Transforming teaching and learning with ICT - an overview

Why is the issue important?

The researchers wanted to explore with teachers ways of using new technologies (the Internet, Internet-look-alike CD and DVD materials, digital imaging and video etc) to bring about similarly innovative changes in teaching and learning.

What did this research and development project achieve?

The project helped teachers ‘transform’ learning with ICT and illustrates how they went about it. This involved students in:

• learning creatively – contributing, experimenting, solving problems
• learning as active citizens – acting autonomously, taking responsibility for their own learning
• engaging intellectually with powerful ideas, using thinking skills, grappling with ideas/concepts, and
• reflecting on and evaluating their own learning (metacognitive strategies).

How was this achieved?

The project teachers planned learning events in which students were given freedom and choice about which ICT resources to use and how they should be used. Together, the researchers and teachers developed four strategies:

• pupils as teachers
• pupils as media producers
• pupil voice, and
• learning online.

The aim with all four strategies was to change the traditional roles of teachers and learners – from teacher-led to student-led – through emphasising co-learning between them.

How was the research designed to be trustworthy?

The project was exploratory. Initially, the research and development team worked in partnership with teachers and pupils in four schools (two primary and two secondary) over two years to develop examples of successful, innovative changes to teaching and learning practices with ICT. The teachers planned and implemented the learning events. A university-based researcher worked alongside the teachers and pupils, making video recordings and interviewing pupils. The university researchers used teachers’ and pupils’ interpretations of the data to illuminate and deepen their analysis. In the third year, twelve further schools adopted and customised the models and strategies developed by the four initial schools, demonstrating their robustness and transferability.

What are the implications?

The study showed the value of:

• encouraging pupils to make creative choices about how they learn a particular topic and what tools they want to use. Doing this can foster a greater sense of autonomy and responsibility for learning amongst the pupils which enhances their motivation and engagement
• asking pupils to work collaboratively on joint ICT led presentation projects for helping pupils take control of their learning as well as acquiring curriculum content, and
• finding out which pupils already have good ICT skills or knowledge of particular software packages because teachers can ask such  pupils to train their peers (and in some cases the teacher too) to help others in the class learn new ICT techniques. 

What do the case studies illustrate?

The case studies show how:

• pupils felt having the freedom to use computers when they felt it was appropriate helped them with their learning
• students felt using the Internet impacted on learning
• students were creative and innovative peer teachers when they were asked to teach each other, and
• students set about making films for learning and what they and their teachers felt they gained from the process.

Read the RoM.