Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Eleven practical examples of teachers’ effective use of ICT are • suggestions for further reading particularly relevant to
presented here, together with an introduction containing key the subject-specific objectives in the illustrations.
messages about how effective teachers use ICT in a range of
classroom situations. The eleven examples focus on teachers who wanted to
develop specific aspects of their teaching and pupils’
Teachers and trainers can use this information to find out learning in literacy and mathematics. The examples cover the
more about the ways in which ICT may be used to enhance following themes.
the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy in
primary school classrooms. For those who want to know Literacy
more, there is a full report of the research project on which
Presenting texts and supporting writing in Year 2
this information is based. The project was carried out by a
Improving reading and spelling in Year 2
team of researchers at Newcastle University, supported by
Developing story-writing skills in Year 2
colleagues at Durham University and the Lancashire
Developing writing skills in Years 3 and 4
Educational Psychology Service. The Teacher Training
Teaching the correct use of omissive apostrophes in Year 4
Agency (TTA) funded this work as part of its commitment to
Reading challenging text with speech and dictionary support
teacher development and raising standards.
in Year 4
Using short rhymes and other texts to enhance reading
The illustrations of effective use of comprehension in Year 5
ICT
The illustrations all have a wealth of supporting information. Numeracy
They can be read alone: for example by a teacher who wants
Developing counting skills in Reception
to tackle a particular aspect of mathematics or literacy
Teaching calculation skills in Year 2
teaching; or as part of a series, by a teacher who wants to
Developing understanding of decimals in Year 4
explore how to integrate ICT into subject teaching more
Supporting number skills in a Year 4/5 classroom
generally. Amongst the features the illustrations contain are:
The eleven illustrative examples were all set within the • as free choice activities for pupils; (This is very
overall school context. They: common, especially at KS1, where it often includes
• describe the supported development work undertaken in number work or practice of basic skills.)
classrooms as part of this research project; • as extension work as well as extra support for some
• exemplify effective teaching in literacy and numeracy pupils; (Again a common use, most often seen in
with ICT; Reception, and happening daily in about one in four
• aim to support efforts in primary schools to raise pupils’ Reception classes.)
attainment using ICT; • as a reward, or 'filler' for those who have completed
• relate the work to the functions of ICT in the NOF other work; (Typically a fortnightly occurrence in all
outcomes for serving teachers and TTA’s National year groups.)
Curriculum for Initial Teacher Training. • for word processing, information retrieval (as with
CD ROMs) and major project work; time-consuming
activities that sometimes continued into breaks;
(Happens about once a fortnight, but more
frequently for older pupils.)
Ways forward with ICT: Introduction 3
Overall ICT in primary schools is more commonly used for Emphasising this issue so that teachers can take it into
activities related to literacy rather than mathematics. Most of account is essential. For example, when using timing
these activities are supplementary to main teaching software connected to a pressure mat to produce times in
objectives and many have a low level of challenge (e.g. seconds with two places of decimals required some direct
copying up text using a word-processor). teaching of how to use the equipment before the pupils
could engage with the mathematics. The teacher had to
1.2 Systematic use of ICT decide whether this was an efficient use of both her time and
Initially, the project team wanted to make a comparison that of the pupils. ("Developing understanding of decimals in
between teachers who made systematic and intensive use of Year 4"). Similarly in teaching redrafting on a word-processor
ICT in their subject teaching and those who did not. All the pupils need to know not to press the return key at the end of
teachers involved in the project, however, including those each line and have an understanding of ‘word-wrap’.
who were identified as intensive ICT users, could find only
limited time when pupils could use computers to improve The teachers in the project found it necessary to:
their literacy or numeracy (typically about half an hour a
week each). Furthermore, although the amount of ICT • identify clearly what skills the pupils needed in
equipment in schools increased during the life of the project, order to benefit from using the computers in the
much use of ICT in primary classrooms was planned as an areas of literacy and numeracy they had targeted;
addition to the curriculum rather than as a key teaching • ensure that the pupils’ skills were adequate so that
strategy. This was reflected in the low use of ICT for direct pupils could concentrate on the specific subject
instruction generally. Teachers in the project reported a objectives.
greater use of ICT for direct instruction by the end of the
project. This suggests that more focused and effective use of In the project teachers used time on clusters of machines in
ICT can be developed to support subject teaching. school or at a local ICT centre to ensure that pupils knew
how to use the software so that teaching in literacy or
mathematics sessions could focus on the subject specific
objectives. This issue of pupils’ ICT skills proved to be one
of the most significant themes across the projects. The
teachers in the project needed to consider whether the time
taken developing ICT skills was an efficient use of their
teaching time.
one school in the project already regularly used overhead whole class teaching. One school used an interactive
projectors in each of the classrooms when working with the whiteboard in this way. ("Using short rhymes and other texts
whole class. They easily adopted activities which were suited to enhance reading comprehension"). A further example is a
to this kind of presentation and were keen to explore the teacher who used presentation software in the literacy hour
potential of an interactive whiteboard in their computer on a classroom computer in "Presenting texts and supporting
room. Other teachers preferred to develop effective use of writing in Year 2".
ICT in group activities. Where a teacher had a strong
preference for a particular approach or a subject this was ICT can help to focus an activity in other ways, for example,
found to be an effective starting point for developing more by simplifying the process of data collection. In "Developing
effective teaching with ICT. Success achieved in moving understanding of decimals in Year 4", the ICT enabled two
forward from the teacher’s preferred starting point could types of decimal numbers to be produced easily which
then be used as a springboard for extending development enabled the pupils to concentrate on ordering the numbers
into less familiar or less comfortable areas. rather than on the process of collecting the information.
project team provided this support for some of the provided clusters of machines in designated computer rooms.
teachers in the project. Large groups or even whole classes could then be taught at
3. Technical issues which arise need to be overcome the same time. Such arrangements were observed to be
quickly and effectively. This is particularly true in particularly efficient for teaching ICT skills to pupils and for
the early stages of any development work with ICT to supporting teachers in developing their own teaching skills
ensure that sufficient benefits are achieved to in using ICT. Some of these schools then moved on to
encourage further development. providing more ICT resources in classrooms so that the
teachers could plan to use ICT in different subject areas more
For each of the teachers there seemed to be a critical point of effectively. Clear learning gains were achieved with different
confidence and skill. Once this point was reached they were forms of organisation of ICT equipment used by the teachers
prepared to continue such development on their own. Not all in the project.
of the teachers in the project reached that critical point. Even
"Although I favour using the computer, unless I have
at the end of the project all of the teachers indicated that
planned to use it to meet specific learning objectives you
they would benefit from further support. This was related to
will probably find my computer switched off."
developing their use of ICT in their teaching, as opposed to
developing their own ICT skills, which a few of the teachers
2.6 ICT and subject knowledge
felt was their personal priority. Choosing software which can
The project found that development work in ICT can also be
be used in different ways is also helpful. A teacher who has
an effective way of developing teachers’ subject knowledge
learned how to use a range of tools in an integrated package
in literacy or numeracy. One teacher undertook a series of
can more quickly learn how to use its graphing functions
activities which focused her attention on a challenging
more efficiently to make connections in the mathematics. At
aspect of punctuation. Planning the multimedia activity
the end of the project, the teachers who had been involved
enabled the teacher (and the pupils) to identify the rules and
reported greater use of ICT for direct instruction compared
uses of omissive apostrophes in great detail, and the
with other teachers. They also reported changes in patterns
particular problems which the pupils had in applying those
of use reflecting a clearer focus on identifying where ICT
rules effectively. This enabled her to understand a particular
could support their teaching of literacy and numeracy.
aspect of literacy teaching in more structured and systematic
detail than she had undertaken before. As a result of this
2.5 Planning for Subject Teaching
focus she may well not choose to repeat teaching apostrophes
A clear distinction needs to be made between planning for
in the same way in the future ("Teaching the correct use of
pupils’ IT capability (from the National Curriculum) and how
omissive apostrophes in Year 4").
ICT can support teaching and learning in other subjects.
Most schools identified pupils’ IT capability in their regular
Similarly, a Reception teacher was able to devise a series of
planning. Planning did not specify how ICT could contribute
activities appropriate to the different levels of counting skill
to subject teaching, particularly where only the teacher was
in her pupils. This enabled her to plan appropriate practice
using the computer (for example by presenting a text in the
in different aspects of counting in accordance with the NNS
literacy hour).
Framework for Mathematics for Reception ("Developing
counting skills in Reception").
One consequence of this was that when teachers planned to
use ICT themselves in their teaching (for example to
demonstrate a teaching point in English or mathematics) this 2.7 Effective explanations
was not included or recorded. Although most schools Another aspect of subject knowledge which the team found
specified how they planned for IT capability, there was to be important was reflected in teachers’ explanations. A
considerable variation in the observations of what pupils key feature of the more effective teachers in the project was
actually experienced as a result of this planning. Sometimes that they used examples and counter-examples when
this was due to the limited amount of equipment available. In explaining to pupils and that they modelled and
other cases teachers ensured that the equipment that they demonstrated work to groups or the class (e.g. by giving
had available was used very intensively. Some schools examples of words ending in -ly which are and which are not
6 Ways forward with ICT: Introduction
4.3 ICT and pupil attainment Copies of the full report, which is free to schools, are
The illustrations indicate that it is possible for teachers to available from Sharon Mullen, Education Department,
raise the attainment of pupils in their classes when using ICT University of Newcastle, St Thomas Street, Newcastle upon
to support particular objectives in literacy and numeracy. Tyne, NE1 7RU (Tel: 0191 222 8592).
This is challenging but is worth the investment of time and
effort.