Whole School Professional Development
Development of the Teacher as a Metacognitive Agent
By Eleanor M. Papazoglou, Franklin Pierce University, 2010
Within teacher education programs and professional development there is a tenuous assumption that we all have the same understandings of reflection. Generic approaches to understanding reflection simply help teachers amass a repertoire of skills to apply in a relatively unvaried manner. Concerned about written reflections that focus on overly technical accounts of a mastery of methods and skills, this investigation inquires into understanding the metacognitive dimension of a reflective process and the development of the teacher as a metacognitive agent. This is a qualitative value driven study that attempts to reduce uncertainties and to clarify a particular stance on reflective thought in order to contribute to the development of theories and concepts that generate further investigations. Included in this study is a self-analysis of the researcher as a teacher educator exploring a transformative process with teachers-as-students. What do teachers say about what they do, and what can be learned from the language in their written and oral responses? From an analysis of data collected for this study, criteria emerged distinguishing the technical thinker from the metacognitive thinker.
Download the dissertation Development as a Teacher as a Metacognitive Agent (Acrobat PDF file)
Transforming Professional Development: Inviting Explicit Thinking
Student Successes with Thinking Maps, Chapter 15
Sarah Curtis, M.Ed.
“I was teaching a lesson in social studies and I must have asked a question every conceivable way I could think of. Nobody participated. So I drew a Multi-flow Map on the board and got where I wanted to go! Thinking Maps not only seized the teachable moment, they created the teachable moment.”
Teacher
Ultimately, I came to see that these deeper levels of reflection and performance changes developed because the thinking maps invite explicit thinking and thus reflection, bringing a clarity that inspires confidence and competence.
read more excerpts and view video clips from Inviting Explicit Thinking in Student Successes with Thinking Maps
The Metacognitive School: Creating a Community Where Children and Adults Reflect on Their Work
Jeffrey M. Spiegel, Ed.D.
Principal, Hanover Street School, Lebanon, New Hampshire
The New Hampshire Journal of Education, Volume II, 2003
“What happens when an entire school makes a fundamental shift in its thinking? This article describes the developmental expereinces characterizing the school's evolution as a metacognitive school.”
Download the article The Metacognitive School: Creating a Community Where Children and Adults Reflect on Their Work (Acrobat PDF file).
Thinking Maps: Seeing is Understanding
By David Hyerle, Ed.D.
Education Leadership, January 1996
By using visual tools that correspond to thinking processes, students can organize their ideas on paper or by computer, and — as a result — read, write, and think better.
"Barbara Bell, principal of the Joe Hall Elementary School in Miami, says one reason she adopted Thinking Maps at her school was that it is particutarly difficult to find strategies that work together to develop higher-order thinking skills. By learning how to use Thinking Maps together, students show they can persevere and not give up in midproblem."
Download the article Thinking Maps: Seeing is Understanding (Acrobat PDF file)
Feeder Patterns and Feeding the Flame at Blalack Middle School
Student Successes with Thinking Maps, Chapter 11
Edward V. Chevalleir, Ed.D.
Thinking maps help students actively process information. The use of the maps creates immediate and specific questions. In a middle school classroom, the constant challenge is maximum engagement. Used in even their most limited form, thinking maps ensure eight “ready” questions—questions associated with each of the eight thinking skills.
read more excerpts from Feeder Patterns and Feeding the Flame at Blalack Middle School in Student Successes with Thinking Maps
Embracing Change: The Evolution of Thinking in a K–12 School
Student Successes with Thinking Maps, Chapter 12
Gill Hubble, M.A.
Over 10 years ago our school began an evolutionary process that finally envisioned a community of learners who could move beyond “tacit use” of thinking skills. Through research, practice, personal discoveries, and many rich conversations, we made a multiyear commitment to integrating the thinking maps language into our community. Over the past four years we believe that our school achieved “reflective use” of these tools—a sophisticated metacognitive use involving reflection and evaluation (Swartz & Perkins, 1989). We came to believe that if our students functioned as reflective users of thinking maps, that this would increase their thinking skills repertoire and encourage autonomy of thinking and collaboration, certainly important if not essential outcomes for every school in a democratic society.
read more excerpts from Embracing Change: The Evolution of Thinking in a K–12 School in Student Successes with Thinking Maps
Implementation Guide from Lead Guide