Books by Sheila Tobias

The National Science Teachers Association has just published a new book by Sheila Tobias and veteran science teacher Anne Baffert. The title is Science Teaching as a Profession: Why It Isn't, How It Could Be. Based upon their communications with nearly 500 science teachers across the United States, Tobias and Baffert explore what is needed to reduce attrition by high school science teachers at a time when the U.S. is facing increasing competition. Order the book now.

This valuable collection examines closely the construction of male and female identity around the theme of collective violence. Why did such violence get "moralized" for men in the case of warfare—but not for women? Women, Militarism and War presents alternatives to both "business as usual" thinking and excessively utopian or naive feminist accounts. Available on Amazon.com.

Sheila Tobias first wrote Overcoming Math Anxiety in 1978. In her updated version, published by W. W. Norton in 1994 (and in paperback in 1995), she enlarges on her analysis of the attitude and approach variables that interfere with students' performance in college-level mathematics. Their problem, she finds, is not a failure of intellect but a failure of nerve. Above all, she challenges the notion that "math anxiety" is a disability. "Math Anxiety" can be overcome. Available in bookstores.

Tobias' second book, Succeed with Math, tells teachers and students (college age and older) how to approach mathematics and master it without anxiety. Her books and her talks are particularly pertinent to the issue of access for minorities and women. She brings a video tape of a math anxiety session along. Available from The College Board, Book Department, 45 Columbus Ave. New York, N.Y. 10023-6917. By Visa or MasterCard by calling The College Board, 800-323-7155.

In an effort to disentangle the many variables that account for failure and/or unwillingness of large numbers of college students to pursue mathematics and science, Sheila Tobias has engaged otherwise successful outsiders in a series of experiments across disciplinary boundaries. She finds that barriers to learning are the result of "disciplinary cultures." Available from Sheila Tobias, P.O. Box 43758, Tucson AZ 85733-3758, at $5.00 for single copies, $3.00 per copy in orders of 15 or more. Checks only.

This book explains how to succeed in college math and science classes. It explores the fundamentals of understanding science and the kinds of study and thinking that college professors expect. The meanings of terms in science, how understanding changes from high school to college, and making connections among facts are also covered. Available from The College Board, Book Department, 45 Columbus Ave. New York, N.Y. 10023-6917. By Visa or MasterCard by calling The College Board, 800-323-7155.

Every wave of mathematics and science education reform obliterates the one before and leaves little lasting change in its wake. This book is available directly from Research Corporation for Advancement of Science, 101 N. Wilmot Road. Tucson, AZ 85711 or by fax 520-571-1119, Price: $3.95 per copy. A computer program called "A Department-Based Audit to Improve the Quality of Undergraduate Instruction in the Sciences" is also available as a free downloadable .zip file. The program comes without support and without warrantee.

A collection of narratives about innovations in exam content, exam format, exam ecology, and grading practices from 160 teaching faculty in colleges and universities. Demonstrates that while faculty may not test what they value, in time students come to value what they test, and that an image of science emerges from traditionally constructed tests that disserves "second tier" students and science majors. Plenum Press, 1997; in bookstores or by ordering directly from Plenum Press, 233 Spring St. New York 10013.

In this study of scientists in mid-career and young scientists on the job market, Sheila Tobias and her co-authors, Daryl Chubin and Kevin Aylesworth, propose new training of undergraduate and graduate majors in science, a reconsideration of the master's degree in science, and "restructuring demand" so that young people of talent can expect to have the work they deserve. Available from Research Corporation for Advancement of Science. Same ordering as above. Price $2.50 per copy.

In her narrative history of the second wave of feminism, Sheila Tobias concludes that the "Movement" with a capital M may be over, but the "movement" of American women into power and into the mainstream is unstoppable. How this came about, the future of feminism, and why feminists were so loathe to abandon President Clinton in 1997-98 are topics she addresses in her talks (1), (2), and (3). In (4), she goes beyond and beneath the statistics and examines the underlying paradigmatic "ideology" of access and advancement of women in science. (Westview Press, 1997; paperback, 1998) in bookstores.