摘要:Teachers receive training in how to introduce and teach Thinking Maps to their students. This training is in the form of professional development conducted either by an external trainer or an internal trainer.
enefit to the students of excellent programs to deliver the curriculum in innovative ways is lost (Everett, et al., 2003). That is the case with the Thinking Maps program at this elementary school.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Thinking Maps program at the site elementary school. In January 2002 the administrators at the target school paid $5,380 for Thinking Maps curriculum and contracted with an educational consulting and publishing company called Thinking Maps, Inc. to conduct a school-wide in-service training in Thinking Maps for the school’s staff.
The goal of that professional development, which cost $3,000, was to provide teachers with training in research-based strategies to increase student achievement by improving students’ critical thinking skills. However, evidence of teacher acceptance and student ownership of these strategies is lacking.
With the arrival of a new assistant principal who is a Thinking Maps trainer, training sessions were conducted as part of school in-service days for the current teaching staff. Training was conducted by grade level and all teachers were required to write a goal related to the use of Thinking Maps in the classroom to be used as part of their evaluation plan for the year.
Teachers are being highly encouraged to implement the training in the classroom and are required to provide proof of implementation, in the form of student work samples, to receive their in-service points.
Background and Significance
In order for organizations to learn there must be feedback, both positive and negative. A comprehensive assessment of the successes and failures within the program guide future learning (Marquardt, 2002). This research project will evaluate the Thinking Maps program at the site school to see how effective the training for the program is in providing students with tools to become critical thinkers and to assess if the school is getting a return on its monetary and time investment in the program.
A key part of the evaluation will focus on determining if the Thinking Maps program is being implemented effectively in the target school and what changes or improvements are needed to ensure consistent, pervasive implementation. In addition, it will document teacher attitudes about the program and its perceived effectiveness in increasing students’ higher-order thinking skills as one possible contributing factor to the program’s level of effectiveness.
Organizational Setting
The county in which the target school is located is the eighth largest school district in the state of Florida and the 37th largest in the nation. Of the 483,924 residents listed in the 2000 Census information, approximately 80% were Caucasian, 14% African-American, 10% Hispanic, and the remainder were American Indian and Asian. There are 152 schools in the county serving 92,000 students.
Of these schools, 106 are regular schools: elementary, middle, and secondary public schools. The rest are technical centers, alternative programs, adult schools, conversion charter, and charter schools. An additional three elementary schools opened in August of 2007 and growth projections of a 31.5 % increase in students by the year 2015 mean many more schools will be built (Crouse, 200
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