Teacher education and ICT:some points for consideration

from the UK

Terry Haydn

School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of EastAnglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ England t.haydn@uea.ac.uk

(interesting, important, difficult)

Three points to put thispresentation in context

1. Teacher training institutions in the UK are not ‘freeagents’; they can’t just do what they want with regard topreparing student teachers to use ICT in their teaching,they have to comply with testing systems andcompetence standards laid down by politicians,policymakers and government agencies.

2. Our research interest has been to a large extent focusedon which interventions/experiences/resources studentteachers (and in some studies, in-service teachers) havefound helpful in enabling them to use ICT in theirteaching, and which interventions , experiences,strategies etc, they have found unhelpful.

3. Our research suggests that in the UK, there has at timesbeen a tension between politicians’ ideas about ‘what itmeans to be good at ICT’ as a teacher, and teachers’ideas about this.

What does it mean for teachers‘to be good’ at ICT?

Improve outcomes (PISA tests, examresults)

Teachers (and pupils) can use broad rangeof ICT applications (technical/coveragemodel)

They use ICT a lot in their teachingThey use ICT to improve teaching and

learning (pedagogy model)They feel confident/well prepared to use ICT

(NQT surveys)

Politicians, education and ICT

• ‘A succession of ministers embracedtechnology with photogenic relish; whendid you last see an education ministerwithout a computer in the background?

• (Heppell, 1995)

Politicians and ICT

• ‘The nation which embraces technologymost willingly and effectively will be thewinners in tomorrow’s world.’ (Hunt, 1995)

• ‘The future lies in the marriage ofeducation and technology.’ (Blair, 1995)

• ‘There is no place for scepticism about therole of new technology in education.’(DfEE, 1999)

Politicians and ICT

• ‘ICT is our new DNA, our new internalcombustion engine.’ (Morris, 2001)

• Pupils who use ICT get better results thanthose who don’t. This is true across allabilities, communities and subjects.’(Clarke, 2003)

John Naughton (1998)

• Warned of the dangers ofpoliticians (e.g. Blair, Blunkett,Clinton) seeing the internet aseducationally valuable becausethey saw it as a sort of ‘pump’ forstuffing information into children.

Experts in ICT and education• Kaye (1995) ICT and ‘junk learning’• Walsh (2004) ‘Encarta syndrome’ (copying and

pasting not learning)• Kress (2006) Hyperlinks and the loss of narrative• Childs (2006) Pupils getting lost and wasting

time on the internet• Counsell (2004) ICT as just ‘more stuff’• Madian (2001) Multimedia effects often

distracting from rather than aiding learning (N.B.not learning from the example of Google)

• Common phenomenon: ‘Death by PowerPoint’

Other problems with ICT: hyperlinks:Josie Taylor (Open University, 1996)

• ‘If they (learners) think it is all to do withtrial and error, jumping from one thing toanother, pressing this button, that button,that’s not learning, that’s not getting theknowledge into their minds in anintegrated way, in a way they can makeuse of, that’s just mucking about.’

ICT/Education ‘experts’

• ICT is not an unproblematic educationalmiracle; we have to find out how best toapply it in education, and this is complex,depending on context, applications andsubject discipline.

Loveless, A., De Voogd, G. and Bohlin, R. (2001)‘Is pedagogy affected by ICT?’ in A. Loveless and V. Ellis

(eds) London, RoutledgeFalmer: 67

• Constructing knowledge from informationrequires for more than the ability to use avariety of ICT techniques or skills with thelatest range of software applications; itrelates more to an ability to question,access, interpret, amend, analyse,construct and communicate meaning frominformation.’

ImpaCT 2 Report on the use of ICT inschools(2002)

• In spite of a computer to pupilratio of under 1:5 in secondaryschools, many teachersmaking little or no use of ICT

With 14 year olds, % of teachers saying theynever or hardly ever used computers:

• English: 61%• Maths: 67%• Science: 82%

If computers are so wonderful, whyaren’t teachers using them?

• (The importance of listening to whatteachers say).

Different paradigms:

What politicians wanted:

Young people trained in ICT use for the workforce: money spent onICT rooms in schools: children (and teachers) to be trained in theuse of ICT: vision of a technologically sophisticated workforce for thetwenty first century.

What teachers wanted:

New technology which would help them to teach theirsubject more effectively, to enhance teaching and learning generally. ICT which could easily be integrated into usein day to day teaching (data projectors and internet access inordinary teaching rooms). (PPT example)

Pupil and teacher use of Web 2.0applications

• Recent UK studies (e.g. BECTa 2008) suggestthat around 75% of high school pupils use Web2.0 applications but do not see any link witheducational use.

• Far fewer teachers use Web 2.0 in their teachingbut 59% believe they have the potential toimprove teaching and learning. Lack of time todevelop and explore Web 2.0 is cited as aproblem by many teachers.

Teacher attitudes and dispositiontowards developing their use of ICT

• Attitudes have changed over the pastdecade (more positive, at least openminded)

• Ideas about barriers to ICT use have alsochanged (lack of time rather than lack ofbelief)

• But – why do some student teachers getfurther than others given the same inputsand interventions?

‘First do no harm’

• Some mistakes:• ‘The floggings will continue until morale improves’• Curriculum mapping of ICT approach – put them off ICT• Overloading of ICT competences demanded of student

teachers (coverage model –show 1998 model) –putthem off ICT

• ICT online basic skills test – puts them off ICT• Generic ‘industrial training’ model (NOF Training

Scheme) –put them off ICT (c/f ‘Creative’ project –Haydn and Barton, 2007)

• Over-reliance/belief in distance learning and ‘more stuff’models

Conclusions/things to think about

• ‘Impact learning’ – what interventions and approaches helped themto get better/had no effect/put them off (Barton and Haydn, 2006)

• Exploring teachers’and/or student teachers’ ideas about what itmeans ‘to be good at ICT’ as a teacher

• How to accommodate subject differences in survey instruments (anddifferent national terminology)

• To some extent, student teachers and teachers have to makedifficult choices in terms of which ICT agendas/applications toexplore/develop; what are their views and ideas on whichapplications have the biggest ‘payoff’ in terms of improving theirteaching/pupils’ learning? (for refs. see accompanying briefingpaper).