Transforming teaching and learning with ICT
November 2007
Introduction
How might we use ICT in ways that make a real difference to teaching and learning?
To read a one-page summary of this RoM, go to the overview.
There is a vast array of new technologies – the Internet, Internet-look-alike CD and DVD materials, digital imaging and video etc – currently available. Could we use them to bring about similarly innovative and effective changes in the way we approach teaching and learning? How might we make the experience of ICT in school as alluring to pupils as their use of ICT at home? And what difference would it make?
This month’s Research of the Month (RoM) summarises a project that set out to explore these issues. The RoM is a little different to our usual summaries because the project it focuses upon was a research and development project. By its nature, this was exploratory work. The university researchers worked with teacher-researchers at four schools over two years to develop innovative teaching and learning strategies involving ICT. A university researcher made video recordings of the learning events which the pupils and teachers were invited to comment on. In the third year the new models of ICT use were successfully adopted and customised in twelve other schools. Whilst there is no quantitative data (in terms of eg. end of Key Stage test results) of the impact of the new approaches on pupil learning, teachers’ assessments showed very positive outcomes, particularly in cases where they took place after several months to test pupils’ retention of skills and concepts. We feel this research offers a rich portrait of learning potential. We hope that in time, further research will be done in what looks to be a promising area.
With the ‘Pedagogies with E-Learning Resources’ (PELRS) project teachers planned learning events for their students which allowed the students to decide on their own learning activities and choose resources to help them from books and e-learning materials, including the Internet. The students then created presentations. The approach exploited pupils’ own knowledge and fascination with ICT, and changed the teachers’ role from being ‘founts of knowledge’ to being facilitators of learning. At the same time, it gave the children the opportunity to be creative and take responsibility for their own learning.
The research found that when pupils worked alongside teachers to plan how learning would take place, and could use technology as they wished, their motivation and performance improved. For example, a group of Year 9 students made a video about their school in German, with the aim of sending a copy to their partner school in Germany. The students scoped the project, creating storyboards, scripts, and directing filming. The teacher noticed how students, who ordinarily would not speak German in class, felt comfortable in front of the camera, and were highly motivated to use the language accurately.
Both students and teachers welcomed the change in approach. One teacher commented:
‘I’m convinced that when the pupils work with the laptops using the Internet to find resources and then put it all together to make presentations, they learn far more than when I sit them down and speak to them all at once’.
In the RoM, we explore how:
- the teachers changed the way they organised teaching and used ICT
- the teachers encouraged student ownership of their learning
- students benefited from the change of approach, and
- teachers who lacked confidence with ICT particularly benefited from the approach.
Selected case studies illustrate the ways students took responsibility for their learning, by for example, choosing the software they wanted to use, making short films to explain key scientific topics, teaching each other and using information found on the Internet to create presentations.
We think that practitioners at both primary and secondary level who are seeking ways of personalising learning and encouraging pupils’ creativity will find the material in the RoM helpful.
The RoM summarises the following outputs from the project:
Somekh, B. (2007) Pedagogy and learning with ICT: Researching the Art of Innovation Routledge
Somekh, B. & Saunders, L. (2007) 'Developing knowledge through intervention: meaning and definition of ‘quality’ in research into change.' Research Papers in Education 22 (2) pp. 183-197
Pearson, M. & Somekh, B. (2006) 'Learning transformation with technology: a question of sociocultural contexts?' International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 19 (4) pp. 519-539
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