The National Teacher Research Panel was set up about 15 years ago by CUREE supported by a group of national education agencies most of which no longer exist. It had three main goals:
- To ensure that all research in education takes account of the teacher perspective
- To ensure a higher profile for research and evidence informed practice in government, academic and practitioner communities
- To increase the number of teachers engaged in and with the full spectrum of research activity.
Over the several years of its existence, the Panel, supported by its expert advisers in CUREE, has helped and encouraged dozens of teachers and school leaders to do high quality but practical research. The Panel also helped them report their findings succinctly, in plain English and focused on relevance to other practitioners. This is one such example of that work.
There is a vast array of new technologies currently available, such as the internet, internet-look-alike CD and DVD materials, digital imaging and video. 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 TLA research summarises a project that set out to explore these issues. The summary is a little different to our usual summaries because the project it focuses upon was a research anddevelopment 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 invitedto 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, for example, 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 alltogether to make presentations, they learn far more than when I sit them down and speak to them all at once'. In this summary, 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 this summary helpful. Somekh, B. Pedagogy and learning with ICT: Researching the Art of Innovation. Routledge, 2007. 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. and B. Somekh (2006). 'Learning transformation with technology: a question of sociocultural contexts?' International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 19 (4) pp. 519-539.
File attachments:
Document section: