ICT-SUPPORTED LEARNING PROCESSES:
TEACHER ATTITUDES ON THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF ICT AS A LEARNING-ENHANCING-ARTIFACT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS
B. Faugli, G. Wikan, T. Mølster, R. Hope
Hedmark University College (NORWAY)
This paper examines views and attitudes of secondary school teachers on the role of ICT as a learning-enhancing-artifact for supporting subject teaching. The examination is based on qualitative data collected during observations, studying of reflection notes and interviews with teachers involved in the first stage of an action research project. In the action part of the project, the teachers participate in training programs, mainly conducted by members of the research team, with the objective of both enhancing the teachers’ general ICT competence and mature their understanding of issues related to integrating ICT in secondary school learning processes. The training programs are organized with particular emphasis on qualifying the teachers, as pupil mentors, with competence in designing and supervising ICT supported pupil learning processes based on a knowledge production perspective. Conducting learning process in this perspective implies that the pupils are encouraged to pursue creative approaches to school work and actively apply ICT based solution for constructing presentations and communicate their comprehended understanding and interpretation of subject issues and established subject knowledge. The positive effects, on pupil’s digital literacy and subject learning outcome, of applying a production perspective, as opposed to a consumer perspective, is one of the basic assumptions behind the action process of the research project. The main objective of the project is to accomplish an enhancement of digital literacy among secondary school pupils and to investigate the effects of enhanced digital literacy on pupil learning outcome. Two teams, numbering a total of 9 teachers, were involved in the training programs during a period of 8 months in 2007 and 2008. In parallel with this training process, qualitative data, describing teacher views and attitudes was collected during regularly conducted focus group interviews with teacher teams, by studying teacher-produced reflection notes and from participant observations of teachers and pupils in classroom activities. The results of the examination supports findings from other recent research projects in the same field, indicating that teachers adapting to the role as mentors for ICT-supported learning process can be characterized as an evolutionary process. The process observed was an uneven and cumbersome maturing process, metaphorically resembling a rollercoaster ride. Initially the teachers were positive to the use of ICT in teaching, most likely because this was considered a “politically correct” attitude. As the project progressed, the level of teacher frustrations fluctuated, but signs of a breakthrough or turning point could be observed when the teachers’ insight and comprehension of the potential of ICT as a supporting tool used in combination with alternative pedagogical solutions was enhanced. The action part of the project will continue until spring 2009. At that stage, more extensive data material from the monitoring of pupil performance and approaches to school work will be available, allowing an expanded version of the present paper based on a more comprehensive analysis.