The use of ICT in teaching religious education in primary school

Education and Information Technologies - The purpose of the present study is to investigate students’ understanding of Religious instruction and more specifically the understanding of the...     

Framing ICT, teachers and learners in Australian school education ICT policy

It is well over 20 years since information and communication technologies (ICT) was first included as part of a future vision for Australia’s schools. Since this time numerous national policies have been developed, which collectively articulate an official discourse in support of a vision for ICT to be embedded in our schools, and routinely used by ‘digital’ learners and ‘competent’ teachers alike. The purpose of this paper is to critique how ICT, teachers and learners are positioned in this vision by an analysis of national school-education ICT policies from 1989 to the present day, including the National Goals of Schooling policies, the Learning in an Online World suite of policies, several Ministerial Statements relating to ICT and the recent A Digital Education Revolution policy. This paper suggests that determinist views of technology and a utopian vision underpin these representations, which creates a flawed, future vision for ICT in school education and its use by teachers and learners.     

Changing the culture of a primary school: The case of introducing ICT across the curriculum

Abstract

Teachers and teacher learning are critical and key to establishing, understanding and realizing the possibilities of a learning society One first step in the process requires teachers to place their own learning at the centre of their activities. They must learn how to change, change the way they learn, and learn how to change their conditions of learning. This paper examines some policies and practices in regard to the provision of teacher professional development. Providing opportunities for teacher learning in Ireland has in general been preoccupied with facilitating curriculum reform, supporting organizational change and with easing management concerns. Shifting the emphasis from programme delivery to professional development through personal development is one challenge that has been taken up by the Second Level Support Service. It favours a process that is organic, career long and participant driven. Shifting the emphasis to a more personal and holistic form of development will not be an easy task but is a necessary one if the vision of a learning society and lifelong learning is to become realised.     

Primary school children's use of ICT

This article reports on a study of 267 primary children (Year 2 and 6) in five schools in South and Mid Wales. It examines their use of information and communications technology (ICT) both in school and at home using a combination of interview and questionnaire data. These data reveal that although the vast majority of children are making some use of computers in school, patterns of sustained and varied engagement with ICT are rare; with educational use of computers curtailed by a variety of classroom factors. Moreover, although many children could be considered to be sophisticated and knowledgeable consumers of ICT, their outside-of-school access to technology is varied. The findings raise questions about the nature of ICT use in primary classrooms and the need to ensure meaningful and regular access to technology in school for all children.     

Norwegian secondary school teachers and ICT

ICT is meant to be integrated in all subjects in Norwegian schools; nevertheless many teachers are reluctant to use ICT in their own teaching. This paper explores to what extent teachers use ICT in their classroom teaching and what teacher‐level factors influence the use of ICT. It draws on an analysis of 10 focus‐group interviews with 10 teachers and a quantitative study of 59 teachers in three lower secondary schools in Hamar, Norway. The teachers showed commitment to ICT; however, may did not see the educational value, except for increased access to learning material and to stimulate learner motivation. Teachers also expressed lack of ICT confidence even though they have been taking part in ICT courses. A main finding is that to integrate ICT in one’s own teaching is a difficult and gradual process and teachers must be given time to find their own way to merge ICT with their own teaching style.     

ICT and attainment at primary level

During the last six months the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) has published two reports (downloadable from http://www.becta.org.uk/) on the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and attainment levels of primary school children in national tests. Together, they constitute a significant contribution to the debate over the place of ICT in our primary schools but they also raise a number of issues regarding the assumptions upon which they are based and the role of teaching staff in the successful exploitation of ICT in the classroom. This article provides a critical analysis of both reports and proposes ways in which the issues raised can be taken forward.     

An in service training course, (INSET) on ICT pedagogy in classroom instruction for the Greek primary school teachers

To meet the increasing demand for change in the incorporation of ICT in education the Greek Ministry of Education and the Institute of Educational Policy of Greece, launched a nationwide project of in-service training (INSET) of teachers of the second level, training of teachers in the use and evaluation of ICT pedagogy in classroom instruction. The main focus of the study was to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of this in-service training in the pedagogic use of ICT in classroom-based instruction. Through the data collected and analyzed it is argued that a successful training course could be associated with the selection and utilization of specific research and instruction theories. These theories tailored to the acknowledged different profiles of the teacher-trainees as well as the time and setting of the course could promote effectiveness and produce fruitful outcomes.     

ICT,learning and primary mathematics

A report of a decline in the extra-curricular activities available to the children in a West London junior school is presented. Using interviews with the school staff as evidence, reasons for the decline and its wider implications are discussed.     

Challenging perceptions of school councils in the primary school

As part of citizenship education, school councils have been set up in primary schools based on adult models of democratic committees. This article looks at children's and teachers' perspectives on their school councils and goes on to analyse the ways in which alternative strategies for addressing the constraints identified were developed in three Norfolk primary schools.     

Enhancing learning with ICT at primary level

This study looks at three primary schools which have been successful in integrating ICT into the teaching and learning process. It confirms that a range of organisational features are correlated with successful implementation (eg, a sound learning environment, headteacher commitment, good forward planning etc) and goes on to argue that staff commitment plays a pivotal role in the process. This commitment can, however, be compromised by technological change (in this case from CD-ROM and LAN-based learning to WAN and Web-based learning) if the process is not properly managed.     

Cold comfort in the primary school

This paper contributes to the debate about conceptualising policy research by considering Howell's (1990) call that researchers reveal the ‘principle of choice’ which guides the selection of topics, strategies and resources in research. Specifically, it addresses the question of what information must be made available to other researchers so that there can be productive continuing conversations’ (Ball 1994:174) about policy research and its conceptualisation. An examination of the policy sociology literature indicates that the specification of the ‘principle of choice’ requires discussion of the intellectual resources deployed in the research and a consideration of the processes of intellectual work which render these resources meaningful. This specification is then applied in relation to my current research, the ‘Social Organisation of Education Practice’ (soep) project to investigate the changing relationship between education and training in Australia. The products and processes of intellectual work that have constituted the principle of choice in my own research are outlined and justified. The way this principle of choice has shaped the conceptualisation of the soep project is discussed and attention drawn to the practical limits of explicit conceptualisation and justification in research. The paper concludes by affirming the importance of making the principle of choice explicit but queries how this can be done in shorthand.     

ICT action school development at Helen Parkhurst Dalton School

The paper presents the progress of the action plan for the improvement of the ICT usage at the Helen Parkhurst Dalton School for secondary education in the Netherlands. At the start of the described action period in 2007, the ICT-usage in education was assessed through a review performed by a group of European inspectors. This assessment formed the basis for a continuous development in the school for promoting and improving the usage of ICT to improve the effectiveness of education. We did this by addressing the observed weaknesses with special measures, and continuing the action plans which were already put in place. We kept loyal to our starting point that technology use has to be determined through a strong vision of education and not that technology determines our philosophy as is sometimes the case. It was determined that the curriculum that should drive the learning, not the technology. In 2009 we carried out an intermediate self-evaluation. We established a new vision for school development for the near future. In this vision there was much room for a growing role of ICT usage. Concrete plans for the future were made. In this paper, the third in a row, we will try to assess the full impact of this implementation for teachers, learners and the quality of the teaching and learning process by comparing the assessment of 2007 with a self evaluation on the same indicators in 2011.     

Digital competences and long-term ICT integration in school culture: The perspective of elementary school leaders

This study examines how the leaders of technology integration in educational institutions - school principals and ICT facilitators - assess systemic changes that occurred in their schools. The study collected the data from Israeli elementary schools towards the end of the third and the fourth years of the gradual National ICT program. The research questions explored (1) the predictors of the general school ICT culture and (2) changes over time in the general school ICT culture and its components. An online questionnaire was distributed to all elementary schools in the Northern District and filled out jointly by the school principal and ICT facilitator. A total of 392 questionnaires (91.2 % response rate) were analyzed. The following predictors explained 63 % of variance in general school ICT culture: the percent of teachers who frequently use ICT in lessons, using technology for enhance pedagogy, teachers’ digital competence, digital content use, its design by teachers, pedagogical update of class website, school portal update (negative predictor), e-communication within school staff, and teacher-parents e-communication. Regarding the impact of time, the results indicated that between the 3rd and 4th years of ICT integration significant changes still occur in the general school ICT culture and most of its components.     

捷克中小学ICT与教学友好型环境的整合研究

捷克中小学ICT与教学友好型环境的整合研究是"信息通讯技术(ICT)与学校文化"研究项目的一个经验性的研究内容.研究者主要是从两个层面详细地研究了学校运作的关键领域--"教学友好型环境".首先从一般层面上说明了教学友好型环境中哪些因素受ICT的影响最大、怎样能加强ICT与创建教学友好型环境过程的整合、有哪些因素阻碍了ICT的实施.其次是从具体层面上,根据一些学校的具体情况分析了对校长问卷调查的结果.比如校长是如何看待他们成功地实施ICT以创建教学友好型环境,以及他们认为在哪些方面对ICT的利用有所进步.