Overview
Summary
Research into school improvement offers the promise of schools being able to satisfy competing demands for measurable improvements in student outcomes and teacher professional independence and integrity .
This report contends that a major factor in the limited impact of ICT on the curriculum is the failure to link the use of ICT to learning outcomes. Too much attention has been focused on teachers' ICT learning and not enough on student's general curriculum outcomes. Professional learning teams of teachers are critical to this process and in focusing on student outcomes, a high priority is to develop ways of measuring the full range of student outcomes.
The challenge of using ICT in schools
In Australia and other countries there is an expectation that ICT will contribute to a transformation of learning; however, the integration of ICT into the curriculum is proving to be one of the most challenging tasks facing schools. While access and technical issues are significant contributors to this challenge, the most difficult issues include
the rapid pace of ICT development,
appropriate pedagogy and assessment , and
teacher skills.
Assessment is critical to any attempt to improve educational practice and particularly to the integration of ICT within the curriculum. New learning including high-level skills, knowledge and attitudes are required for students to realise many of ICT’s potential benefits and these are generally not adequately addressed in current assessment regimes.
Education jurisdictions have conducted widespread professional learning programs around ICT for at least two decades but the overall skill and confidence level of teachers is below what is required. A particular complexity in professional learning for ICT is the dual nature of the task. Many teachers have required significant personal learning in use of ICT, but there is significant learning for all teachers in how to integrate ICT into their teaching.
These two elements are often separated, creating problems of timing and relevance in professional learning activities. Teachers learn ICT skills, but lack the time and opportunity to apply these in relevant curriculum delivery. So the skills tend to atrophy and teachers become disillusion with the value of ICT. Practical workshops have been a significant means of teacher skills development, but workshops have had limited impact, in large part because of the difficulty in linking this detached learning to classroom practice. It is one thing to learn skills in using ICT but it is an entirely different thing to be able to apply the skills in delivering the curriculum more effectively.
School improvement research
Professional learning for ICT is a subset of the wider issues of professional learning in general and school improvement. School improvement has been an object of vigorous debate over several decades. There has been widespread public disillusionment with the level of student performance in schools and governments in the UK and the US have embarked on programs of rigorous high-stakes testing of student performance against strong opposition from much of the education establishment. State and federal governments in Australia have gone down the testing and accountability pathway, but to lesser extent than in the UK and US. However successive Australian federal governments have made a commitment to school improvement, including national testing, to build accountability and to provide appropriate support and incentives.
Amid this conflict there is a growing consensus regarding school improvement. The key elements of this consensus are a focus on student outcomes involving rich assessment practices which measure the full range of outcomes and strong support and expectations of teacher-directed professional learning teams. These two elements imply strong expectations for teachers to professionally manage their own learning, linked to their immediate classroom practice, and teacher accountability for student outcomes.
The key elements of this view of school improvement are:
The focus of school improvement, and consequently on teacher professional learning, is on student outcomes, and teachers and schools are accountable for these outcomes.
Professional learning is largely school-based, focussed on the day to day work of teaching.
Most professional learning revolves around collaborative learning teams influencing and enhancing teachers’ practice, and is measured by student outcomes.
If these measures are effective in achieving overall school improvement, then it is likely that they are also relevant to the integration ICT in curriculum delivery. This report is aimed at supporting that outcome.