SAM's Main Book List

Self Development and Learning

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Hare Brain Tortoise Mind: why intelligence increases when you think less
By G Claxton
Pub Fourth Estate 1997 ISBN 1857027094 £7.99
The human brain will do a number of unusual, interesting and important things - if given time. As described in this book, there is evidence from cognitive science and elsewhere that it will learn patterns of a degree of subtlety which normal, purposeful, busy consciousness cannot even see, let alone master; it will make sense out of hazy, ill-defined situations which leave everyday rationality flummoxed; and it will sometimes come up with solutions to complicated predicaments that are wise rather than merely clever. The book explores these slower ways of knowing and explains how we could, or should, use them more often and more effectively.

Helping the Client: A creative practical guide
By John Heron
Pub Sage 2002 5th edition ISBN 0761972897 £17.99 [£21.73 inc p&p]
A classic on the development of interpersonal skills in counselling, management, social work, youth and community work, education and many other professions. Based on John Heron’s well-known six category model, the book presents different forms of helping behaviour that can be adopted by any practitioner working face-to-face with a ‘client’. The suggested applications are very broad indeed – any setting where one person is adopting an enabling role for another, when they will be “the listener and facilitator and the other person is the talker, the one who is dealing with some special issue that needs the time attention and service of another human being”.
A powerful book

POWER UP YOUR MIND: learn faster, work smarter
By Bill Lucas
Pub: Nicholas Brealey, 2001, ISBN 1-85788-275-X £14.99 [£18.57 inc p&p])
An eclectic mixture of bright ideas for the busy manager interested in their own learning. Useful stuff about switching on, tuning in and the importance of being in a learning state. Sections cover remembering, resilience, harnessing your creativity and learning at work. Review

Mentoring
by Reg Hamilton
Pub: Industrial Society 1993 £8.95 ISBN 1 85835 046 8
This helpful little book is a step by step guide to being a good mentor. It describes the differences between the role of manager and mentor, and the skills needed to be an effective mentor. It looks at different approaches, both formal and informal, and defines the essence of mentoring as "a way of helping another understand more fully, and learn more comprehensively from, their day to day experience" and stresses that it is most successful when the interviews are confidential.

Postive Management - Assertiveness for Managers
by Paddy O'Brien
Pub Nicholas Brealey 1992 £12.99 ISBN 1 85788 008 0
A practical management guide written in an accessible style, by an experienced trainer and consultant who has arts organisations among her clients. Part One explains what assertiveness is and how to do it, and then there is an Assertiveness Workshop, which can be done alone, with a partner, or adapted for use in staff training. Part Two explores specific areas of management concern, and shows how assertiveness can be applied in these settings. Chapters include: meetings, leadership, coping with criticism, and management at high tension, including necessary confrontations, and giving difficult news.

A Manager's Guide to Self Development
by Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell
Pub: McGraw Hill New Edition 2001 Price£19.99 [£24.38 inc p&p] ISBN 0077098307
Treat yourself to this one, and it could change your life... A practical workbook to help you sort personal goals, career plan, it also offers a wide variety of interesting ideas for management practice. Challenging and thought provoking. Highly recommended. Review

The Student Skills Guide
By Sue Drew and Rosie Bingham
Gower Publishing 2nd Edition 2001 ISBN 0566084309 £15.95 [£20.78 inc p&p]

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
by Stephen Covey
Pub: Simon & Schuster 1992 £10.99 ISBN 0 684 85839 8
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." This is Aristotle, quoted by Stephen Covey. Paradigms and principles - vision, leadership and communications, management, co-operation - it is all in here. A very powerful book that represents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach to solving personal and professional problems. A world-leading best-seller at airports everywhere! AMA

101 ways to develop your people, without really trying! - A Manager's Guide to work based learning
by Peter Honey
Pub: Peter Honey Publications 2nd reprint 1998 £16.95 ISBN 0 9508444 9 7 How to weave self-development and learning into everyday work. Great fun - an alphabetical numbered set of ideas for practical activities from the obvious to the unlikely - something for everyone here. Recommended.

Managing Yourself: How to develop and sustain your skills, action, health and identity at work
by Mike Pedler and Tom Boydell
Pub: Lemos Crane 1999 out of print
A welcome and very up to date new edition of this best seller. This book is for managers and people who want to become managers - people who combine both doing and thinking. Starting from the notion that before you manage others effectively, you need to manage yourself effectively, the book aims to get you into shape - "to be fit, whole, balanced, readya nd able to tackle new challenges and opportunities". Chapters cover models of self-management; action; knowing, valuing and being yourself; followed by managing yourself and your skills; your health; working with others; and managing yourself within the organisation. Lots of useful ideas and practical exercises. A real treat.

Learning Log: a way to enhance learning from experience
by Peter Honey
Pub: Peter Honey Publications 2000 £6.50
A slim little booklet that gives a useful introduction to learning theory and enthuses about learning from everyday experience. It then provides a structured journal to record and reflect on your experiences and the learning that they contain. Review

Concise Guide to the Learning Organisation
By Mike Pedler & Aspinwall
Pub: Lemos & Crane 1998 £12.99 ISBN 1898001423
Having defined the learning organisation as one 'that facilitates the learning of all its members and consciously transforms itself and its context' , the book sets out to show how to release unrealised potential in people and organisations. It offers practical help, tools and encouragement. Grounded in organisational and learning theory, it tackles the question 'How can organisations learn?' very successfully and offers re-assuring case studies and plenty of practical activities. This is management theory at its best - well-written, accessible and easily translated into action.

Action Learning for Managers
by Mike Pedler
Pub: Lemos Crane 1996 £7.99 ISBN 1 898001 28 6
Small and compact, and very practical in its approach, this book explains the how and why of action learning sets. They are shown to be a valuable method of problem solving and also provide support and development for individuals in a management role. Checklists, diagrams and questionnaires included.

ABC of Action Learning - Empowering managers to act and learn from action
By Reg Revans
Pub: Lemos & Crane £12.99 1998 ISBN 1 898001421
Reg Revans is the creator of action learning and this book starts with the characteristic assumptions of action learning, including the learning equation L=P+Q and other concepts such as 'problems require insightful questions', 'learning involves doing' and 'the risk imperative'. There are then sections on essential logistics on running action learning programmes, the characteristics of the manager, the influence of top management, and the philosophy of action learning. An extremely clear, well-written book with endless common-sense and perspective observation.

Out of Our Minds - Learning to Be Creative
By Ken Robinson
Pub: Capstone 2001 £15.99 ISBN 1-84112-125-8
Why is it essential to develop creativity, promote creativity, and what is involved in developing it? This book tackles these questions and argues for radical changes in how we think about intelligence and human resources and in how we educate people to meet the extraordinary challenges of the 21st century. Review

Learning Local Authorities: A survey of local authority commitment to learning
by Bill Lucas, Toby Greany & Suzanne Gammon
Pub: Campaign for Learning 1999 £9.95 ISBN 1903107024
The results of the first ever survey of how local authorities are investing in the learning of their employees and creating a local learning culture through promotion. Well-presented information, with a summary and headline findings, mini case studies of best practice, and well-designed tables of figures. An appendix gives a summary of Learning Local Authority Pilot Projects.

Make It Happen! Your Personal Learning Action Plan
Pub: Campaign for Learning 1996 £5 ISBN 1903107083
A slim A4 booklet with good layout and line drawings, 24 pages (including some of just line drawings) with boxes to be completed by the individual. Useful guidance notes at each stage with worked examples.  This is aimed at learners generally and covers work and non-work related learning, and at all levels. It does consider how you like to learn, and what has helped or hindered. The emphasis is on planning and recording. Review

Take Yourself to the Top
By Berman Fortgang
Pub: Harper Collins £5 [£8.07 inc p&p] Special Offer

Becoming Yourself
by Paddy O'Brien
Pub Azure 2002 ISBN 9 781902 694191 £7.99 Not available from SAM’s Books buy from Amazon
Review

Soul Purpose
By Jackee Holder
Pub Piatkus 1999   ISBN  0 7499 1961 2 £12.99 [£16.47 inc p&p]
Review

The Learning Styles Questionnaire: 80 item version
By Peter Honey & Alan Mumford
Pub Peter Honey  ISBN 1 902899 07 5  £6.50 [£9.46 inc p&p] see money back offer
This gives an introduction to the classic Kolb learning cycle, and Honey and Mumford learning styles of activist, pragmatist, reflector and theorist. It then provides a questionnaire to complete and score to give you a picture of your own learning styles and preferences. There is guidance on how to choose learning to suit your dominant learning style, and also how to strengthen your under-developed learning styles to make you an all-round learner.

Personal Development Plans
By Peter Honey
Pub Peter Honey 2001 ISBN 1 902899 16 4  £6.50 [£9.34 inc p&p]
The introduction makes the case for why think ahead about learning (for example from attending a course or conference) and why record the outcomes, and gives useful pointers for being realistic about plans. This is short and all over by page 8, then there's a sample filled in plan with a few notes, then pages 14 - 35 are 10 sets of a 2 page layout of Personal Development Plan with 5 boxes to fill in and Review of Plan with 4 boxes to fill in. Good if you want a structured notebook with an interesting introduction.

Writing at University: A Guide for Students by Phyllis Crème & Mary R. Lea
Pub: Open University 2002 £11.99 [£14.95 inc p&p]

Thoughts on Arts Education
By Rudolf Arnheim Pub: Getty Center for Education in the Arts 1989 £8
Arnheim, a recognised authority on this subject, provides a unique and incisive view of what humans do to create art and what art does to create humans.

Returning to Study: A guide for professionals
By Stuart Powell
Pub Open University Press 2002 ISBN 0335201318 £15.99 [£18.87 inc p&p]
An excellent book written for professional people returning to study and looking for ways of sharpening up their study skills, making the most of the course of study and reconciling the demands of career and study. It suggests you examine why you want to study and then explores practicalities such as when, where and how you are going to study. There is useful material on thinking and learning, working and communicating with others, effective reading and listening, planning to write, effective writing, and writing a report or dissertation. It is well-written, accessible and encouraging!

Diverse Voices: Personal Journeys
Pub All Ways Learning 2005 ISBN 09549785-0-1 £12 [£14.75 inc p&p]
The first publication in our Collected Wisdom series Diverse Voices: Personal Journeys is a series of interviews collected by Anouk Perinpanayagam and edited by Janet Summerton and Madeline Hutchins.  Available from 25 February 2005, this will provide the first printed resource with the specific focus on the nature of arts management available in the UK for a number of years.

Achieve! Personal effectiveness in the not-for-profit sector
By Mark Butcher
Pub DSC 2003 ISBN 1903991234 £14.95

All Ways Learning Research Deal on Learning Styles Questionnaires Know Your Learning Style – or how do you learn best? Understanding how you learn is an effective way to learn better.  There are a number of ways you can develop your understanding of your learning preferences, including completing a Learning Styles questionnaire.  Researched and produced by Honey & Mumford, completing this questionnaire will help you define what type of learner you are and how you can choose to focus on your stronger styles and equally improve your learning in your weaker styles. Buying the self-completion questionnaire usually costs £6.50, but you can get a refund in the form of a SAM’s Books token for this amount just by sending your completed results page to us. Order the questionnaire by mail order from SAM’s Books in the normal way www.sam-arts.co.uk and it will have an explanation of the refund scheme in it. When you return your form we will send you a voucher for the same value as the questionnaire, £6.50, to be spent at SAM’s Books, on an arts management book of your choice.

Definitions of Some Ways of Learning

See also People Management and Training, Consultancy, Research and Study Skills sections.

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