Texas Regional Collaboratives: Dynamic Partnerships for 21st Century Education

1
Texas Regional CollaborativesDynamic
Partnerships for 21st Century Education

• Presented by
• Mary Hobbs and Lucinda Presley
• ISEA Conference
• Van, TX
• February 27, 2009

2
TRC - Who We Are

• An award-winning statewide network of 60 P-16
  partnerships that provide sustained and high
  intensity professional development to P-12
  teachers of science and mathematics.
• An infrastructure of over 43 institutions of
  higher education collaborating with education
  service centers, school districts, informal
  science educators and business partners.
• A program with a 17-year track record of
  designing and implementing exemplary science
  professional development using research-based
  instructional models, materials, innovative
  technology, and best practices.

3
TRC Achievements

• Improved the knowledge and skills and developed
  the leadership capacity of over 14,000 Texas
  science teachers who in turn are sharing their
  experiences with other teachers through
  mentoring, peer coaching, and technical
  assistance. In addition, over 8,500 mathematics
  teachers received workshop training across Texas.
  
• Benefited over 1 million students across Texas
  through improved instruction and performance of
  participating teachers.

4
STEM Challenges

• Teacher Content Knowledge
• Relevant, Real World Applications of Science and
  Mathematics
• Quality instructional resources aligned to the
  TEKS
• Adequate equipment and materials to implement
  inquiry lessons

5
Texas Regional CollaborativesDynamic
Partnerships for 21st Century Education

• Presented by
• Mary Hobbs, Ph.D.
• Informal Science Education Association
• Van, Texas
• February 27, 2009

6
TRC Partnerships
Higher Education UT System Texas AM
System Texas Tech Community Colleges Private
Universities
State and Federal Texas Education Agency U.S.
Department of Education National Science
Foundation Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board
Statewide Corporate and Foundation ATT
Foundation El Paso Corporation Shell Oil
Company Toyota USA Foundation The Cynthia and
George Mitchell Foundation
Local Education Agencies 853 Public School
Districts and Private Schools across Texas
7
Geographic Distribution
36 Science Regional Collaboratives
24 Mathematics Regional Collaboratives
Regional Collaboratives are located in all
20 Education Service Center Regions in Texas.
8
Statewide Impact
SCIENCE
MATHEMATICS
Data compiled from August 1, 2007 - July 31, 2008
9
One Science Teacher Mentor Elementary/Secondary
MENTORING IMPACT
Cadre Member
Cadre Member
Cadre Member
Cadre Member
Cadre Member
Students 20-150
Students 20-150
STUDENT IMPACT
Students 20-150
Students 20-150
Students 20-150
Total Number of Students Impacted 100 Elementary
to 750 Secondary
10
Activities PDAs and PDPs
Professional Development Academies (PDAs) are
provided to Instructional Teams that consist of
professors of Science and Science Education,
Science Specialists and Master Teachers. PDAs
enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to
develop, sustain, and facilitate high quality
Professional Development Programs.
Professional Development Programs (PDPs) provide
an average of 105 contact hours of TEKS-based
professional development through Instructional
Teams to 25 or more teachers of science per
region to prepare and support them to become
Science Teacher Mentors (STMs) serving other
teachers at the campus, district, and regional
levels.
11
Professional Development Focus 2008-09

• Extended support for high quality elementary and
  middle school instruction
• Pre-K Math/Science
• K-8 Geosciences
• K-12 Chemistry
• Algebraic Thinking
• Measurement

• Supporting schools and districts in meeting the
  challenges of the 4x4 requirement
• New programs in HS Chemistry
• Continued support for HS Physics
• Continued training in HS Geosciences with the
  TXESS Revolution
• Geometry

12
Program Evaluation

• Teacher content knowledge
• Teacher practice
• Student achievement

13
Integrating Creative Thinking and
State-Mandated Curriculum Preparing
Tomorrows Leaders
Educating the Whole Child
14
.
Why Creativity Now?
Educating the Whole Child
15
Creativity and 21st Century Workforce Skills
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills v
Learning and innovation skills will separate
students who are prepared for the increasingly
complex living and work environments from those
who are not. v A focus on creativity, critical
thinking, communication and collaboration is
essential to prepare students for the
future.  v Creative students will v
Demonstrate originality and inventiveness v
Develop, implement, and communicate their new
ideas v Remain open to new perspectives v
Act on creative ideas.   .
Educating the Whole Child
16
The New Blooms
 
.
Richard C. OverbaughLynn SchultzOld Dominion
University
Educating the Whole Child
17
Thomas L. Friedman
The World Is Flat (2007) v Globalization has
flattened the world, empowering individuals as
never before. The most important competition now
is with ones self making sure that s/he is
constantly striving to get the most out of
his/her imagination. v Globalization has gone
from countries globalizing to companies
globalizing to todays individuals globalizing.
Positive innovation will be the key.
Educating the Whole Child
18
Daniel Pink
A Whole New Mind Moving from the Information
Age to the Conceptual Age (2005) v A seismic
shift is occurring in which the future no longer
belongs to left-brained professions, but to
creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers,
and meaning makers. v We are moving from an
economy and society based on the logical and
linear capabilities of the Information Age to one
built on the inventive, big-picture capabilities
of the Conceptual Age.
Educating the Whole Child
19
Richard Florida
The Rise of the Creative Class and how its
transforming work, leisure, community, everyday
life (2003) v Society is changing dramatically.
The driving force behind this change is the rise
of human creativity as a key factor in our
economy and society. v Creativity involves the
ability to synthesizesifting through data,
perceptions, and materials to come up with
combinations that are new and useful. This will
fuel everything from technological creativity to
economic creativity to artistic creativity, all
of which will be interrelated.
Educating the Whole Child
20
Sir Ken Robinson
Out of Our Minds Learning to Be Creative
(2001) v Governments, companies, and other
organizations are now emphasizing the
essential need for creativity and innovation.
v Our global culture is in a social and economic
revolution where the ability to process
information will determine the dominant culture.

Educating the Whole Child
21
Issues in Science and Technology Online
Global Tour of Innovation Policy (1-09) v We
are in a post-scientific society where wealth
generation and productivity growth will be based
on the mastery of the creative powers and
sciences of human beings and their cultures.
v Education should emphasize making
connections among ideas, people, organizations,
and cultures. v Science education remains
extremely important, but in the context
of cross-disciplinary integration.
Educating the Whole Child
22
The Lemelson-MIT Program School of Engineering,
MIT
Advancing Inventive Creativity through
Education (2003) v Invention, design and
creativity are central to human existence. v
Invention requires creativity and is the most
creative version of design. v Invention has
been a major driver for improvements in quality
of life for more than 200 years. v A culture of
inventiveness at all levels can benefit society
greatly.
v A major shift is occurring from
knowledge work to inventive work. We must
move from deductive learning to components such
as self-discovery, visual thinking, learning from
failure, and applying principles to their
application.
Educating the Whole Child
23
.
Creative Components in Education
Educating the Whole Child
24
Alane Jordan Starko

• Creativity in the Classroom (2005)
• v Key attributes of creativity and aids to
  content
• v Finding interests and problems
• v Looking in new ways
• v Communicating personal ideas
• v Creating new products and solutions to
  problems
• v Applicable curriculum that supports creativity
• v Learner outcomes of significance learner
  outcomes have the same
• characteristics as real problems
• v Inquiry-based learning students explore and
  generate information
• v Conceptual orientation content organized
  around key concepts
• v Interdisciplinary orientation students
  understand concepts as they span disciplines
• v Metacognition students think about their
  learning process

Educating the Whole Child
25
Arthur J. Cropley
Creativity in Education and Learning (2003) v
Creative cognitive processes v Selecting from
masses of information v Relating new information
to what is already known v Combining new
elements of new and old information v Evaluating
new combinations v Retaining the best
combinations v Communicating results to
others v Important type of thinking v Network
thinking combining disparate concepts
Educating the Whole Child
26
Susan Marcus and Susie Monday

• New World Kids The Parents Guide to Creative
  Thinking (2008)
• v Seeing patterns is one of the hallmarks of a
  creative mind

Educating the Whole Child
27
HMIE (Her Majestys Inspectorate of Education)

• Emerging Good Practice in Promoting Creativity
  (2006)
• v Characteristics of creative thinking
• v Ability to generate a large number of ideas
• v Ability to produce a WIDE RANGE of ideas
• v Thinking or doing or seeing things differently
• v Creating new products and solutions to
  problems
• v The creative learner
• v Brainstorms and explores ideas
• v Designs and makes
• v Solves problems
• v Sees links and connections
• v Imagines and expresses perceptions

Educating the Whole Child
28
.
Why It Works Does Creativity Impact Learning?
Educating the Whole Child
29
National Academy of Sciences
Learning with Understanding Seven Principles v
It is only by encountering the same concept at
work in multiple contexts that students can
develop a deep understanding of the concept and
how it can be used, as well as the ability to
transfer what has been learned in one context to
another. (Anderson, Greeno, Reder, and Simon,
1997).
Educating the Whole Child
30
Shelly Marmion, Ph.d.
TCA Grant Statistician Associate Professor of
Psychology, University of Texas at Tyler v
Cognitive psychology has shown that the more
differing ways you can think about or relate to a
topic, the greater your chances of being able to
retrieve the material. v Relating to
material in ways that are distinctive from the
usual can also be aids to memory. v Though
these may not be demonstrated in the short term,
they may provide long-term advantages. v
Integrating the arts and science has a broader
appeal to students with different learning
styles.
Educating the Whole Child
31
Champions of Change (UCLA) Study The Impact of
the Arts on Learning
v Students at high levels of arts participation
outperform arts-poor students in virtually
every measure. v Lower students in innovative
arts-integrated curricula advanced more quickly
than those in arts-poor schools and have greater
achievement in many areas. v The arts reach
students who are not otherwise being reached v
The arts provide challenges for students already
considered successful. v The arts connect
learning experiences to the world of real
work. v Learning in the arts has significant
effects on learning in other domains.
Educating the Whole Child
32
Bethune Study
v In 1995, there were 3 Houston schools in one of
the citys most economically depressed areas
that had been closed due to poor performance.
With grants from the Department of Education and
the Annenberg Foundation, HISD developed
magnet schools in this community. v Bethune
Academy and Drew Academy became intermediate and
middle magnet schools for math, science, and the
fine arts and Carver High School became a magnet
for applied technology, engineering, and the fine
arts. v Historically, African American students
from this area scored lowest in HISD on the
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS),
precursor of the TAKS. v The infusion of the
arts into classroom curriculum and improvement of
classroom teaching led to dramatic increases in
student achievement.
Educatin the Whole Child
Educating the Whole Child
33
(No Transcript)
34
Source TAAS Magnet Report, Houston A Challenge
35
Contact Us

• Mary Hobbs
• 512-673-3707
  maryhobbs_at_mail.utexas.edu

Lucinda Presley 903-530-9019
lucinda.presley_at_gmail.com
www.theTRC.org