Applying Program Theory-Driven Evaluation to Design, Implement and Evaluate Geography Learning Community Program—Case Study

Abstract

This study aimed to apply program theory-driven evaluation to design, implement, and evaluate Geography Learning Community Program ( GLCP) and focused on investigating the impacts of GLCP on students’ communicative capability, learning attitude, and critical thinking ability. Program theory in this study was based on philosophy of Learning Community advocated by Manabu Sato, Japanese Scholar. The participants consisted of 25 eight-grade students. Based on eighth grade Geography textbook, the authors cooperatively designed 4 unit teaching materials, and implemented them for 12 weeks. During the research period, the data were collected through teaching reflection journals, classroom observations, student worksheets, student learning reflections, semi-structured interviews, communicative capability survey, learning attitude survey, and critical thinking survey. Data analyses included both qualitative and quantitative methods. Both the analyses of quantitative and qualitative data indicated that GLCP could promote student’s interpersonal relationships, learning attitudes, and students’ critical thinking abilities.