The Project will undergo a formal assessment in January to March of Years 2, 3,
4 and 5. The main performance indicators will be the following:
- Teacher involvement.
- How many teachers are active in the Project?
- What proportion of their teaching and professional development time is dedicated to acquiring and applying the principles of imaginative education?
- How do teachers rate their learning in such areas as classroom observation, assessment, and curriculum design?
- Curriculum development.
- What curricular units, adapted to the B.C. curriculum, have been developed and used by teachers involved in the Project?
- What proportion of the curriculum is covered by such units?
- How effectively are the principles of imaginative education being applied to unit design?
- Teacher mastery.
- What do observations and self-assessment indicate about the quality of teachers’ engagement with imaginative education?
- Indicators include originality and attention to detail in curriculum planning, success in arousing and maintaining children’s emotional engagement, and ability to elicit high-quality work from every learner. Are such indicators increasing over time and across subject areas?
- Learner involvement.
- How many children are being taught using the principles of imaginative education?
- What proportion of their learning experience is being shaped by these principles?
- How satisfied are children with this experience?
- Classroom engagement.
- What do observations and self-assessment indicate about the quality of children’s engagement with the curriculum?
- Indicators include the proportion of time spent on task, emotional engagement with the subject matter, work carried out beyond the minimal requirements of the defined task, and pride in communicating about and displaying completed work. Are such indicators increasing over time and across subject areas?
- Academic achievement.
- What are the findings of the assessment methods described above under Stage 2?
- Is there evidence that children’s understanding and ability to apply their learning to new tasks is increasing over time and across subject areas?
- Research productivity.
- How many faculty and students are active in the Project?
- What research assignments have been completed, are underway, or are in the process of development?
- What has the Project produced in terms of finished written reports (internal assessments, teacher guides and materials, reports to the community, theses and dissertations, conference papers, journal articles, books)?
- What research questions have been answered, and what important questions remain or have arisen in the course of the research?
Findings in these 7 areas will be discussed by the Local Project Committee in April, then with the other teachers, researchers and community members involved in the Project, and finally presented to the community near the end of the school year. Expectations, in broad outline, are as follows:
In January-March of Year 2, at least 6 teachers and 2 schools per site will be involved with the Project. Multi-week curriculum units will be taught by all the teachers involved, and a high level of engagement is expected. Culturally inclusive imaginative education will shape approximately half of the curricular experience of children in these teachers’ classes. Modest gains in teacher mastery and classroom engagement are expected, but significant academic improvement may not yet be evident. The Project will have developed a draft teacher’s guide that will be revised over the course of Year 2 on the basis of classroom experience. Some teachers will be working with faculty and students to prepare papers for the 2 nd International Conference on Imagination and Education and to other professional forums in B.C.
By January-March of Year 3, imaginative education will shape some 80% of the curricular experience of children in the classes of the original teachers, and it is anticipated that a few additional teachers will have begun to experiment with the approach in their classes, for a total of 8-10 per district. Significant improvements in teacher mastery, classroom engagement and academic achievement are expected. The revised teacher’s guide will have been submitted for publication by a major educational press, and 3-4 journal articles will be in preparation based on particularly significant findings of Phase 2. At least 4 graduate students will be working on theses or dissertations related to the Project.
By January-March of Year 4, an additional 25 teachers per district (or more) will be involved in a two-year professional development program focused on culturally inclusive imaginative education, and will be teaching multi-week imaginative curriculum units in their classes, covering at least 30% of the curriculum. Modest gains in teacher mastery and classroom engagement in these classes are expected. Critical ethnographies of the three sites will have been written that summarizes the findings and context of Phase 2, and work will be underway on a book-length description of the Project.
By January-March of Year 5, the same number of teachers will be well advanced in their professional development program. Significant improvements in teacher mastery, classroom engagement and academic achievement are expected in all of their classes, where imaginative education will shape at least 70% of the curricular experience. In addition, there should be clear evidence of the formation of professional communities on the basis of culturally inclusive imaginative education, to an extent that influences the professional culture of teaching in the district as a whole. By this stage 8-10 journal articles, a thematic journal issue, and 2 books will have been produced, and 15-18 graduate students and approximately 100 teachers will have been involved in research.
