
By encouraging students to identify values and evaluate serious issues, Kirst-Ashman helps them develop critical-thinking perspectives on important topics.
Features such as the “Focus on Critical Thinking” boxes highlight engaging topics that will draw students into the discussion at hand.

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Books That Inspire — 2 Comments

Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior (Perspectives in Social Psychology)

Early in this century, most empirically oriented psychologists believed that all motivation was based in the physiology of a set of non-nervous- system tissue needs. The theories of that era reflected this belief and used it in an attempt to explain an increasing number of phenomena. It was not until the 1950s that it became irrefutably clear that much of human motivation is based not in these drives, but rather in a set of innate psychological needs. Their physiological basis is less understood; and as concepts, these needs lend themselves more easily to psycho- logical than to physiological theorizing. The convergence of evidence from a variety of scholarly efforts suggests that there are three such needs: self-determination, competence, and interpersonal relatedness. This book is primarily about self-determination and competence (with particular emphasis on the former), and about the processes and structures that relate to these needs. The need for interpersonal relat- edness, while no less important, remains to be explored, and the findings from those explorations will need to be integrated with the present theory to develop a broad, organismic theory of human motivation. Thus far, we have articulated self-determination theory, which is offered as a working theory-a theory in the making. To stimulate the research that will allow it to evolve further, we have stated self-determination theory in the form of minitheories that relate to more circumscribed domains, and we have developed paradigms for testing predictions from the various minitheories.

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Books That Inspire — 1 Comment

Beyond Pleasure and Pain: How Motivation Works (Oxford Series in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience)

How does motivation work? The classic answer is that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain, that they are motivated by “carrots and sticks.” But to understand human motivation, it is necessary to go beyond pleasure and pain. What people want is to be effective in their life pursuits, and there are three distinct ways that people want to be effective. They want to be effective in having desired results (value), which includes having pleasure but is not limited to pleasure. They want to be effective in managing what happens (control) and in establishing what’s real (truth), even if the process of managing what happens or establishing what’s real is painful. These three distinct ways of wanting to be effective go beyond just wanting pleasure, but there is even more to the story of how motivation works. These ways of wanting to be effective do not function in isolation. Rather, they work together. Indeed, the ways that value, truth, and control work together is the central story of motivation. By understanding how motivation works as an organization of value, truth, and control motives, we can re-think basic motivational issues, such the nature of personality and culture, how the motives of others can be managed effectively, and what is “the good life.”

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Books That Inspire — 3 Comments

Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment (Human Behavior in the Social Environment)

Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman’s UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT looks at lifespan through the lens of social work theory and practice, covering human development and behavior theories within the context of family, organizational, and community systems. Using a chronological lifespan approach, the book presents separate chapters on biological, psychological, and social impacts at the different lifespan stages with an emphasis on strengths and empowerment. As part of the Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series, this edition is completely up to date and thoroughly integrates the core competencies and recommended practice behaviors outlined in the 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) set by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Books That Inspire — Leave a comment

Motivation and Emotion: Evolutionary, Physiological, Developmental, and Social Perspectives

This unique book provides a comprehensive study of emotion within a modern evolutionary perspective. Motivation and emotion are presented within an integrated approach that assumes biological and psychological causes, including evolution, neuroscience, endocrinology, human development, and culture. Motivation and Emotion Presents a wealth of modern evidence integrating neuroscience and endocrinology into the study of motivation and emotion. The book provides a variety of photographs of facial expressions showing emotions from people of diverse cultures as well as nonhuman primates. It also discusses modern interactive explanations for specific behaviors, rather than dull, historical perspectives. For example, human affect is explained as a response to social events and stress, resulting in psychophysiological consequences. An essential reference for any professional in sociology or psychology.