Developments in educational resources

Wim de Boer

ECER - Annual Conference

september 2008, Gotenborg

• educational resources developments & curriculum in the Netherlands

• research model & methodology

• results

• conclusions, interpretation and future research

• questions

Learning materials “on the move”

School make use of curricular space:

more emphasis on independent learning, competences, authentic learning, new environments, school profiles/themes

New providers of learning materials: new publishers, new roles publishers, new partnerships between school, teachers publishing

The role of ICT: digital learning resources, VLEs, repositories

Shortage of teachers

New ways of funding the learning resources

Experiments: the teacher as a arranger and designer of learning materials

new demands

new offer, new

possibilities

new political situation

Curriculum

A plan for learning...

Levels: macro --- meso ---- micro

Educational resources: the "carriers" of the curriculum

Decentralized

educational policy

Centralized

educational policy

Netherlands

Appearance of educational resources

digitalpaper-based

textbooks

non-textbooks

Textbooks: a plan for learning on micro level?

• coherent packages of learning resources

• subject-related

• for different levels

• mainly developed by educational publishers

• textbooks and workbooks for one course of one publisher are used for several school years

Model

teacher charasteristics

school curriculum }digital

paper-

based

textbooks

non-textbooks

School curriculum: curricular spider web

RationaleContent

Tea

cher

ro

le

Mat

eria

ls &

Res

ources

Grouping

Location

Tim

e

Ass

essm

ent

Aims & Objectives

Learning activities

Questions & method

• What kind of learning materials are used in primary and secondary education?

• What kind of school and teacher characteristics have a relation with the types of learning materials used?

• How and with what demands do teachers select the learning materials? How do they use them?

• Method:

– small group discussions

– digital questionnaire

– set-out in nov/dec 2007

– 900 respondents

Textbooks:

• All teachers use text books

• Schools find new text books when they are dated (content or didactics)

• They use the books for 5,6 years (secondary) and 8,9 years (primary)

• Teachers decide

just textbooks

combination

only flexible learning

materials

Teaching time with textbooks and flexible learning materials

digitalpaper-

based

textbooks

non-

textbooks

Non-textbooks

• are more fun• connect beter to the interest of

students• are more “in depth”

• are used in projects• are often digital• and then availability and adaptebility

is of importance

1-y 2-y

self made 23% 44%

made with colleaguas 30% 36%

made by others 47% 20%

Primairy teachers use

materials of others, secondary

teachers like to make it

themselves

digitalpaper-

based

textbooks

non-

textbooks

More use of textbooks when...

• you are a man • experienced• work with students in the

age 10-12• you teach sciences,

languages or humananities subjects

• the teaching is not much focussed on self directed learning

Paper and digital learning materials

• Teachers work most of the time with paper learning materials

• No correlation with gender, 1y/2y, experience

• But: creative and vocational subjects use more digital learning materials

• And the relation with the school curriculum...

paper

combination

digital

Teaching time used with digital or

paper-based learning materials

digitalpaper-

based

textbooks

non-

textbooks

More self directed learning = more use of digital materials

low high

focus on self directed learning and

time spend with different learning materials

paper

combination

digital

digitalpaper-

based

textbooks

non-

textbooks

More focus on integrating courses = more use of digital learning materials

level of integrating courses and

time spend with different learning materials

low high

paper

combination

digital

digitalpaper-

based

textbooks

non-

textbooks

Conclusions, discussion and next steps

• Teachers are still using paper-based textbooks most of the time

• Schools striving towards more “21st learning” use more flexible and digital materials

• There are differences between teachers: gender, subject and experience

New monitor:• Available, perceived and utilized curricular

space• How determinative are textbooks? How can

teachers make their own curricula in relation to these textbooks?

SLO:• what are important curricular variations• what kind of curricular framework will help

schools/teachers best• to what extent can teachers create their own

curricula & learning materials

digitalpaper-based

textbooks

non-textbooks

Questions?

More information:

www.slo.nl/Leermiddelenmonitor

w.deboer@slo.nl

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fviewer.zoho.com%2Fdocs%2FllLcD&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&sl=nl&tl=en

Main findings

• The texbooks are still widely used • There are interesting differences between

sectors, gender, experience and topics on the use

• Most teachers still use paper• Digital is more flexible and more used in

"newer" education• Searching for resources goes by Google, it

costs a lot of time

Looking for learning materials

How often do teachers search?

PO VO PO/VO

daily 3% 6% 5%

weekly 27% 33% 31%

monthly 55% 45% 48%

almost never

16% 16% 16%

never 0% 0% 0%

How much time it takes them?

PO VO PO/VO

< 5 min 8% 9% 9%

5-15 min 35% 24% 27%

15-30 min 37% 39% 38%

> 30 min 20% 29% 27%Google is most used as a starting point

What do teachers find important when searching for flexible learning materials?

• Most important:– options for independent work– options for differentiation– coverage of (relation to) curriculum

goals (examination requirements)– instruction and didactics (pedagogy) – costs– visual impression of the material – target group

• Important:– role of ICT – tests (evaluation) – user experiences of colleagues– short description of the contents – long description of the contents (2 a4)

• Not (so) important:– availability– required educational

time– studies to comparisons

between methods– table of contents– bibliographic

information – reviews of third parties

(such as journals)– market share of the

method

Of most importance when selecting flexible learning materials

PO VO PO/VO

adaptebility 73% 79% 77%

availability 64% 69% 68%

costs 46% 32% 36%

look and feel 32% 23% 25%