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2. Action Research Project

It was decided to adopt an Action Research approach for the implementation and evaluation of the T.S.P.

2.1 Action Research Approach

The Action Research Approach was appropriate because this form of evaluation could meet the two major aims of the project, namely:

Action Research put the teachers at the center of the project: As teacher-researchers, they were full participants in the decision-making process in the implementation of the new T.S.P. This ensured continuous enhancement of the programme in action. First of all, the teachers increased their commitment to the aims and efficacy of the programme as they owned both its implementation and evaluation. Secondly, they were engaged in systematic reflection about their new teaching and learning programme and its impact on students. Thus, the teachers were engaged both in the planning of the programme, as well as in making the necessary modifications to tune in to the different responses of students and schools and to administrative requirements. The self-evaluations of the teachers could be immediately translated into improved practice. At the same time, as beginning T.S. teachers, they were engaging in continuous professional enhancement of their skills informed by both theory and practice.

This reflective practice was to be ensured through:

Keeping of a weekly self-evaluation journal by teachers;

Regular weekly reflective and planning meetings among teachers;

Regular consultative meetings among teachers and coordinators of the programme;

An end of programme teachers’ self-evaluation (see Appendix V);

Collection and analysis of evaluation data by the T.S. teachers themselves in consultation with the project coordinators.

Action Research allows for both formative assessment and summative evaluation. As indicated above, the continuous reflection of the teachers led to constant formative assessment linked directly to improvement in practice. Moreover, the summative evaluation of the programme also led the teachers to consider more deeply the aims of the programme and its relevance to practice.

The summative evaluation was aimed at assessing:

Class product (artifact) in terms craft projects or solution ideas produced in an end of training creative project or session;

Class thinking process in terms of the group thinking process as evidenced in the discussion at an end of training problem solving session that was to be videoed and transcribed;

Participants’ own perceived impact to be obtained through a student (individual or class administered) self-evaluation questionnaire, and through an interview with the regular teachers of the students involved in the T.S.P.

2.2 Participants

During the first phase of the project, there were eight teachers involved in the T.S.P. in primary schools in Malta: three teachers were employed specifically as peripatetic teachers in T.S. within the P.S.E. group; the other five were peripatetic P.S.E. teachers, employed within the Primary Sector, who are delivering the T.S. lessons as part of their P.S.E input. The development of educational material was in the hands of the three T.S. teachers.

Given the limited number of teachers and the aims of the project, the coordinators of the Programme, Ms. Sandra Dingli (Coordinator, The Edward de Bono Programme for the Design and Development of Thinking, University of Malta), Dr. Paul Bartolo (research consultant, Faculty of Education), Mr. Lawrence Muscat (E.O. for P.S.E.) and Ms. Daniela Bartoli (Trustee, The Edward de Bono Foundation Malta) decided in September 2000 that:

In order to ensure greater impact, the T.S.P. would be offered to smaller schools with one to two streams in each year so that all the children in the school would participate. This ensured the school community would be able to share the new experience and learning.

In order to demonstrate the relevance of the T.S.P. to all pupils, it was decided to choose schools where there were concerns about pupils’ motivation for school learning.

To ensure an adequate level of learning, every class would have fourteen T.S. sessions spread over 14 weeks (i.e. for half the year, from October to January, or February to June). The rationale behind the choice of a series of fourteen lessons was that this time frame was thought to offer enough coverage to create a thinking environment within the classroom and the school in general. A module of fourteen lessons also allowed two such modules to fit in a scholastic year. This also helped the action research being conducted on the T.S.P. as it allowed the teachers to assess what had been done in the first group of schools and then implement a modified programme with the second group.

To ensure wide participation, classes would be divided into two groups which would be taught simultaneously by two P.S.E. teachers.

To ensure wider impact and transfer of skills, class teachers would be invited to observe the sessions.

The schools chosen to participate from October 2000 till January 2001 were the State Primaries in Gzira, Floriana and Kirkop (see number of pupils in Table 1). The Primary schools in Vittoriosa, Valletta and Xghajra started in February 2001 up till mid-June 2001. The lessons were held on Mondays and Wednesdays.

School	Year 1A	Year 1B	Year 2A	Year 2B	Year 3A	Year 3B	Year 4A	Year 4B	Year 5A	Year 5B	Year 6A	Year 6B	Total Pop.
Gzira	16	17	28	--	22	22	17	18	24	17	24	17	222
Floriana	14	--	17	--	15	--	16	--	27	--	16	--	105
Kirkop	26	--	24	--	17	--	22	--	28	--	22	--	139

Table 1 - Population of pupils per class

2.3 Thinking Skills Programme (T.S.P.)

The T.S.P. was prepared by the T.S. teachers in collaboration with the coordinators. It was decided to offer the first 5 CoRT 1 T.S. (PMI, CAF, Rules, APC and FIP) to all Years 1 – 6, and, in addition, the rest of the CoRT skills to Years 4 – 6 (see Table 2).

The length of lessons and the tools chosen for the different age groups were adapted to the cognitive and emotional development of the children. The slower rate of learning of the younger children necessitated that a choice be made from the total number of tools in the CoRT 1 Programme.

The lesson duration for Years 1 and 2 was of 30 to 35 minutes, for Years 3 and 4 of 40 to 45 minutes and of Years 5 and 6 of 50 to 55 minutes. Tools such as O.P.V. (Other People’s Views) - which could go counter to the younger children’s egocentric tendencies - and also C&S (Consequence & Sequel) and A.G.O. (Aims, Goals & Objectives) - which involve projecting one’s thoughts into the future - were not offered to Years 1, 2 and 3. An effort was made to involve the class teacher to ensure a better transfer of the Tools outside the T.S. Session. When willing, the teachers were more than welcome to attend, observe and participate in the sessions.

Table 2: Thinking Skills Programme for Primary Schools

2.3.1 Classroom Management

In order to establish classroom discipline, the first session is dedicated to introduce the way to go about the actual thinking lessons in the classroom. This is done by collaboratively establishing classroom rules. One way of going about this, primarily with the older pupils (Years 4, 5 and 6) was to invite the class to mention and/or write what rules are involved in a particular sport or game. These were then compared to rules that could be used in the classroom. The pupils finally put together a list of rules that would be adopted during the T.S. lessons. The rationale behind this is to allow the class to develop its own code of practice in a democratic manner with the teacher facilitating the process. This would ensure a smoothly run lesson.

2.3.2 Seating Arrangements

Normally chairs are placed in a horseshoe or circle style. This is not, however, the only set-up adopted. At certain times it is necessary to arrange chairs and tables in groups according to the group work assigned. In other instances it is necessary to set up the class in conference style, with the pupils facing each other to enable them to debate and plan, particularly when setting aims and procedures, to organise a set task or during the final project.

2.3.3 Teacher Communication and Interaction

It is important for teachers to become involved and familiar with the content which they are to use with pupils. The P.S.E. teachers were guided by a set of lesson plans and task sheets prepared for them by the three T.S. teachers. This was facilitated by means of meetings that were regularly held on Wednesdays where all teachers could also share their experiences related to both the P.S.E. and the T.S. lessons.

2.3.4 Class Teachers

Transfer to contexts outside the T.S. Lessons would be encouraged further if class teachers were to be involved in the T.S. Lessons together with the P.S.E. and T.S. teachers. This could, however, not be enforced, and teachers who were willing were more than welcome to attend the sessions.

2.3.5 Log Books

Teachers were encouraged to keep a log book which would include evaluations and thoughts regarding the sessions delivered. This would be useful where reflection and programme development are involved.

2.3.6 Puzzles

A concerted effort was made to encourage children to perceive thinking as fun. Lateral Thinking puzzles that involve guessing at an often-improbable solution generated a great deal of enthusiasm from the children as they all wanted to be the ones to guess the correct answer. The puzzles provided a good platform for reinforcing the concepts behind the tools. Pupils were often prompted with comments such as "Consider All Factors – Let’s do a CAF!", "There is one factor you have left out altogether", and "Let’s do an APC (Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices)", "What alternative courses of action could one follow in this situation?". Strategy games and board games which reinforced the T.S. were used at times.

2.4 Modifications

The T.S.P. was prepared with Primary school pupils in mind. The aim was to develop a programme that catered for different ages and abilities. At the end of December 2000, however, when most of the de Bono T.S. had been delivered, the need for certain modifications was felt. This is a list of the major modifications that were felt to be necessary:

It was felt that younger pupils reacted better with exercises which were based on actual reality rather than on remote examples. This depended at times on which tool was being taught.

The younger pupils, in particular Years 1 and 2, found it quite difficult to understand the ‘Interesting’ part of the PMI. Teachers therefore unanimously agreed that it would be more practical to start the T.S.P. with CAF (Consider All Factors) which is more straightforward and easier for children to learn than the PMI.

It was felt that the introduction of each thinking tool was best carried out with a practical example. Apart from those in the programme that was developed by the three T.S. teachers, each teacher was to feel free to adapt or add to the exercises according to the needs of the pupils. For example, one valid suggestion involved introducing the APC to Years 1, 2 and 3 by creating a situation in which a teddy bear vanishes. Where could the bear be? What could have happened?

Some modifications were found to be necessary to the number of lessons allocated to each tool. With the younger classes, an extra lesson was felt to be necessary for the PMI. However, on the whole, fourteen lessons are felt to be appropriate.

Due to the preparations for the Christmas concert, which involved the participation of nearly all the pupils of Years 4, 5 and 6, several lessons were either missed altogether or else had to be dedicated to revision or other thinking activities due to heavy absences. As a consequence, certain tools particularly the C & S and AGO were only briefly touched upon and the Six Thinking Hats were left out altogether. Future planning will have to take into account the loss of teaching time available due to other school activities.

The set timetable and schedule for T.S. lessons had to be modified at times as it was felt that it was appropriate to ensure that the pupils learnt the proper use of the T.S. The priority was not to ensure that all the set tools were taught but that the pupils understood and could apply the tools properly.

It was at times felt that the T.S. could be used with ideas, suggestions or experiences of the pupils themselves. One example was during a C&S (Consequence and Sequel) lesson when a Year 5 pupil mentioned that he had burnt his finger on a hot plate. A C&S was applied to the situation so as to look at the immediate consequences (the pain), the short-term consequences (the blister), the long-term consequences (the blister bursting) and the long term consequences (blemish or scar on the skin). This type of application of the T.S. to situations the pupils can actually relate to is possible due to the flexibility of the programme. It encourages transfer and helps the pupils understand how the T.S. can be applied to their everyday lives.

Role-play was used with older pupils (Years 4, 5 and 6) with T.S. such as the OPV (Other Peoples’ Views). Role-play worked well not only because the children thoroughly enjoyed expressing themselves but also because it gave them the opportunity to explore being in other peoples’ shoes. Other methods including visual aids helped the pupils to generate more ideas.