Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [534]
One of the specific objectives of the research was to assess the performances of students in experimental and control groups in terms of self-efficacy in communication and behavioral skills. Another specific objective was to evaluate if there was a significant difference between the performances of students in experiment and control groups of content pre-assessment and content post-assessment. Student outputs were rated using a rubric based on the basic education curriculum and TOCfE concepts. Notable increases of the percentage mean scores in experimental group are indicated in the results.35
This published research is helping to address TOCfE’s initial lack of empirical evidence and the justifiable need to demonstrate that the TOC tools are aligned with sound learning theory and research methods. More international research projects are now underway in Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States to test implications of the use of TOC to enhance emotional intelligence and the delivery of science and mathematics curricula. This ongoing research reflects the progression of TOC’s continuous improvement by using the three questions to know where to focus improvement efforts.
A particular area of focus has always been materials. A comprehensive series of self-learning workbooks for children of various ages was created in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Israel under the direction of Gila Glatter while teaching at Talpiot Teachers’ College, Tel Aviv, Israel.36 Some of these workbooks are available in English as is a story that teaches the Cloud for middle school children. A CD-ROM is also available37 that can be used to teach all three tools through an animated children’s story. Entitled “The Story of Yani’s Goal,” this piece of literature has a moral: You can achieve your goals in life if you think your problems through to win-win solutions. The story, soon to be released in book format, can be used in reading classes along with a teacher’s guide designed to enhance reading comprehension skills through the content of the story.
TOCfE began training in 1995 with TOC materials38 written for business and industry—particularly those developed for human behavior and based on Eli Goldratt’s (1994) book, It’s Not Luck. In order to make these workbooks user friendly and more relevant for educators, the workbooks were carefully adapted39 and the TOCfE training materials for seminars are entitled “TACT” (Thinking And Communication Tools). Available in Spanish, Dutch, Hebrew, Russian, Serbian, Portuguese, Polish, and English, these materials primarily teach the three tools through behavior applications. Therefore, much of the dissemination and diversification has been to apply the processes in counseling and interventions with children—and adults—with special behavioral needs.
As noted, Corpuz’s (2005) research was based on teaching the tools as interventions to improve cognitive performance as was the Master’s thesis of Adora Teano (2005-2006), who concluded, “TOCfE thinking tools have significant effect on the improvement of the grades of the students in English l.”40 Action research case studies from the trenches also substantiate the “proof in the curriculum pudding” that the TOC tools, once learned, enable students to create the scaffolds needed to meet their own learning needs, thus saving time and other resources both in and out of school. They are interventions, however, rather than preventive strategies and require the teacher to transfer the application from behavior to that of curriculum. Because of the need to work within existing resources, teachers need the transfer of application to be from existing curriculum to behavior so that students learn these needed life skills while being taught existing curriculum. This latter approach is very much aligned with conclusions for implementing change in educational systems drawn by Dr. Audrey Taylor (2002,