Classroom Dynamics Implementing a Technology-Based Learning Environment

This book reports an attempt to introduce change in schools using a computer-based curriculum innovation for teaching higher-order thinking skills to middle and high school students. One of the volume's themes is the extraordinary complexity and difficulty of facilitating such change in schools. A corollary of that theme is the fact that patience must be an integral part of the strategy when promoting or studying change in schools. In reporting the activities during the early years of a technological innovation and research project in which the emphasis thus far has been primarily on establishing the change, this book focuses on describing the move to a technology-based learning environment. As such, it details an ongoing process -- a fascinating process -- and one that is likely to be repeated in the near future in countless schools throughout the nation.

Contents: The Systems Thinking and Curriculum Innovation Project. The Systems Thinking Network Project: STACIN. Project Components: Systems Thinking, Graphical User Interfaces, and Modeling. Observations, Issues, Cautions, and Lessons Learned. Technology and Patterns of Teacher Adaptation. Future Research and Policy Implications. Appendices: Evolving Case Studies. Draft Model of a Computer-Based Curriculum Innovation. Past and Present Participating Teachers and Project Directors.