Resources
Research - Application of critical thinking approach in the education system
Application of critical thinking approach in the education system - its influence and efficiency in Latvia is a research which was designed and implemented by the Education Development Center and the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences with the financial contribution of the Sorosa Fonds Latvija.
Click here to download a brief presentation of the research and its findings.
Kosova Education Center: Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking – Final Evaluation Report
In-service professional development with the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) training began in Kosova in October 2000, as an initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the International Reading Association (IRA). The purpose of the evaluation conducted in 2003 was to assess the RWCT program as it had been implemented in Kosova. Two evaluation questions were examined:
1. How does RWCT training impact the classroom environment?
2. What are possible differences in impact on classroom environment of the school-based versus non school-based RWCT training?
Read the full report here.
The 2000-2001 Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Project Impact and Institutionalization Study
Produced for the Open Society Institute (OSI) by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in 2001, the study examines cross-national similarities and differences in the implementation of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) project in four countries: the Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Macedonia. These countries reflect the geographic diversity of RWCT in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Baltics, and the Balkans.
Read the study here.
The 2000-2001 Evaluation of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking Project
In 2000, the Open Society Institute (OSI) commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct an evaluation of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) project and find answers to the following research questions:
1. To what extent do RWCT teachers maintain the fidelity of the RWCT model in their teaching practices?
2. To what extent do pupils whose teachers participate in RWCT have higher critical thinking skills than pupils in a non-RWCT control group?
3. To what extent do RWCT teachers’ and pupils’ attitudes about teaching and learning differ from those of teachers and pupils in control groups?
Read the executive summary of the evaluation report here.
Classrooms of Wonder and Wisdom
Jeannie Steele and Kurt Meredith, the authors of "Classrooms of Wonder and Wisdom. Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking for the 21st Century", are delighted to share this text with RWCT colleagues around the world.
As we narrate in the opening paragraph of the introduction we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the thousands of educators with whom we have worked over the last decades. This book was written to continue to share the ERR teaching/learning framework - one that teachers are successfully using around the world. As RWCT teachers know, the framework is based on how people learn using literacy as a tool for learning across all content areas and grades. This practice based text leads readers through the use of the framework for learning, engaging participants in reading, writing and discussion within a professional development model. It provides teachers with the tools to organize instruction to maximize student learning and critical thinking.(The Authors)
Click here to access the url where more information is available about the book.
Promoting authentic assessment in the Romanian in-service teacher training system
The Romanian RWCT Association published, within the Promoting authentic assessment in the Romanian in-service teacher training system Project (for more information please visit www.alsdgc.ro), the following materials:
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Analysis of the current situation in assessing teachers' competences upon completion of accredited in-service teacher training programs in Romania (Download the English version and the Romanian version);
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Policy recommendations: Promoting authentic assessment in the Romanian in-service teacher training system (Download the English version and the Romanian version)
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Authentic assessment in the in-service teacher training system. Guidebook for training providers (Download the English version and the Romanian version).
The project was supported [in part] by a grant from Foundation Open Society Institute (Zug).
Teaching and Learning Strategies for the Thinking Classroom- (Alan Crawford, Wendy Saul, Samuel Mathews, and James Makinster. 2005)
Teaching and Learning Strategies for the Thinking Classroom offers best practices of teaching - for comprehension, writing to learn, cooperative learning, critical literacy and community-based learning, along with planning for lessons and units, and evaluating learning. Demonstration lessons, complete with sample interactions between the teacher and her students, show how to use the approaches for different purposes.
High Caucasus, Georgia