Present Focus: Research on Learning
Larry Alper, M.S.Ed. is Co-Director for Designs for Thinking, and a Director/Global Trainer with Thinking Schools International. Larry is a former teacher and school administrator with over 40 years experience leading schools and developing learning communities for students, teachers, and parents.

As co-director of Designs for Thinking, an educational consulting group focused on research, literacy, and whole school improvement, including the use of Thinking Maps, a visual language for learning and leading, Larry has led implementations of Thinking Maps in whole schools while also supporting schools and school systems in developing long term plans for implementing these tools. While working as a school principal, Larry investigated how he and his colleagues could use Thinking Maps as collaborative tools for building leadership capacity. This process led him to co-author the professional guide and training, Thinking Maps: A Language for Leadership. Larry is also the lead author of the book, Developing Connective Leadership: Successes with Thinking Maps (Solution Tree, 2011) and the co-editor with David Hyerle of Student Successes with Thinking Maps, Second Edition (Corwin Press, 2011).

As a Director and Global Trainer for Thinking Schools International, Larry has helped design and lead the process of becoming a Thinking School in schools in countries around the world. Most recently, Larry was a member of the team that intiated the iThink project in Malaysia under the auspices of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office and the agency he created, Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, to promote innovation throughout all segments of the Malaysian society, including education. Larry co-edited, with David Hyerle, the recently published book, Pathways to Thinking Schools (Corwin Press, 2014) detailing the principles and practices underlying the efforts of schools around the world to explicitly build a foundation of education upon thinking. He was also a contributing author to that publication.

Larry was also affiliated with the University of Vermont for many years as a director of The Institute on China and Its Cultures (Yunnan) for the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP), an overseas program for teachers and school leaders. Larry has provided professional development for Chinese educators in China conducting seminars in Beijing, Yuxi, Qufu and Inner Mongolia on American practices in education. He has also led groups of Vermont teachers and school leaders on visits to China to prepare for the teaching of Asian cultures in Vermont schools.

Upon graduation from college, Larry and his wife, Kathy Ernst, co-founded a parent-teacher cooperative elementary school in Setauket, NY on Long Island. For eighteen years, Larry served the Brattleboro, VT community as an elementary principal. Larry has also served as an Adjunct Faculty at Antioch College, New England. He has presented at various conferences including the International Thinking Skills Conference in Swindon, UK (2011-2014), a forum for educators and administrators at the College of New Rochelle entitled, "Envisioning Thinking Schools", ASCD Annual Conference (2011), Puerto RicoTESOL Conference (2009), and Bank Street College of Education Language Series (2008).

Larry received his M.S Ed. in Supervision and Administration from Bank Street College of Education, NY and BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. .
Contact Larry at lalper@sover.net