Classroom Case Studies of Classroom Case Studies of Technology-integrated Technology-integrated Pedagogical Strategies Pedagogical Strategies

(TiPS)(TiPS)

Sara Hennessy, Kenneth Ruthven and Rosemary Deaney

Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Becta Research ConferenceJune 13, 2003

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

• increased emphasis and spending on ICT - yet pedagogy and practice remain largely underdeveloped

• Phase 1: T & P focus group interviews

• while ICT helps to create conditions for success, mere presence is insufficient; effective pedagogy depends on deliberately exploiting technology

Phase 2: CASE STUDIES OF TiPSPhase 2: CASE STUDIES OF TiPS(Technology-integrated Pedagogical Strategies)(Technology-integrated Pedagogical Strategies)

• Collaborative programme of 10 projects involving 15 volunteer T-Rs (BPRS); individuals & pairs

• Development, trialling and refinement of new pedagogic approaches, strategies and activities with pupils in yrs 7-12 in 6 curriculum areas:

English, Geography, History, Classics, Science, Design Technology

• 5 diverse schools in research partnership; T research supported by university team

Phase 3: ANALYSES WITHIN AND Phase 3: ANALYSES WITHIN AND ACROSS CASES (interacting)ACROSS CASES (interacting)

Analyses drew on our observations, interviews, T research reports, documentary evidence

Q: How do teachers create the conditions which support subject learning with ICT?

EMERGING THEMESEMERGING THEMES

• Established pedagogy without ICT remains pertinent but exploiting & harnessing technology new strategies

• Spectrum of pedagogical issues:

focus on mediation of subject learning with technology

STRATEGIES FOR MEDIATING STRATEGIES FOR MEDIATING INTERACTIONS WITH ICTINTERACTIONS WITH ICT

Context of changing T and P roles:

• less teacher direction and exposition

• more T-P interaction

• more pupil collaboration

• increased control, choice, responsibility

MEDIATING STRATEGIESMEDIATING STRATEGIES Learning with ICT through Learning with ICT through ‘guided ‘guided

participation’participation’ (Rogoff, 1990)(Rogoff, 1990)

• Circulating: support, guidance, probing, discussing, challenging, monitoring, informal assessment and immediate feedback to opportunistic queries

“I was perhaps with them a little bit more often, walking round constantly.”

“I needed to instigate the ideas… I was more looking just to try and focus them on particular aspects. There was certainly no formal

teaching.”

MEDIATING STRATEGIESMEDIATING STRATEGIES

• Supporting self-regulated, active and reflective learning

opportunities for generating, testing, reworking ideas; research; manipulation; discussion, critical analysis

prompting pupils to think for themselves:

T is “going around just probing them and giving them stimuli but not giving them answers”

MEDIATING STRATEGIESMEDIATING STRATEGIES

• Managing pupil participation through structuring and channelling of activity

preparing focused tasks with clear objectives

avoiding floundering and unrealistic expectations:

“the ICT itself does the teaching if you've got it structured correctly”

MEDIATING STRATEGIESMEDIATING STRATEGIES Pre-empting and overcoming difficulties: Pre-empting and overcoming difficulties: opacity, complexity, credulity, distractionopacity, complexity, credulity, distraction

• Focusing on subject content and learning goals

exploiting features and opportunities presented by ICT for salience of underlying concepts and processes

e.g. electronic annotation; manipulating text / graphics

avoiding pupil distraction by ICT itself

e.g. keeping Ps on task; specific instructions; focussing on central issues first through thinking & discussion

•Focusing research tasks: clear parameters for searches, pre-selecting range of websites, limiting research time & output

accessible, focused and relevant information & skills for critical analysis

•All forms of focusing encourage pupil reflection, analysis and understanding

MEDIATING STRATEGIES MEDIATING STRATEGIES Pre-empting and overcoming difficultiesPre-empting and overcoming difficulties

• Integrating ICT use and balancing lesson activities, e.g. visual aids, text/note books

• Overcoming transience: Supporting learning and revision away from technology using printed / written resources and records

MEDIATING STRATEGIES MEDIATING STRATEGIES Pre-empting and overcoming difficultiesPre-empting and overcoming difficulties

USING SIMULATION SOFTWARE TO USING SIMULATION SOFTWARE TO FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF

ELECTRONICS THEORYELECTRONICS THEORY

• Design and Technology case study

Yr 10 GCSE mixed ability group

10-week programme of practical and theory lessons

2 lessons observed

pupils worked (mostly) singly in computer suite

USING SIMULATION SOFTWARE TO USING SIMULATION SOFTWARE TO FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OF

ELECTRONICS THEORYELECTRONICS THEORY

• Lesson (1) Investigating effects of relay switching

constructing and testing simulated circuits

producing illustrated notes in Word

• Lesson (2) Investigating logic functions

exploring effects of different types of logic gates

constructing simple truth tables

completing illustrated notes

working through software tutorial chapter on logic

Contribution of ICT to teaching Contribution of ICT to teaching and learning seen asand learning seen as

• enhancing students’ understanding of theoretical aspects through manipulation of simulated circuits

• enabling students to trial ideas and immediately see results of their actions

• eliminating organisational problems associated with using physical components

• increasing pupil motivation and engagement with the topic

““CHANGING AND VARIED” TEACHER ROLE CHANGING AND VARIED” TEACHER ROLE

• Teacher freed from “storekeeping” to deal with “what was going on in their minds”

• Providing framework of support by:

introducing topic: demonstration, task instruction

facilitating: encouraging exploration; prompting pupils to find their own solutions and ‘make mistakes and learn from it’

focusing: ‘they can see what happens when things are connected wrongly’; pupils ‘less reliant on me to go round saying “That’s not going to work, that is”.’

““CHANGING AND VARIED” TEACHER ROLE CHANGING AND VARIED” TEACHER ROLE

• harnessing other agencies: peer tutoring; electronic help; electronic tutorial “they can help themselves and move on at their own pace”

• keeping pupils on task: attention to peer grouping; unproductive ‘playing’; generating ‘neat nonsense’

• integrating resources: “having actual switches to show them”; augmenting pupil notes with handouts: “they can look ... ‘What does it say in here?’ and they do have something to revise from.”

USING INTERNET RESOURCES AND ICT USING INTERNET RESOURCES AND ICT TOOLS TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING AND TOOLS TO SUPPORT THE TEACHING AND

LEARNING OF HISTORYLEARNING OF HISTORY

• Project centred on 20-lesson unit with Y9 top sets.

• Emphasis was on issues of interpreting evidence.

• Set tasks involved analysing a range of documents and artefacts relating to the First World War.

• In the two lessons observed:

Pairs analysed on-screen sources from the Internet, offering contrasting accounts of a key battle.

Pairs examined on-screen images from different artists depicting war and the experience of battle.

PROVIDING STRUCTURE AND SUPPORT PROVIDING STRUCTURE AND SUPPORT FOR LEARNING WHILE PRESERVING PUPIL FOR LEARNING WHILE PRESERVING PUPIL

AGENCYAGENCY

• Internet resources were selected and adapted to create a virtual archive on the school intranet.

• Pupils “were able to dictate to some extent the pace” of work on tasks, and “a lot of the time they were free to discuss, at whichever level”.

• But teachers also noted their own contribution in “going around… and feeding them ideas, asking questions and trying to move them on”.

• Having on-going work on-screen facilitated teacher joining discussion between pupil pairs.

• Overall, the teachers perceived themselves as “far less didactic in [their] approach” within lessons.

ENLARGING EVIDENCE AND EXPERIENCE ENLARGING EVIDENCE AND EXPERIENCE THROUGH AUTHENTIC RESOURCES AND THROUGH AUTHENTIC RESOURCES AND

NON-TEXTUAL MEDIANON-TEXTUAL MEDIA

• Material from the Internet was seen as greatly enhancing the unit, for example in the form of contrasting accounts of the battle at Vimy Ridge.

• The use of non-textual media and authentic resources was seen as promoting a more multisensory and empathetic understanding.

• In the observed lessons:

An impending visit to the battlefield helped give import and urgency to the analysis taking place.

Care was taken to create a sense of contact with a wider world through a virtual art exhibition.

ENHANCING DISCUSSION AND ENHANCING DISCUSSION AND ARGUMENTATION THROUGH ICT-ARGUMENTATION THROUGH ICT-

SUPPORTED APPROACHESSUPPORTED APPROACHES

• Teachers pointed to how ICT had been used to interact with materials and analyse evidence.

“You can almost use the computer like a notepad, marking things on[-screen].”

“The ability to manipulate the pictures was important… enlarging… to home in on details.”

“Creating tables helped pupils to classify their ideas and allowed them to manipulate what they had found out more easily.”

CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS New strategies and forms of activity emergingNew strategies and forms of activity emerging

• focusing on subject learning through:

exploiting unique opportunities

handling difficulties/constraints imposed by ICT

focusing research tasks

• guiding, structuring, prompting; supporting active learning

• pupils’ own role in structuring instruction

• balance between over- and under-directive (P agency vs. confusion)

CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS

• proactive and responsive strategies emerging for mediating and optimising conditions for learning

• pedagogy evolving: T role is complex and demanding, especially in managing P participation

• support for practitioners

• TiPS website:

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/TiPS/tips1.html - download teacher-researchers’ reports

• articles on T and P focus group data

• forthcoming: case study papers

Current ESRC Project:

exemplary practice in maths & science

OUTCOMESOUTCOMES

• interactive teaching and learning through modelling, discussion and evaluation (groups/whole class)

• teaching P skills for information handling and ‘critical literacy’; collaboration

Scope for development ofScope for development of mediating strategiesmediating strategies

ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGIES ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR LESSON SUCCESSFOR LESSON SUCCESS

• offering technical support and troubleshooting

• back-up plans and resources (from mouse balls to textbooks)

• realistic lesson pacing – balancing efficiency, focus and task completion with time for discussion, consolidation and closure

• trialling lesson plans, building in flexibility

• managing the physical environment of technology use

attracting and maintaining the attention of pupils sitting at computer monitors

managing collaboration in adverse room layout