This paper reports the development of critical thinking of urban high school students in an IT/STEM program-using information technology (IT) within the context of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The study used a quasi-experimental time-series design, involving 47 initial participants in an eighteen-month intervention period. Data were collected from the Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER), which provides an overall score on critical thinking skill (CTS) and five sub-scale scores (analysis, inference, evaluation, inductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning). Findings indicate that based on a mean score of 15.77, the average participant scored between the 16th and 19th percentiles at the beginning of the program compared to an aggregated national sample. Participants who completed the program and responded to all three time-series TER tests (14) significantly improved their critical thinking skills throughout the program. Program completers’ overall post-program CTS test score was more homogeneous than the pre-program scores with a 20.07 mean score. In addition, data showed significant improvement in inductive reasoning skills of the program participants during the first nine months with continuing improvement in the second nine months. In contrast, data presented improved inference skills during the first nine months with significant gains during the second half of the program. The study estimates the relative effects of IT/STEM experiences with technology-enhanced, inquiry and design-based collaborative learning strategies on CTS of urban high school students

No abstract

No abstract

MEETING THE DEMANDS OF TEACHING in the digital age requires the identification of effective types of educational technology and ways of encouraging its use, and that was the aim of a "Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology (PT3)" grant to the University of Michigan-Dearborn, from the United States Department of Education. This grant funded a four-year program involving not only public school teachers in the Detroit area, but also the faculty in the education and social sciences departments of the university. Dubbed "The MITTEN Program," it explored how the planned integration of new forms of technology affects instruction in social studies in elementary, middle, and high schools. What follows is a report on the outcomes of that project. Between September 1,2001 and April 30,2005, a total of 257 educators in all of the core academic subject areas participated in seven cohort groups. In social studies, twenty-five full-time public school teachers, twenty-five pre-service teachers, five faculty members, and three field supervisors of student teachers were involved. The data presented in this study were gathered from surveys administered before and after people participated in the program, journal entries, refiections articulated in electronic portfolios and at meetings, and technology projects. The first half of the survey asked nine questions designed to measure the partici

Research indicates that, if future teachers are to effectively use technology, their pre-service preparation should employ multiple components. These components include core course work in educational technology, faculty modeling, and clinical experiences. This paper describes and analyzes one model for drawing these three . components coherently together in a teacher preparation program. The paper further reports on a research project that applies this model at a major Midwest research university. In the conclusion section the paper identifies and discusses ways in which the model presented responds effectively to the need for a comprehensive program for preparing a technology-proficient teaching force.