Teacher understandings of technology affordances and their impact ...

Educational Media International, Vol. 42, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 297–316

Teacher understandings of technology affordances and their impact on the design of engaging learning experiences Foo Seau Yoon, Jeanne Ho and John G. Hedberg* Educational Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore; National Institute of Education, Singapore 40JohnHedberg Australian 00000December Centre for 2005 Educational StudiesUniversity of MAcquarieNSW [email protected] Educational 10.1080/09523980500237716 REMI123754.sgm 0952-3987 Original Taylor 2005 42 and & Article Francis (print)/1469-5790 Francis MediaGroup Ltd International Ltd (online)

This study examined how six teachers designed and implemented engaging learning experiences with information communication technologies (ICT) that involved pupils as active participants in learning. Each teacher designed and taught a unit of work (topic) and was observed for two lessons within the unit. The first observation occurred with only the initial planning undertaken by the teacher. Before the second lesson a reflection and feedback session was conducted by the researcher and the teacher. On the basis of the issues raised, the teacher redesigned the lesson to improve the use of ICT and involve pupils more actively in learning. The study revealed that it is the teacher’s skill in managing the tripartite partnership of IT tool, learning task and teacher support that brings about higher levels of pupil engagement. The six teachers’ lessons from the study were discussed using this tripartite model. The tripartite model could be a useful frame of reference for teachers to understand the dynamics of implementing ICT-based lessons and hence design more engaging learning experiences for their pupils. La compréhension de l’offre technologique chez les professeurs et son impact sur la conception d’expériences d’apprentissage motivantes. Cette étude a porté sur la façon dont six enseignants ont conçu et mis en place des expériences d’apprentissage motivantes reposant sur les TIC (Technologies d’information et de communication) qui ont amené les élèves à jouer un rôle actif dans leur apprentissage. Chaque enseignant a conçu et enseigné une unité de travail (un thème) et il a été observé au cours de deux leçons au sein de cette unité. La première observation s’est faite alors que l’enseignant avait seulement effectué la planification initiale. Avant la deuxième leçon le chercheur et l’enseignant ont mené une séance de réflexion et de rétroalimentation. A partir des problèmes qui avaient été soulevés, l’enseignant a repensé la leçon pour améliorer l’emploi des TICE et impliquer davantage les élèves dans l’apprentissage. Cette étude a révélé que c’est l’habileté du professeur pour gérer l’alliance tripartite d’un outil informatique ,d’une tâche d’apprentissage et du soutien du professeur qui amène l’élève à s’impliquer davantage. On a analysé les six leçons des enseignants engagés dans cette étude en utilisant le modèle tripartite. Ce modèle tripartite pourrait être un cadre de référence utile pour aider les enseignants à comprendre la dynamique de mise en place des leçons basées sur les TICE et par là à concevoir des expériences d’apprentissage plus motivantes pour leurs élèves.

* Corresponding author. Australian Centre for Educational Studies, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. Email: [email protected] ISSN 0952-3987 (print)/ISSN 1469-5790 (online)/05/040297–20 © 2005 International Council for Educational Media DOI: 10.1080/09523980500237716

298 Foo S. Y. et al. Das Verständnis von Lehrern über Technologieerfordernisse und seine Auswirkung auf den Entwurf ansprechender Lernangebote Diese Studie untersuchte, wie sechs Lehrer ansprechende Lernangebote entwickelten und in den Unterricht einbauten, in denen die Schüler mit Hilfe von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) zu aktiven Lernern wurden. Jeder Lehrer entwarf und lehrte eine Arbeitseinheit (Thema) und wurde zwei Stunden innerhalb dieser Einheit beobachtet. Die erste Beobachtung fand nur mit der vom Lehrer übernommenen Anfangsplanung statt. Vor der zweiten Stunde wurde eine vom Untersucher geleitete Reflexions- und FeedbackSitzung mit dem Lehrer durchgeführt. Aufgrund der angesprochenen Punkte gestaltete der Lehrer die Stunde um und verbesserte die Verwendung von IKT, um die Schüler aktiver am Lernprozeß zu beteiligen. Die Studie ergab, dass es die Fertigkeit des Lehrers beim Verwalten der dreiteiligen Partnerschaft von ihr Werkzeug, das Aufgaben- und Lehrerunterstützung ist, die höhere Niveaus der Schülerverpflichtung bewirkt. Die Stunden der sechs Lehrer von der Studie wurden mit Hilfe dieses dreiteiligen Modells erörtert. Das dreiteilige Modell konnte ein nützlicher Referenzrahmen sein, damit Lehrer die Dynamik verstehen, ICT basierte Stunden durchzuführen, und daher mehr einnehmende Gelehrsamkeitserfahrungen für ihre Schüler entwerfen.

Background The Educational Technology Division (ETD)of the Ministry of Education of Singapore initiated a small-scale research study in 2003 to find out how engaged learning was interpreted and translated into practice by six teachers and the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in facilitating engaged learning. By working with teachers we wanted to elicit from teachers their perspective of engaged learning; what is practised in the classroom versus what is defined in the literature. With a better understanding of teachers’ ICT practices in the classroom we could suggest a possible approach for the design and implementation of engaging learning experiences with ICT. Our study sought to work with classroom teachers who were nominated as being at higher levels of technology implementation and who took up the challenge of supporting effective learning with high levels of pupil participation. Each teacher was asked to design and teach a unit of work (topic) using ICT to involve pupils as active participants in the learning experience. After observation of the first lesson a reflection and feedback session was conducted by the researcher and the teacher. This resulted in the teacher redesigning the lesson to enhance ICT use and pupils’ engagement. This second lesson was videotaped and was followed by a second interview session. Research questions We wanted to find answers to the following questions. 1. How does the classroom teacher interpret the concept of engaged learning? 2. What does the teacher see as the role of IT in facilitating engaging learning experiences? 3. How does the teacher translate the concept of engaged learning with IT into actual classroom practices? ● ● ● ●

How is instruction organized? What are the learning tasks? What teaching and learning strategies are adopted? What are the roles played by the teacher, the pupils and the technology to facilitate engaged learning in the lesson?

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 299 The use of the term ‘engaged learning’ in this paper should be taken in the broadest sense (i.e. engaging learning experiences whereby pupils are active participants in learning) rather than being confined to a specific definition (see, for example, Jones et al., 1995). Why was the teacher the focus of our study? Though learning in the classroom is a process coconstructed by the teacher, the pupils and the instructional materials (Ball & Cohen, 1996), it is the teacher’s design and facilitation of learning activities which determine whether and how engaged learning with ICT occurs in the classroom. This was reiterated by Bransford et al. (2000), who emphasized that the positive impact of technology does not come automatically, as it is dependent on how teachers use ICT in their classroom.

Teachers as task designers The critical role of teachers as task designers in shaping the learning experiences of pupils was noted by Hawkins (1996) in writing of a long-term project concerned with the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning in North American schools: Beyond the tradition of instructing the fixed facts of disciplines and received knowledge, schools must now enable pupils to appreciate the complexities that bathe them—to develop sophisticated interpretation skills, tolerance for ambiguity, an appetite for difficult problems, and measured thoughtfulness in pursuit of a solution. This requires creating habits of seeking out various perspectives and consulting multiple disciplines and any big question. It requires facility with tools that help us find and make sense of evidence. It requires openness to conversation as a way to challenge one’s assumptions, and a habit of remaining interested in ways of conceiving things. (p. 40)

Hawkins’ comments thus provided the basis for our study to investigate how the six Singapore teachers would function as learning task designers. Three critical factors need to be considered by teachers in designing more open textured learning activities and using ICT tools efficiently and effectively at the same time. Simply put, in whatever is produced or implemented scope needs to be provided by teachers for multiple: ● ●

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solutions (end-points may be validly different); strategies (the route to an end-point is often generated by the invention of the learner and the needs of the data being generated as part of the process); perspectives (the perspective of the problem might be instrumental in a solution or an alternative approach given a different point of view).

From the literature, the 10 year ‘Apple classrooms of tomorrow’ (ACOT) project also provides our study with a framework for coming to terms with teachers’ learning task design issues. It posits that teachers, as task designers, could be potentially involved in increasing the effectiveness of their use of ICT as they understand more about the technologies and how they support different learning strategies. The ACOT teachers themselves had been observed to pass through five phases of development as a result of being situated in technology-rich learning environments. It was found that their traditional beliefs about education and classroom practices were gradually replaced with new ones (Sandholtz et al., 1997): ●

at the entry level teachers frequently found that they were unable to anticipate problems in their classrooms;

300 Foo S. Y. et al. ●

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at the adoption level teachers delivered teacher-centred lessons but also began to anticipate problems and develop strategies for solving them; at the level of adaptation teachers started using technology to their advantage and began to embrace pupil-centred orientations; at the level of appropriation teachers’ personal attitudes to technology changed to confident expert and willing learner; finally, with invention teachers were disposed to view learning as an active, creative and social process.

Hence, a key assumption of our study was that teachers are capable of improving the design of their lessons to engage their pupils more effectively with the use of technology, given a belief in the general concept of engaged learning and with some level of support and intervention from the ETD research team.

Pupil engagement Next, we look at the literature pertaining to pupil engagement and the role of ICT in enhancing learning. These were two important aspects that we examined in our study of the six teachers’ lessons over a range of subjects and levels. The insights that we gleaned from the literature helped us to shape our criteria for the selection of teachers’ lessons, frame our observations of teachers’ lessons and influence the way we coded the lessons. How did we operationally define ‘pupil engagement’ in our study of the six teachers’ lessons? A search of the literature points to various operationalizations of pupil engagement (Chapman, 2003). While the early studies focused on time-based indices (e.g. time on task) to assess pupil engagement, more recent studies favoured a combination of cognitive (e.g. pupils expending mental effort to learn something), behavioural (e.g. pupil participation) and affective (e.g. pupil enthusiasm and interest) indicators. The ACOT project study (Haymore et al., 1994), involving 32 elementary and secondary schools, brought to light the following characteristics of pupil engagement in technology-rich classrooms; taking the initiative, self-motivation, collaborating spontaneously and undertaking independent experimentation. The ACOT study used teachers’ qualitative self-report data (i.e. weekly reports and reflection audiotapes) to study changes in pupil engagement when participating classrooms were given access to a variety of IT tools for teaching and learning. Likewise in our study, we adopted indicators like pupil participation and interest levels during lessons and the nature of pupils’ work submitted (e.g. concept maps) to be proxy measures for the extent of engagement. We also took the same perspective as the ACOT researchers in our study of the six teachers’ lessons. The perspective was that teachers, being more familiar with their pupils’ behaviour, would be in a better position than outside observers to know whether pupils were engaged during lessons. In the ETD study teachers’ perceptions regarding pupil engagement were elicited and discussed during two post-lesson reflection sessions. These sessions helped to confirm or disprove researchers’ inferences on pupil engagement that were made during lesson observations. The transcripts of these reflection sessions and of the teachers’ lessons were then further analysed and coded to determine how the design and implementation of the learning tasks led to higher levels of pupil engagement.

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 301 Role of ICT in learning What kinds of learning experiences are most likely to result in high levels of pupil engagement? Researchers like Jones (Jones et al., 1995), Roschelle (Roschelle et al., 2000) and Bransford (Bransford et al., 2000) contended that pupils learn best when they are actively constructing new knowledge rather than passively acquiring knowledge. Knowledge construction starts from what pupils already know and believe. New understanding is derived when pupils articulate these ideas and negotiate new meanings through thoughtful interactions with their peers and teachers. The affordances of technology can be tapped to support pupils’ meaningful knowledge construction in the following ways: ● ● ● ● ●

provide authentic and real-world contexts; involve collaboration and communication with peers and external experts; support multiple outcomes, multiple perspectives and multiple strategies; involve pupils cognitively in higher order thinking and in developing understanding; give pupils and teachers more opportunities for feedback, reflection and revision.

Jonassen’s (2000) mindtools are further examples of a use of technology that mediates pupils’ meaning-making efforts (e.g. the use of a concept mapping tool to make thinking visible and to facilitate knowledge construction) to bring about high levels of engagement. In essence, pupils’ active construction of knowledge would necessitate a generative rather than a presentational use of ICT. The knowledge generative and presentational uses of ICT could be seen as extreme ends of a continuum. Use of ICT in knowledge generative activities constitutes the higher end of the continuum as they ‘bring learners with different perspectives together to produce shared understandings—there is co-construction of knowledge between the teacher, the pupil and others and learning occurs as the result of interactions among the learner, the teacher, and others’ (Jones et al., 1995). Hence, the ICT uses espoused by Bransford and colleagues were incorporated in our lesson selection checklist. This was to help us better identify teachers’ lessons that tapped technology affordances to move pupil learning towards more knowledge generative ways. Methodology Case study approach According to Yin (1994) and Stake (1995) the case study approach is ideal for holistic in-depth investigation of a phenomenon in its real-life context. This study used the case study method to obtain rich descriptions of the pedagogical practices of teachers in lessons that support ICT use and pupil engagement. Pedagogical practices are defined as ‘organised or patterned sets of activities or interactions that teachers use to support and promote pupil learning’ (IEA, 2000). The rich descriptions would comprise the processes and behaviours of teachers and learners (i.e. what teachers did and what learning tasks pupils performed) that were critical to bring about high levels of pupil engagement. We also wanted to identify specific teacher actions that would be particularly useful in facilitating engaged learning with ICT. We had to do some intervention for each case as we worked with the teachers to redesign their lessons to facilitate a higher level of engaged learning. The key intervention involved introducing

302 Foo S. Y. et al. Table 1.

ICT tools used by pupils

Lesson objectives

Pupil use of ICT tools

Andrew’s secondary 3/4 English lessons: Pupils identified and explained the main components of a story(e.g. character, climax) and incorporated these elements in the writing of a short narrative.

Video clip, digital images and Microsoft Word

Belinda’s secondary 1/2 maths lessons: Pupils investigated the criteria of a perpendicular bisector, inferred the thinking behind three ways of drawing perpendicular bisectors and also constructed perpendicular bisectors.

GSP (Geometer Sketch Pad)

Colin’s primary 4 science lessons: Pupils conducted an investigation to determine the material (plastic, paper and styrofoam) that would be the best insulator of heat.

Robotics dataloggers with temperature sensors

Denise’s secondary 4 geography lessons: Pupils discussed the causes and consequences of environmental degradation and applied questioning, elucidating and decision-making skills. Ellen’s primary 5 social studies lessons: Pupils analysed authentic data that they collected to investigate the microclimates around their school’s neighbourhood. Fauziah’s primary 2 English lessons: Pupils gathered information from the Internet to write email messages to their pen pals according to a given topic.

Inspiration (a mind mapping tool), Discussion Forum, Microsoft Powerpoint, Online Poll

GIS (Geographic Information System) software

ePals platform (email platform)

the teachers to the framework of engaged learning of Jones et al. (1995) as a checklist to guide the post-lesson discussion, during which the teachers reflected on their lesson and how they could improve it. Selection of cases Teachers were invited to submit lesson proposals for the study, based either on recommendations of IT trainers who had been working closely with the schools or being past winners of innovative uses of technology awards. Six proposals, covering a range of subjects, levels and use of technology, were shortlisted from a total of 17 proposals submitted based on the following criteria: ●

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the lesson was in a core subject, conducted during curriculum time and appeared to be well structured in terms of learning tasks; technology played a central role in engaging the learners. [A lesson selection checklist was adapted from the ICT uses outlined by Bransford and Jonassen (www.ncrel.org/sdrs/edtalk/ toc.htm“ \t ”_blank).]

The ICT tools used by pupils in the lessons of these six selected teachers are shown in Table 1.

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 303 Table 2.

Data collection activities

Data collection activities

Key areas to collect data

Sources of data

Pre-lesson teacher interview To find out the teacher’s initial understanding of engaged learning and his/her views about the role of IT Lesson 1 observation Observe how the teacher translates his/her concept of engaged learning into actual pedagogical practices Post-lesson 1 teacher interview (with intervention; introduction of engaged learning framework) Interview the teacher on the lesson conducted, introduce the engaged learning framework and get the teacher to think about redesigning certain aspects of the lesson in terms of engaged learning

Preconceptions of: engaged learning role of IT

Lesson selection checklist Pre-lesson interview questions

Aspects of engaged learning exhibited and translated into pedagogical practices (e.g. instructional strategies) Gaps in the understanding of engaged learning Intervention strategy used Changes in understanding of engaged learning (positive or negative)

Classroom observation form Pupils’ work

[Redesign of lesson by teacher (1–2 weeks)] Aspects of engaged learning Lesson 2 observation (with videotaping exhibited and translated into of redesigned lesson) pedagogical practices Observe how the teacher conducts an improved lesson in terms of engaged learning Changes in teacher’s Post-lesson 2 interview questions perceptions of engaged learning Interview the teacher about the second Insights about engaged learning lesson conducted and the support Support needed to conduct needed to do an engaged-learning engaged-learning lessons in lesson general

Post-lesson 1 interview questions Engaged learning criteria Classroom observation form

Classroom observation form Videotape of lesson Pupils’ work

Post-lesson 2 interview questions Classroom observation form

Data collection Data collection for each case study took place over a 5 week period, with the researchers working in pairs on each case. A pre-lesson interview was conducted to determine the teacher’s views and beliefs about the role of ICT and his/her preconceived notions of what makes for engaging uses of ICT in learning. This was followed by observation of the first lesson to see how the teacher’s intent, as indicated in the lesson plan and pre-lesson interview, was translated into classroom processes and practices. During the observation the researchers took extensive notes of teacher actions and class talk and selected pupil groups were also observed as they worked on a learning task. A post-lesson interview was conducted with the teacher to review the lesson and identify possible gaps between the teacher’s beliefs, practices and outcomes. The indicators in the framework of engaged learning of Jones et al. (1995) were introduced to the teacher to help them identify ideas for the redesign of the lesson towards one that might be described as active, engaging and generative for the pupils. The teacher was given time to redesign their lesson and

304 Foo S. Y. et al. to conduct either a follow-up lesson with the same class or the redesigned lesson with another class of similar ability. The second lesson was videotaped in its entirety and a second postlesson interview was conducted to explore the teacher’s new insights and understanding of the role of ICT in the learning experience. Data coding and analysis For each case study transcripts of all interview data, first lesson observation notes and the redesigned lesson video were coded. The coding categories were drawn from the comprehensive framework of engaged learning within the context of ICT use of Jones et al. (1995). It comprises eight categories of learning and instruction: vision of learning, learning context, tasks, assessment, teacher role, pupil role, instructional models and strategies and grouping. Our study used these broad categories of learning and instruction to code the key features of the six teachers’ lessons that were of interest to the study. Only seven of the eight categories of learning and instruction were used in this initial round of coding. The category ‘Grouping’ was deliberately left out because aspects like regrouping of pupils according to instructional needs were not observed in all the lessons. As the categories of Jones et al. do not specify the role of ICT, the category ‘value-add of ICT’ was added to focus the analysis of data on the role of ICT. ‘Value-add of ICT’ is a phrase coined to refer to harnessing of technology affordances to support learning in ways detailed by Roschelle et al. (2000). Notes were also made on obstacles/problems encountered and the teacher’s perceptions of what constitutes engaging learning experiences. Each case study was reviewed by the whole research team. The aim of the critiques was to ensure that the description and analysis of each case would be comprehensive, triangulated and understandable by teachers. The description was kept as factual as possible while the analysis was based on what was said or observed during the lesson and on the teacher’s views and opinions as expressed during the interviews. During analysis of the data from a teacher’s lesson we looked at each learning task to see how individual features fitted together (e.g. how does the teacher mediate the learning task together with the pupils and the use of IT?) as well as how the tasks were connected with one another. As indicated by Stigler and Hiebert (1999, p. 75) for the coding of lessons in their video study: What is important is how the features fit together to form a whole. How does one feature connect with the next one; how does an activity near the end of the lesson link back with one at the beginning? Individual features make sense only in terms of how they relate with others that surround them.

Thus, from eight categories the codes gradually evolved into three core categories which were observed in all six lessons and which appeared to be intimately connected: technology, teacher support and learning task.

Discussion We propose using a tripartite model (Figure 1) to anchor our discussion of the teachers’ design and implementation of their lessons. This model emerged from the analysis of our findings across the six teachers’ lessons. We found that in the more engaging lessons (i.e. high levels of pupil participation and involvement) the teacher would have designed the learning task with the

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 305 Technology (e.g. knowledge generative use, presentational use, teacher use, pupil use)

Engaging Learning Experiences Learning Task (e.g. structured, openended, multiple solutions, multiple perspectives, multiple strategies)

Teacher Support (e.g. allocation of time, scaffolding, modelling of processes)

Figure 1.

Tripartite model

pupils’ ability in mind, chosen appropriately the IT tool (and its affordances) to support the learning outcomes and provided adequate teacher support in terms of modelling/scaffolding of key processes and allocation of sufficient time. Teachers who were less successful tended to focus on one or two elements (i.e. IT tool and learning task). For example, in an observed science lesson using dataloggers the teacher planned the learning task (i.e. provided a worksheet) and use of the IT tool (i.e. provided a manual) but did not give much thought to providing teacher support (i.e. no modelling of key steps). Hence, the pupils were left struggling with the experimental set-up. Our findings concurred with a similar framework proposed by Oliver (1999) for a different context of designing online learning settings. Oliver’s framework consists of three interconnecting elements of learning tasks (i.e. tasks that learners do), learning resources (i.e. resources supporting learners to do tasks) and learning supports (i.e. support mechanisms provided by the teacher) critical to the design of an online environment for knowledge construction by pupils. We adapted Oliver’s framework to come up with our tripartite model for our context of teachers designing and implementing engaging learning experiences using ICT in classrooms. The tripartite model (Figure 1) describes the interplay of technology, learning task and teacher support that determines whether learning experiences are engaging to pupils. Where appropriate, we incorporated the literature that we reviewed (i.e. pupil engagement and ICT uses) and collapsed the broad categories of engaged learning (the framework of Jones et al.) that were pertinent to our case studies under the appropriate element in the tripartite model. Figure 1. Tripartite model

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Technology. This describes the technological resources needed and how they are used (knowledge generative or presentational uses, value-add of IT as espoused by the work of Bransford et al., etc) and by who (teacher use or pupil use).

306 Foo S. Y. et al. ●

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Learning task. This describes the nature of work pupils do (e.g. structured, open-ended, Hawkin’s multiple solutions, multiple perspectives or multiple strategies ) and the role that they take in learning (e.g. explorer or cognitive apprentice). Teacher support. this describes the learning supports provided by the teacher (e.g. allocation of time, scaffolding and modelling of processes), the instructional strategies and the role of the teacher (e.g. facilitator).

Next, we used the tripartite model to describe the lessons of the six teachers in terms of ICT use and pupil engagement. We observed that it is the teacher’s skill in managing the ‘tripartite’ partnership of IT tool (chosen with careful thought and appropriateness), learning task (designed with the pupils’ ability in mind) and teacher support (provision of adequate support in terms of modelling/scaffolding of key processes and allocation of sufficient time) that brings about higher levels of pupil engagement. Denise was one of the teachers we observed that successfully managed the ‘tripartite’ relationship of IT tool (discussion forum), learning task (pupils asking higher order questions) and teacher support (modelling the process of asking higher order questions) to bring about higher levels of pupil engagement. In her lesson Denise wanted pupils to discuss the causes and consequences of environmental degradation before making a decision to support a particular environmental cause. First, pupil presenters used PowerPoint to share, consolidate and articulate their understanding of Internet information on pollution issues. The pupils making up the audience did a digital mind map (Inspiration) to make sense of the presentations. The next learning task was to get pupils to go into the discussion forum to ask questions for further clarification. Table 3 shows the tripartite elements for this learning task. Denise’s pupils were very excited about using the online forum as a discussion tool. Some of them had already switched to the discussion forum and were typing out questions even before the teacher issued instructions for them to do so. However, Denise noticed that the initial pupil exchanges in the discussion forum were relatively low level and consisted mainly of standard definition-related questions such as ‘What is informal settlement? Please define …’ and ‘What is urban decay?’ Denise went into the discussion forum to model the process of asking higher order questions (e.g. ‘How are you going to implement laws concerning air pollution’ and ‘Have you considered the political implications of such a move?’). It was observed that the pupils took their cue from their teacher’s demonstration of the kind of thinking she expected from them and, subsequently, the kinds of questions and comments posted improved. An example of a pupil’s improved questioning is ‘How do you allocate funds to each aspect’, ‘What laws do you want to implement’ and ‘Where do you want to start from?’ We can see that Denise’s intervention Table 3.

Tripartite elements for Denise’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

Pupils were to ask higher-order questions regarding the presentations.

Online discussion forum

Denise modelled the process of asking higher-order questions and of providing comprehensive answers.


Tripartite elements for Ellen’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

Pupils were to interpret the temperature data of the neighbourhood collected over 3 days

Geographical Information System (GIS)

Ellen modelled the process of asking ‘why’ questions to support pupils’ analysis of data.

(teacher support in the form of modelling) in the online forum resulted in pupils asking more higher order questions. Discussions and pupil collaboration went beyond the lesson when some pupils returned to the forum later in the day to post more questions or comments. Denise indicated that in a normal class setting pupils who processed their thoughts more slowly would be left out of the discussion. Denise commented: In classroom situations, you ask them to ask questions, [the] tendency is [they think that the] teacher is god, so they won’t ask. They won’t ask unless they are really sure of themselves … they will just listen. But in front of a computer, they respond and they are engaged in that. (Pre-lesson interview)

Ellen was another teacher who skillfully managed the ‘tripartite’ relationship of IT tool (Geographical Information System), learning task (pupils analysing and interpreting data) and teacher support (modelling the process of asking questions about the data) to bring about pupil engagement. Ellen began her lesson by recapitulating the fieldwork activities that pupils undertook to collect data on microclimates in the neighbourhood using Geographic Information System (GIS). The objective of the lesson was for pupils to interpret the temperature data

Figure 2.

Graphical representation of the temperature data collected at the nine stations

308 Foo S. Y. et al.

Figure 3.

Aerial map of the microclimate stations

collected from nine stations in the neighbourhood over 3 days. Pupils had to relate the temperature readings to the physical features of the fieldwork locations. The affordances of GIS in showing different representations of the data (linear data tabulation, bar chart representation and spatial representation) helped pupils make connections between the temperature readings (Figure 2) and the characteristics of the physical locations (Figure 3). Ellen supported pupils’ attempts at analysis by modelling the process of asking ‘why’ questions during the group discussions. According to Ellen this was to help her pupils understand that the processes of research might not lead to a definite answer but to a series of probable solutions: What I want to teach them is the process of research, how to go about doing proper research and if ever they have to do research they’ll know the steps [they] have to go through you know, plus the project itself is not an end because the answer itself … there is no answer to it, it’s [debatable] so because of all these, it gives them an idea … [of] things they have to determine and they have to be involved in. (Post-lesson interview)

Ellen facilitated pupils’ discussions by asking for many possible answers from pupils. She encouraged pupils to think through those answers by asking more ‘why’ questions. Two examples of teacher-facilitated discussions are provided below.

Figure 3. maprepresentation of the microclimate stations 2. Aerial Graphical of the temperature data collected at the nine stations

Group discussion 1 Ellen: Pupil 1: Ellen: Pupil 2:

Why was the temperature for day 1 lower than those of day 2 and day 3? It might have rained that day. What else could have happened? What do you think might have caused the lowest temperature recording? I disagree with pupil 1 because ….

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 309 Group discussion 2 Ellen: Pupil 3: Ellen: Ellen: The pupils: Ellen: Pupil 4: Ellen:

What do you notice about the temperature around these houses? What location is this? The environment is terraced houses. Pupil 3 has given us a clue. Would anyone like to take up and elaborate with a further answer? Good, it is crowded? Why is the temperature higher then? The wind path is blocked. What happened to the heat at this environment then? How is heat reflected? You learnt [this] in your science? The concrete absorbed the heat. The heat reflected is also trapped within the closed houses. The cars that passed by give out heat as well. The air conditioning gives out heat. The generated heat can also cause a higher temperature in this environment. (Video transcript)

We noted a difference between the behavioural engagement and cognitive engagement of pupils. The teacher, in designing ICT-based learning tasks, needs to ensure that the mechanics involved in using ICT do not distract pupils from the intended learning goals. Colin was one teacher that redesigned his ICT-based learning task and provided teacher support to ensure that the mechanics involved in using ICT did not distract his pupils from the intended learning goals. During Colin’s first science lesson he wanted pupils to set up their dataloggers so that they could conduct an investigation to identify the best insulator of heat. For the duration of the entire lesson pupils seemed to be more physically engaged with the technical aspects of setting up their dataloggers. Colin had left it to his pupils to use an instruction manual to do their own set-up. Because most pupils were grappling with the set-up procedure, there were very few instances of pupils discussing the scientific concepts that Colin wanted them to learn in the first lesson. Table 5 shows the tripartite elements for Colin’s learning task. In his follow-up science lesson Colin redesigned the learning task to streamline the ICT setup procedure. There were fewer technical steps for his pupils to do. During the lesson he provided more teacher support by using a visualizer to demonstrate critical steps of setting up the datalogger. With the streamlining of procedures and the teacher demonstration, errors relating to experimental set-up were minimized and his pupils moved faster into obtaining and discussing results of their science investigation. There was greater cognitive involvement on the part of the pupils Table 5.

Tripartite elements for Colin’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

Original learning task:

Datalogger with heat sensor

Lack of teacher support:

Pupils set up their dataloggers so that they could conduct an investigation to identify the best insulator of heat. Pupils had difficulties and took a long time to set up the dataloggers. Redesigned learning task: Colin redesigned the learning task to include fewer technical steps for pupils to set up their dataloggers.

Colin left it to the pupils to do their own set-up by following an instruction manual. Teacher support: Colin provided a demonstration of the critical steps of the set-up.

310 Foo S. Y. et al. as they spent the bulk of the lesson time analysing the graph generated by the datalogger and less on set-up, since the teacher ensured that the equipment was partially set-up before the lesson. Below is an example of a group discussion that focused on analysis of the graph. Colin: Pupils 7 & 8: Colin: Pupil 7: Colin: Pupils 7 & 8: Colin: Pupil 7: Pupil 8: Colin: Pupil 7: Colin: Pupils 7–9: Colin: Pupil 10: Pupils 7 & 8: Colin: Pupil 7 & 8: Colin:

Let’s look at the graph. What did you observe? Going to room temperature. Going to room temperature. So how much is room temperature? Thirty something? Yeah. 30 something degrees Celsius, right. But look at here [the graph], we are …. We are still quite high. We are still quite high. So slowly, it will go to room temperature. … Starting temperature is …. 70 degrees. Yeah. Starting temperature is 70 degrees right. What do you observe from this graph? 65 degrees. Is it actually going up or going down? Going down. Is there a proper term for going down? Decrease Losing heat. Increase or …. Decrease. Decrease in temperature. (Video transcript)

We observed that the lessons in our study revealed a continuum of ICT use. How ICT is used depends on the teachers’ understanding of what constitutes effective learning and their roles in pupils’ learning. Andrew is one example of a teacher whose use of ICT reflected his understanding of what constitutes effective learning and his role in his pupils’ learning. According to Andrew, an effective learning environment is one that is sufficiently open to encourage multiple perspectives and collaboration and it places the onus on the pupils to make sense of their own learning. He felt that his role as a teacher is to facilitate pupils’ learning: ‘I don’t know if you noticed my style, I tend to like to ask questions more than to give answers and I like to ask as many questions as time permits’ (post-lesson interview). His understanding of what effective learning entails and his role in the learning process influenced the way he designed his English lessons. Andrew wanted his pupils to identify the main components of a story (e.g. character and climax) and incorporate these elements in the writing of a short narrative. He deliberately chose ‘open-ended’ IT resources (digital movie trailer, still images and Microsoft Word), designed a learning task that afforded multiple perspectives and solutions (pupils could choose to replicate a movie plot or create a new one) and used openended questions to guide pupils’ thinking about the components of a story. An example would be as follows. Andrew: Pupil 1: Andrew: Pupil 1: Andrew:

Should a climax be short or long? Normally we write climax where it is rather short. Why short? Because it’s simply a turning point What kind of a turning point? A turning point to a new problem or a turning point to something else?


Tripartite elements for Andrew’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

Pupils identified and explained the main components of a story (e.g. character, climax) and incorporated these elements in the writing of a short narrative.

Digital movie clip and still images, Microsoft Word

Andrew asked open-ended questions to probe pupils’ understanding.

Pupil 1: Can be both. Whereby climax can lead to other problems. Other problems could surface. Andrew: Ok, let’s bear that in mind. Thank you very much. Should climax lead to another new problem? Would you call that the climax of the story? Or would it be simply another turning point? Should the climax be towards the end of the story/should it be perhaps leading to another possible problem? Pupil 2: Climax should be towards the end—it shouldn’t lead to another problem. Andrew: Why is that so? Pupil 2: Because if it is so, it wouldn’t be called a climax. It’s just another turning point if it leads to a new problem. (Lesson observation notes)

Andrew used the movie trailer because it was sufficiently ambiguous to support different interpretations. He also provided a wide range of digital pictures that gave different perspectives of the same scenes to generate discussion, develop multiple perspectives and spark creativity: I would try to take pictures that were quite similar … and since there were quite a few scenes where the spikes flew out and different angles of the ball rolling, I had to put in more so that it would [allow] for flexibility of interpretation. Had I given fewer pictures and tell-tale pictures, then it would have been too predictive and everybody would naturally be locked into thinking what had happened, what did not happen. (Post-lesson interview)

In Andrew’s English lessons pairs of pupils within each group viewed a movie trailer and a set of digital images separately. To get the ‘full’ picture the two pairs within each group came together to co-construct the story by pooling their knowledge and experiences. Andrew left it open to pupils to ‘negotiate’ whether to replicate the original plot or create a new plot. Collaboratively shaping their story using Microsoft Word provided a platform for pupils to make their thinking visible (i.e. use of colours to highlight words that indicate story components like climax, setting and characters within their story) and supported pupils’ ‘continual improvisation’ of their story (i.e. editing features like undelete and spellcheck). Andrew remarked: There was one child who selected all red (indicating climax), so I asked, ‘Are you sure that everything is red, is that it?’ and I pointed out certain phrases, and he was then able to realize that it shouldn’t have been all red, and then he himself uncoloured that particular portion. (Post-lesson interview)

In presenting their stories for class review or critique the groups had to explain how they crafted their stories. Learning was made public so that each group could get input from other groups (i.e. diverse perspectives) and build on their knowledge (i.e. improve their story). Andrew facilitated pupils’ learning by asking mainly open-ended questions and giving them the opportunity to explain their multiple solutions (different stories). Student 3: Andrew:

We started with dialogue which makes it sound better. Why do you say it sounds better?


Tripartite elements for Belinda’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

Pairs explored three different ways of constructing perpendicular bisectors to infer the mathematical thinking behind the steps.

Teacher-created GSP (Geometer Sketchpad) template

Belinda modelled how pupils should explore the different ways of constructing a perpendicular bisector. Clear instruction was provided in the GSP file and the worksheet. Teacher asked guiding questions during class discussion to consolidate learning points.

Student 1: Andrew: Student 4: Student 3: Student 1:

Because normally stories start without dialogue, they just start off. We wanted it to sound more interesting, more unique so we had dialogue. How does that contribute to character development? It shows what the character is feeling. His emotions. It gives the reader a headstart on what the character is like. (Lesson observation notes)

In contrast to Andrew’s lessons, which encouraged multiple perspectives and put pupils in the front seat of learning, Belinda’s approach was for the teacher to directly guide pupils to some discovery: With my kind of pupils who need a lot of guidance, I find, they cannot take the front seat. They need the teacher by their side most of the time. They can at most be the co-pilot. (Pre-lesson interview)

As her pupils were relatively weak in mathematics, Belinda designed a GSP (Geometer Sketchpad) animated file to scaffold pupils’ exploration of three alternatives in constructing perpendicular bisectors: In terms of pupil learning, it is important to reach the wide spectrum of pupils that we normally get in a class. You will find some very able ones and some who are really quite lost. So with the computer [GSP] to help, the able ones can actually explore and go as far as they want. Like in this case, if you are more capable, you can even go to all three alternatives and decide for yourself—Are they all actually connected? Are they all actually the same? In what way are they different? These questions would be something for the more able pupils to look at and answer. For the less able pupils, as long as they can do even alternative 2, I should be happy enough. The less able pupils would just be aiming for being able to construct [the perpendicular bisector] whereas the more able pupils could explore the intricacies. (Post-lesson interview)

The teacher-created GSP file allowed pupils to click buttons to play and replay the steps of construction of the perpendicular bisectors. Clicking the ‘control radius’ button enabled pupils to visualize how a change in the radius of the arc would affect the construction process. To prime pupils for exploration of the GSP file, she ‘thought aloud’ the processes that pupils themselves should undertake when they worked in pairs on the task. Belinda:

I’m going to do one of the alternatives. I have this line AB and in step no. 1, I’m going to demonstrate how I’m going to create the perpendicular bisector. … See what happens in step 1A. Then I’m going to do step 1B. … What’s done?

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 313 Pupil 1: Belinda: Pupil 2: Belinda: Pupil 2: Belinda:

Draw circles. Just draw circles? Anyhow draw? Draw two circles from the point. Draw two circles from the same point? Draw two circles from two points. Draw a circle from point A. Draw a circle from point B. (Video transcript)

The scaffolding of mathematical content in GSP provided a common point of reference for the teacher and the weaker pupils. Using the GSP file Belinda could observe and rectify pupils’ misconceptions as she circulated among different pairs. When pupils were unclear how to construct perpendicular bisectors they revisited the steps in the GSP file. Although GSP allows pupils to design GSP templates to test certain mathematical properties, Belinda’s GSP learning task was more structured. All steps of the exploration were given by the teacher because of her pupils’ weaker ability in mathematics. The teacher had to provide different forms of scaffolding (i.e. worksheet questions, teacher’s modelling and pairwork) and learning checkpoints (i.e. teacher-led class discussion) to help pupils visualize and understand the mathematical concepts. Ensuring effective use of ICT requires the teacher to make explicit the cognitive processes involved in using the tool and to involve pupils in the cognitive process. In Denise’s first geography lesson, she assumed that her pupils would know how to use the features provided by Inspiration (a program for mind mapping) to support their mental process of organizing information. Pupils were occupied with listening to the group presentations,

earn back money from investment 4 billion

provide irrigation facilities

usage of HYVs

very vulnerable

Case study: Africa budget

Reasons

"force" farmer

solutions

land management

coverting arid land to arable land

Desertification

water management

congo river basin

seriousness

Sahara desert nile river

Figure 4.

insufficient land for agriculture

most ppl in developing countries depend on agriculture

loss in biodiversity

more land will be uninhabitable

A pupil’s mind map, which was not coherently linked

dry, hard soil


Tripartite elements for Denise’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

Teacher support

First lesson: Pupils categorized the main points of presentations

Inspiration software

Lack of cognitive support: Denise gave general instructions on how to use the software and some possible categories for organizing the information. Teacher support: Denise modelled the cognitive processes involved in organizing the information and allocated more time to the task.

Second lesson: Pupils categorized the main points of presentations

deciding what information was useful and relevant and taking notes using the Inspiration software. Although most pupils were technically competent in using Inspiration, they did not fully categorize their points nor link them coherently. The pupils were possibly trying to do too many tasks (i.e. listening, taking notes and categorizing) all at once and lacked sufficient time to process all the information. In her follow-up lesson Denise made explicit the cognitive processes involved in organizing and categorizing information. She modelled the categorization and linking of information by asking pupils key questions, such as ‘How is infsormation chunked?’, and gave them specific pointers: Figure 4. A pupil’s mind map, which was not coherently linked

As they present their presentation, you just put down the points … after that I’ll give you some time, please put them down in some order so that we are clear about what the big concepts are, and which are the explanations of the concepts and which are the examples of the entire concept. (Lesson observation notes)

In addition, Denise allocated additional time for pupils to do the Inspiration task. She also instructed the presenters to circulate among their classmates to ‘help the rest with the chunking and grouping of the information’ (lesson observation notes). As a result, the categories in the pupils’ Inspiration files were more coherently linked. Fauziah was another teacher who had to make explicit cognitive processes to ensure effective use of ICT. In Fauziah’s first English lesson her primary 2 pupils surfed three given web sites Table 9.

Tripartite elements for Fauziah’s learning task

Learning task

Technology

First lesson: Pupils surfed three given sites for information on places of interest in Singapore to include in an email message to a pen friend. Second redesigned lesson: Pupils surfed the Internet for information to include in a poster and an email message on recycling

Internet

Teacher support

Fauziah gave procedural instructions and modelled basic computer literacy and desktop skills. Cognitive processes made explicit: Fauziah asked probing questions to help pupils set a purpose for their search task. She facilitated pupils’ search for information by getting them to evaluate the relevance of the information found.

Teacher understandings of technology affordances 315 on places of interest in Singapore. Information was to be extracted and included in their email messages to their pen friends. Fauziah demonstrated the steps to get to the three web sites and how pupils should navigate the sites. Pupils were seen to be on task and followed the mechanical steps of typing in keywords as given by the teacher and clicking hyperlinks to find out what the teacher had already previewed for them (post-lesson interview). However, the researchers noted that pupils might not be searching for information meaningfully from the web. The cognitive processes involved in doing the search were not made explicit. Upon reflection, Fauziah redesigned her lesson to question pupils more on the cognitive processes that are related to information retrieval and processing on the Internet (Wilson, 2002). They are: (1) linking pupils’ prior knowledge to what they wanted to find out from the web; (2) establishing a purpose for their search; (3) using effective strategies to locate information; (4) adopting certain reading strategies to help them understand what they read; (5) extracting and taking notes of information from the web; (6) evaluating the relevance of the information; (7) using language appropriately to communicate to others what they wanted them to know. During the redesigned lesson Fauziah asked her pupils probing questions so that they would think of what they had to do (linking pupils’ prior knowledge) before designing a poster and writing an email to their pen pals (establishing a purpose for their search). An example of the class interaction is given below: Fauziah: We did the recycled bowl out of papers. Do you remember that? Now, today we are going to make a little poster. We want to inform the whole school about the good things about recycling, that’s right. We’ve done recycling only in class, now we want the whole school to do recycling. So, we need to draw a poster. But before charting and doing a poster, what do you think we need to do first? Pupil 5: Go to the Internet and find out more information on trees. Fauziah: Go to the internet and find out more information on trees. Ok, he said trees. Why did he say trees? Can anyone guess why he said trees? What’s so special about trees? Yes? Pupil 6: Get paper from trees. Fauziah: Yes, you get paper from trees. Ok, besides going onto the Internet to get information on trees, what else did you need to do before this. Just think, we are going to make a poster, you need a few things on the poster. … Any other ideas? Ok, can I give you 2 minutes. Discuss with the person sitting next to you. Remember, we are going to make a poster, what are the things that you think you need to find out first before we’ll be drawing your posters. Discuss with your partners now... Ok, who’s just got a brainwave, right? Suggestions? (Video Transcript)

It was also observed that Fauziah did not just go around solving technical problems during the redesigned lesson. She made attempts to ask pupils probing questions on why they selected a certain web site and extracted certain information that they thought would be useful and the content of the particular page that they had visited. An example of a short discussion generated when Juliana was on her round is given below: Fauziah: Why do you need to look for information on trees? Pupil 7: Paper comes from trees. If trees are destroyed, there will not be paper. Fauziah: Why did you choose the red-eyed tree frog? (Pupil 8 did not know how to respond to Juliana verbally but typed in a new search query.) (Lesson observation notes)

316 Foo S. Y. et al. Concluding remarks From the discussion of the case studies it is clear that the capability of the technology itself will not ensure that there is higher pupil involvement in learning. It is the teacher’s skill in managing the ‘tripartite’ partnership of IT tool, learning task and teacher support that brings about higher levels of pupil engagement. Our study of six Singapore teachers revealed that there is a difference between pupils’ physical engagement and cognitive engagement in a task and that the teacher needs to ensure that the mechanics involved in using ICT does not distract pupils from the intended learning goals. The teachers’ understanding of what constitutes effective learning and their roles in pupils’ learning also determine how ICT is used. Finally, ensuring effective use of ICT requires the teacher to make explicit the cognitive processes involved in using the tool and to involve pupils in the cognitive process. In addition, the tripartite model is useful as a frame of reference for teachers to discuss, understand and analyse the dynamics involved in implementing ICT-based lessons. Teachers would then be clearer about how they could design learning experiences with ICT to bring about higher levels of pupil involvement. References Ball, D. L. & Cohen, D. K. (1996) Reform by the book: what is—or might be—the role of curriculum materials in teacher learning and instructional reform?, Educational Researcher, 25(9), 6–8. Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (2000) How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school (Washington, DC, National Academic Press). Chapman, E. (2003) Alternative approaches to assessing pupil engagement rates, Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 8(13). Available online at: http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=8&n=13 (accessed 18 November 2003). Haymore, J., Ringstaff, C. & Dwyer, D. C. (1994) Student engagement revisited: views from technology-rich classrooms (Cupertino, CA). Available online at: http://www.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/acot/ library.html (accessed 18 November 2003). Hawkins, J. (1996) Dilemmas, in: C. Fisher, D. C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (Eds) Education and technology: reflections on computing in classrooms (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass), 35–50. Jonassen, D. H. (2000) Computers as mindtools for schools: engaging critical thinking (2nd edn) (Upple Saddle River, NJ, Merrill/Prentice Hall). Jones, B. F., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J. & Rasmussen, C. (1995) Plugging in: choosing and using technology (Oak Brook, IL, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory). Available online at: http:// www.ncrel.org/sdrs/edtalk/toc.htm (accessed 7 March 2003). Oliver, R. (1999) Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning, Distance Education, 20(2), 240–254. Roschelle, J. M., Pea, R. D., Hoadley, C. M., Gordin, D. N. & Means, B. M. (2000) Changing how and what children learn in school with computer-based technologies, Children and Computer Technology, 10(2), 76–101. Sandholtz, J. H., Ringstaff, C. & Dwyer D. C. (Eds) (1997) Teaching with technology: creating pupil-centered classrooms (New York, Teachers College Press). International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) (2000) Second Information Technology in Education Study Module 2 (SITES M2) (Amsterdam, IEA). Available online at: http:// sitesm2.org (accessed 19 October 2003). Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999) The teaching gap: best ideas from the world’s best teachers for improving education in the classroom (New York, Free Press). Stake, R. E. (1995) The art of case study research (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage). Wilson, T. (2002) Children, literacy and the world wide web: how children access and manipulate information from the Internet to support their learning, in: M. Moira (Ed.) Teaching primary literacy with ICT (Buckingham, UK, Open University Press), 174–187. Yin, R. K. (1994) Case study research: design and methods (2nd edn) (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage).