TIM for Research & Evaluation

The TIM Tools suite includes qualitative and quantitative tools to help you collect data, answer your research questions, and address your evaluation needs. These tools include the Technology Uses and Perceptions Survey (TUPS), the Technology Integration Matrix Observation Tool (TIM-O), and the Action Research for Technology Integration (ARTI). Two additional tools have been built from the TIM-O: a teacher reflection tool (TIM-R) and as a lesson plan evaluation tool (TIM-LP).

• Grant Evaluation: The TIM Tools can be built into your grant evaluation plan, and are useful for answering both formative and summative questions. For example, in a grant program involving teacher technology coaching, participating teachers may first complete a TIM-R and coaches complete a lesson observation using the TIM-O. The teacher and coach can then meet and discuss the results, and use them to set goals for their coaching. As the grant progresses, these measures can be used to monitor progress as part of the formative evaluation plan. At the completion of the grant, final observations and teacher reflections can be conducted, and the entire set of data can be reviewed to document and describe the changes that occurred, and the effects of the coaching.
• Evaluating Professional Development Initiatives: As part of a professional development initiative, you might begin by using the TIM-O to do classroom observations of participants’ lessons, having participating teachers complete the TIM-R and TUPS before the program beings. During the PD, it may be helpful to conduct another round of observations with the TIM-O to gauge progress. At the end of the PD program, you can follow up with final TIM-O observations and have teachers complete another TIM-R and TUPS. You can then review the entire set of data to see both qualitative and quantitative change. The TIM-C is an additional tool that can be incorporated into your existing PD efforts or added on its own. The TIM-C supports coaching and mentoring in any subject area, serving as a platform for recording and organizing various phases of a coaching cycle. Data from the TIM-C can help document coaching and mentoring activities and provide data to assist in research and evaluation efforts.
• Needs Assessment for Professional Development: The TUPS allows you to gather information about teachers’ current use of technology tools in their teaching, as well as their perceptions of and attitudes toward various technologies, and their desired professional development opportunities. These data can be used to prioritize professional development offerings at state, district, and local levels.
• Research Studies: The TIM evaluation tools can be individually or together as data collection instruments in your research studies. In a quantitative design, data from the TUPS can be downloaded and imported into SAS or SPSS for analysis. In a qualitative design, the TIM-O, TIM-R, and TIM-LP can provide rich data to describe what is happening in a lesson, a series of lessons for a teacher, or a set of lessons across teachers in a school or in a particular program. For action research designs, the ARTI gives you a system for planning the study, and collecting supporting data throughout the project. If you’re using a mixed methods design, the TIM Tools can be combined in a variety of ways to allow you to answer your quantitative and qualitative research questions.