Does Staff Development in Cognitively Guided Instructional Theory Change Middle School Teachers' Mental Models about Teaching and Learning?

This practicum was designed to increase middle-level teaching teams' understanding of cognitively guided instructional strategies or brain-based learning theories and to promote the incorporation of these strategies into the teaching of cross-curriculum thematic units. Twelve staff development modules based on a new perspective of learning which has surfaced in theory and research in cognitive psychology were developed and implemented. Analysis of the survey and interview data revealed that middle-level educators who were consistently involved in staff development sessions discussed the meaning of cognitive instruction, implemented more strategies within their classroom, and demonstrated understanding of cognitively guided instructional strategies' relationships to curriculum integration. Appendices which compose more than half of the document include definitions of terms, the survey instruments, modules, thinking logo, and hypermedia project of learning disabled students. (Contains 56 references.) (EH)