Continuing Professional Development
Whilst many teachers did not identify any changes in their pedagogical approach, some decreased the amount of direct teaching, broadened the range of activities for pupils and increased the independence of pupils. Most identified a greater integration of ICT into their practice as a result of reflection on experience, discussion with other teachers, and Internet searching. Those who did recognise a change often highlighted their emphasis on the value of mistakes – making mistakes explicit and developing a culture whereby pupils could make public mistakes with expectation of support and explanation rather than fear of ridicule. They had shifted more responsibility to pupils, listened to pupil more, made their actions contingent on what pupils did, and encouraged pupils to teach each other. They questioned pupils more deeply, set more open, activity-based tasks in groups, allowed more movement and prepared more differentiated activities to cater for pupils with additional educational needs either grouped together or with more able pupils. Although the attainment comparisons do not support generalisation beyond the teachers involved, this has indicated that some teachers who were very effective without ICT did not immediately enhance their teaching when they adopted ICT, gained ICT skills and experimented with how ICT could best be integrated into their practice. Starting to use ICT had made little difference to teaching approaches, providing additional and replacement material such as images, video clips and quizzes to enhance existing practice. Teachers already using ICT, however, tended to improve their effectiveness and gain from reflecting on their practice, discussing ideas and sharing resources from colleagues. Some experienced users recognised that they were more selective with ICT, and some had changed their ways of working: for instance, let pupils work on the IWB in small groups, and using the ICT room to enable pupils to find things out for themselves rather than presenting prepared material on the board. There was some feeling that ICT enabled pupils to take more responsibility and work independently, and that rapid feedback boosts confidence. They felt that ICT could not do everything, however, and needed to be supplemented with practical work in science and oral work in language teaching.
In reflecting on the project process, many teachers referred to the frustrations of ICT malfunctions, but felt in a position to take greater initiative in solving problems and developing their own skills. They valued the collaboration with other teachers, but placed most value on being able to watch themselves teach and discussing episodes with the researcher. They had become more open to ideas and more confident in developing their own ideas with ICT. One teacher also recognised the value of pupils reflecting on a video of the learning.
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