Tools of the Mind

Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

TOOLS OF THE MIND

OVERVIEW

Tools of the Mind is an early childhood education curriculum that focuses on both cognitive skills and academic skills. In a study of the program’s effectiveness, teachers were randomly assigned to teach the Tools of the Mind curriculum or the existing district curriculum. Students were then randomly assigned to either treatment or control classes. At the end of the school year, students assigned to Tools of the Mind classrooms performed significantly better than students assigned to control classrooms on some measures of verbal skills and behavior regulation. Tools of the Mind classrooms also scored significantly better on measures of global classroom quality and instructional quality.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: students in pre-school through 2^nd grade

Tools of the Mind is an early childhood education curriculum based on the work of Vygotsky, who views learning as active play and as socially mediated by teachers and classmates. The curriculum seeks to develop cognitive skills such as self-regulation, deliberate memory, and focused attention while developing academic skills such as symbolic thought, literacy, and mathematical understanding. The curriculum views play as the leading skill-development activity for young children and emphasizes the teacher’s role in supporting the development of mature, intentional dramatic play.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Barnett, W.S., Yarosz, D.J., Thomas, J., & Hornbeck, A. (2006). Educational Effectiveness of a Vygotskian Approach to Preschool Education: A Randomized Trial. Rutgers, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.

Evaluated population: 274 three- and four-year-old children from low-income families served as the study population for this investigation. The children represented all students registered for pre-school education at a school in an urban school district. 50 of these children did not receive parental consent to participate in testing for this study, four children’s parents requested that they be switched from one condition to another, and two children moved away during the course of the study, resulting in a study sample of 218 children.

93% of the children were Latino, 2% were black, and 4% were Asian. The remaining children were multi-racial. 69% of children’s families reported that Spanish was the primary language spoken in their home.

Approach: The researchers were provided with seven classrooms in which to implement the Tools of the Mind curriculum and eleven classrooms on a different floor of the building in which to implement the existing district pre-school program. The existing program was described a “balanced literacy curriculum with themes.” Teachers were stratified by licensing and then randomly assigned to a control classroom or a treatment classroom. The children were also randomly assigned to treatment classrooms or control classrooms.

Teachers who were assigned to the treatment group received four full days of curriculum training before the school year began. Control group teachers attended workshops on the existing district curriculum during this time. Over the course of the school year, treatment teachers had weekly meetings with Tools of the Mind trainers and attended one half-day workshop and five one-hour lunch meetings to discuss aspects of the curriculum. Control group teachers were provided with support from “master teachers” in the district.

Children were assessed in the fall and the spring of their pre-school year in either English or Spanish. Assessments measured English vocabulary development, emerging literacy skills, emerging math skills, non-verbal problem-solving skills, visual-motor proficiency, receptive and expressive language skills, and problem behaviors (both externalizing and internalizing). Treatment children did not differ significantly from control children on any of these measures at baseline.

Classrooms were also assessed in an attempt to study the extent to which the Tools of the Mind curriculum created changes in the classroom atmosphere. Classes were videotaped and tapes were coded on a number of scales assessing classroom quality.

Results: At post-test, students from Tools of the Mind classrooms performed significantly better than students from control classrooms on a measure of English vocabulary development (The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – PPVT-III). And among Spanish-speaking students, treatment students performed significantly better than control students on a measure of receptive and expressive language skills (The Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test – OLPT). Thus the Tools of the Mind curriculum was more successful than the existing district curriculum at promoting both English and Spanish language development.

Treatment students also scored significantly better than control students on a teacher-completed measure of problem behaviors, the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). Treatment students and control students did not differ significantly on measures of emerging literacy skills, emerging math skills, non-verbal problem-solving skills, or visual-motor proficiency.

Treatment classrooms scored higher than control classrooms on a measure of global classroom quality (The Revised Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – ECERS-R), a measure of literacy environment and instruction quality (The Supports for Early Literacy Assessment – SELA), and a measure of frequency of use of scaffolding techniques by teachers in their interactions with children (The Preschool Classroom Implementation rating scale – PCI). Treatment classrooms also scored higher on the productivity subscale of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Curriculum materials available for purchase at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0023698748/interactiveda161-20

References:

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 3-4

Evaluated participant grades: pre-school

Program age ranges in the guide: early childhood

Program components: early childhood education

Measured outcomes: education & cognitive development, behavioral problems

Program information last updated 7/24/07