Keith Johnson (author)

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Keith Johnson
KeithJohnsonAuthorPicture.jpg
BornRobert Keith Johnson
(1938-10-14) 14 October 1938 (age 85)
Darlington, United Kingdom
OccupationAuthor of books and software, teacher
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Manchester
Notable worksPhysics for You
Spotlight Science
TimeTabler
SpouseAnn Johnson
Children2

Robert Keith Johnson (born 14 October 1938), known as Keith Johnson, is a writer and software developer. While working as a science teacher he published his first work, starting his career as an author. He left classroom education in 1990 to develop software to support teachers, and to promote physics through the writing of textbooks and associated materials.

Contents

Career

Johnson attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Darlington (later Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College) from 1950 to 1957, before going on to read Physics at the University of Manchester. From there, he taught at Urmston Grammar School and Wilbraham High School, where he was Physics teacher, Head of Physics, Deputy Head, Timetabler, and Acting Headteacher. In 1980 Johnson was appointed District Inspector for Science for Manchester City Council Education Committee, with special responsibility for promoting science in Primary Schools. In 1990 he left this post to pursue his career as a full-time author of physics textbooks.

Books

Johnson has written or co-written over 100 books [1] [2] [3] [4] that have attracted many reviews in independent journals [5] [6] [7] and are referred to in official UK syllabuses and qualifications. [8] [9]

His books on Physics have benefited students at all levels in secondary education. [6] [10] [11]

Software

Johnson has developed software to support teachers in Secondary Schools in the UK and across the world, [12] including TimeTabler [13] which is a program to help timetablers to schedule their school timetables, Options, [14] [15] StaffCover [16] and Lesson Loader. [17] [18] [19]

Other achievements

Johnson is a film director [20] recognised by the British Film Institute. [21] [22]

He is an expert on Readability, [23] especially of school text books, [24] [25] and has written articles on this subject for the School Science Review, [26] [27] [5] a journal of The Association for Science Education, and other publications. [28] [29] [30] which has been cited by 52 scholarly articles. [31]

Personal life

Keith Johnson married his wife Ann, an artist, in 1962. They have 2 children and 3 grandchildren. [32]

He is a committed Francophile who divides his time between his homes in France and England. [33] He has written about the French Pyrenees [34] and contributed to the book 'Corsavy – Paysages & Visages'. [35]

Related Research Articles

Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. The concept exists in both in natural language and programming languages though in different forms. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content and its presentation. In programming, things such as programmer comments, choice of loop structure, and choice of names can determine the ease with which humans can read computer program code.

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<i>Of Pandas and People</i> Creationist supplementary textbook by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon

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Physics education or physics teaching refers to the education methods currently used to teach physics. The occupation is called physics educator or physics teacher. Physics education research refers to an area of pedagogical research that seeks to improve those methods. Historically, physics has been taught at the high school and college level primarily by the lecture method together with laboratory exercises aimed at verifying concepts taught in the lectures. These concepts are better understood when lectures are accompanied with demonstration, hand-on experiments, and questions that require students to ponder what will happen in an experiment and why. Students who participate in active learning for example with hands-on experiments learn through self-discovery. By trial and error they learn to change their preconceptions about phenomena in physics and discover the underlying concepts. Physics education is part of the broader area of science education.

Paul G. Hewitt is an American physicist, former boxer, uranium prospector, author, and cartoonist. Born in Saugus, Massachusetts, Hewitt lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Council of Educational Research and Training</span> Indian organization for school education

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The Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) organization is a South African non-profit project, which creates open textbooks on scientific subjects. Textbooks are edited to follow the government's syllabus, and published under a Creative Commons license, allowing teachers and students to print them or share them digitally.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric M. Rogers</span>

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The Nuffield Science Teaching Project was a programme to develop a better approach to teaching science in British secondary schools, under the auspices of the Nuffield Foundation. Although not intended as a curriculum, it gave rise to alternative national examinations, and its use of discovery learning was influential in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Mary Amelia Swift was an American teacher and textbook writer. Little is known of her early life, though she was raised in western and central Connecticut. In 1833, she became the principal of the Litchfield Female Academy, leading the school for three years. That year, noting a need to teach basic science and finding no adequate textbooks, she wrote First Lessons on Natural Philosophy–Part First. It was one of the first scientific texts written by a woman and was based on her observations of teaching needs from her classroom experience. Three years later she wrote a more advanced textbook for older children, First Lessons on Natural Philosophy–Part Second.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Syllabus Project</span> Open-source syllabus database

The Open Syllabus Project (OSP) is an online open-source platform that catalogs and analyzes millions of college syllabi. Founded by researchers from the American Assembly at Columbia University, the OSP has amassed the most extensive collection of searchable syllabi. Since its beta launch in 2016, the OSP has collected over 7 million course syllabi from over 80 countries, primarily by scraping publicly accessible university websites. The project is directed by Joe Karaganis.

References

  1. "Oxford University Books". 2017. Oxford University Press (OUP).
  2. "ISBN Database". Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. ISBN Book Database
  3. "Keith Johnson books on Amazon". Amazon UK. Amazon.com
  4. "Amazon Author Central". Keith Johnson at Amazon Author Central.
  5. 1 2 School Science Review, Vol 68, No. 245, 789–790
  6. 1 2 "Reviews of Keith Johnson's Books". Keith Johnson.
  7. Times Educational Supplement, 'Teacher', 29 April 2005, p15
  8. "Edexcel Syllabus" (PDF).
  9. "Pearson Qualifications" (PDF).
  10. "Keith Johnson's writing; case study at physics.org". www.physics.org
  11. "Review Centre; Student in Nigeria".
  12. "Software comments & testimonials". from around the world
  13. "TimeTabler software".
  14. Haigh, Gerald. "Class 3F? For three hours? First thing Monday?". 12 May 2008. TSL Education Ltd.
  15. "Options software".
  16. "StaffCover software".
  17. "Lesson-Loader software". free for teachers
  18. "Lesson-Loader review". Software Informer, 27 March 2013
  19. Association for Science Education : School Science Review, Vol 87, 2005, No 318, 126
  20. "Films by Keith Johnson". synopsis and judges' comments
  21. "British Film Institute entry". Work – 186608, British Film Institute
  22. "BFI 'Green Cloud' entry". Archived from the original on 12 January 2014. Green Cloud, director: R K Johnson
  23. "Readability methods".
  24. "Readability of Secondary School textbooks".
  25. "Readability of textbooks" (PDF).
  26. Association for Science Education : School Science Review, Vol 82, 2001, No 300, 75
  27. "School Science Review Article". School Science Review. SSR Vol 60, No. 212, 1979, 562
  28. International Journal of Science Education, Vol 9, 1987, 4, 483
  29. Science Learning, Science Teaching: Wellington & Ireson: Routledge 2008, ISBN   9780415433938, p244
  30. Johnson, R. K. (March 1979). "Education Resources". School Science Review. 60 (212): 562–568. Institute of Education Sciences
  31. "Scholarly Citations".scholar.google.co.uk
  32. "About Keith Johnson".
  33. "Corsavy, French Pyrenees". A history of Corsavy
  34. "Corsavy down the Ages" (PDF).
  35. Corsavy – Paysages & Visages. Les Cahiers de l'Egaré. OCLC   180753463. Grosse Jean-Claude, Patot André, Johnson Keith, 2006. ISBN   2-908387-92-1