Harvey Mellar, Maria Kambouri Kit Logan, Sally Betts, Barbara … · 2015-03-12 · adult literacy, language and numeracy (LLN), major reforms of teacher education and training, and

Using ICTEFFECTIVE TEACHINGAND LEARNING

SUMMARY REPORT

Harvey Mellar, Maria Kambouri

Kit Logan, Sally Betts, Barbara Nance and Viv Moriarty

ICT Summary LIVE 20/1/07 18:05 Page 1

Published by the National Research and

Development Centre for Adult Literacy and

Numeracy

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5 Introduction

6 The Effective Practice Studies

7 Main findings

9 Recommendations

10 Background to the study

13 Case studies

18 Classroom observations

20 Learners’ progress

23 Teaching and learning

25 Tutor development

27 Conclusions and implications

30 References

Using ICTSUMMARY REPORT

RESEARCH TEAM

Harvey Mellar, Maria Kambouri

Kit Logan, Sally Betts, Barbara Nance and Viv Moriarty

SERIES EDITOR

John Vorhaus

EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING


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■ The Skills for Life Strategy in Englandhas led to unprecedented investment inadult literacy, language and numeracy(LLN), major reforms of teachereducation and training, and theintroduction of national standards, corecurricula and assessment to informteaching and learning. We have a uniqueopportunity to make a step change inimproving levels of adult skills. But untilrecently too little was known abouteffective teaching and learning practices,and reports from Ofsted and the AdultLearning Inspectorate repeatedly drewattention to the quality of teaching, andthe need for standards to improve.

It has been a strategic priority at theNational Research and DevelopmentCentre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy(NRDC) to investigate teaching andlearning practices in all the subjectareas and settings in Skills for Life: toreport on the most promising andeffective practices, and to provideteachers and trainers, along with policy-makers and researchers, with anunparalleled evidence base on which tobuild on the progress already made.

Our findings and recommendations arereported here, and in the fourcompanion reports covering reading,writing, numeracy and ESOL. The fivestudies, which have been co-ordinatedby NRDC Associate Director JohnVorhaus, provide material for improvingthe quality of teaching and learning, and

for informing developments in initialteacher education and continuingprofessional development (CPD). We arealso preparing a range of practitionerguides and development materials, as amajor new resource for teachers andteacher educators. They will explore anddevelop the examples of good andpromising practice documented in thesepages.

The Moser Report (Department forEducation and Employment, 1999)placed great emphasis on ICT, which hasbeen classed as a ‘skill for life’ within theSkills for Life strategy since 2003. It said:‘At the heart of improved quality indelivery and materials must beincreased use of Information andCommunication Technologies to improvebasic skills.’ The report went on toassert that ICT is a powerful tool to raiselevels of literacy and numeracy. This newreport looks into the teaching andlearning of ICT, and finds evidence tosupport many of the claims made aboutlearning with ICT in the Moser Report. Itadds to the evidence from previousresearch on ICT in Skills for Life,including the DfES Survey of Needs andImpact (2003), making importantrecommendations for developingteaching and learning in ways whichinclude ICT, as new uses of literacy andnumeracy and new technologiesemerge.

Ursula Howard, Director, NRDC


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Introduction


■ The five NRDC Effective PracticeStudies explore teaching and learningin reading, writing, numeracy, ESOLand ICT, and they set out to answer twoquestions: • how can teaching, learning and

assessing literacy, numeracy, ESOLand ICT be improved?

• which factors contribute tosuccessful learning?

Even before NRDC was set up it wasapparent from reviews of the field thatthere was little reliable research-basedevidence to answer these questions.Various NRDC reviews showed thatprogress in amassing such evidence,though welcome where it wasoccurring, was slow. Four preliminarystudies on reading, writing, ESOL andICT were undertaken between 2002 and2004. However, we recognised theurgent need to build on these in ordergreatly to increase the research basefor the practice of teaching thesesubjects.

The inspiration for the design of thefive projects was a study in the UnitedStates of the teaching of literacy andEnglish language to adult learners forwhom English is an additionallanguage (Condelli et al., 2003). Thisstudy was the first of its kind, and thelead author, Larry Condelli, of theAmerican Institutes for Research, hasacted as an expert adviser on all fiveNRDC projects.

Our research began in July 2003 andwas completed in March 2006. We setout to recruit and gather informationon 500 learners in each study, assesstheir attainment and attitudes at twopoints during the year in which theywere participating in the study,interview both learners and teachers,observe the strategies their teachersused, and correlate those strategieswith changes in the learners’attainment and attitudes. The ICT studydiffered from the others in that its firstphase was developmental, its samplesize was smaller, and it had a shortertimescale, completing in March 2005.

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The Effective Practice Studies


■ Evaluation trials showed thatlearners involved in this study improvedin almost all cases in bothliteracy/ESOL skills and ICT skills andconfidence, often to a statisticallysignificant degree.

Factors affecting learning-teaching

events

The learners’ age was a significantfactor in predicting learning gains,older learners making least progress interms of ESOL skills and older men(but not women) acquiring more ICTskills and confidence.

Learners who started out with lowerICT confidence scores were less likelyto attend frequently and more likely todrop out, highlighting the issue that,while ICT-based teaching can be verysuccessful for many learners, otherswith low ICT confidence are unable totake full advantage of the approach.

No correlation was found betweenchanges in ICT skills and ICTconfidence scores and changes inreading and listening scores,suggesting that the two areas of skillsare learned independently.

Learning and teaching resources

While a very small number of learnerssaid that they found the technology a

distraction from their language work,most users found the use of ICTmotivating.

Mobile technologies (tablets, personaldigital assistants, mobile phones) werefound to be particularly motivating, andenabled greater flexibility in teaching.

The nature of learning-teaching events

Acquisition of ICT skills and confidenceincreased in proportion to the amountof time spent using the technology, withuse of the internet, PowerPoint andword-processing proving particularlybeneficial.

Approaches to teaching

Classes where learners spent moretime working individually showed bettergains in ICT skills (although not ICTconfidence) than those classes wheremore time was spent working in smallgroups.

On many occasions, collaboration wasobserved to be effective, and it could beimportant in bolstering learners’confidence in using technology.

When collaborative work was forced bythe need to share technology it was notas successful as when tutors developedtasks that required peer interaction.


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Main findings


When technology was shared, oneperson sometimes dominated its use,possibly undermining the usefulness ofcollaborative work for developing ICTskills.

Construction of artefacts and role-playoften provided a useful focus,generating motivation, collaborationand purposeful action.

The management of learning

Teaching strategies that aimed toincrease the autonomy of learners ledto gains in both ICT skills andconfidence.

Encouraging learner autonomy gaveteachers more time to get to know theirlearners, adapt their teaching to theirlearners’ needs and manage classroomactivities.

The most effective teaching strategywas Extending, where the tutor builton/added to material previouslyintroduced by them, or added to acomment by a learner. The Extendingstrategy was particularly effective whena conventional whiteboard was used.

Other teaching activities associatedwith improvements in ICT skills were:Discussing, Instructing, Listening andModelling (showing the learner how todo something using the actualtechnology or a SMARTBoardinteractive whiteboard).

The strategy of Explaining (telling thelearner how to do something) had anegative effect on ICT skills andconfidence.

Tutor use of PowerPoint had a negativeeffect on learners’ ICT skills.

No correlations were found betweenany of the observed teaching strategiesand changes in performance in thereading and listening tests.

Different types of outcomes

ICT can change the focus on theknowledge to be learnt, as evidenced bytutors talking more about managinginformation and less about learning it,or more about browsing and scanningand less about comprehension.

Tutors sought to develop their learners’ability to evaluate ICT resources,embrace new skills and transfer skillsfrom one context to another.

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Policy

The findings of this project lend strongsupport to the claim in the MoserReport that ‘Learners who use ICT forbasic skills double the value of theirstudy time, acquiring two sets of skillsat the same time.’ The main policyrecommendation therefore is that theuse of ICT in the teaching of Skills forLife should be supported for this reason.

Development work and quality

improvement

This project has demonstrated a rangeof effective approaches to using ICT inSkills for Life, which can help learnersto acquire both ICT and literacy skills atthe same time. To enable the best use ofICT to be embedded in the delivery ofSkills for Life, further development ofresources and exemplar materials isneeded, together with appropriateforms of tutor training.

The project demonstrated both theusefulness of having good exemplars,and how time-consuming theproduction of such materials can be.Significant investment is needed in thisprocess, and appropriate methods ofdissemination of exemplars need to bedevised.

Two forms of staff development areproposed here – an intensive action-

research-based training for those whowill generate and develop models of ICTuse, and a less intensive training forthose who wish to pick up and adapttried and tested models.

Teacher training in this area should beorganised within the context ofpurposeful use of ICT, and focus on thefour elements of effective design whichwe identified: collaborative learning,learner autonomy, variety oftechnologies, and construction ofartefacts.

Research

Literacies are changing as technologydevelops, and the relationship betweenICT and other literacies continues toevolve.

In the near future we are likely to seewider use of technologies such asinteractive digital TV and mobile phones,and the further development ofubiquitous computing.

Continued research will be needed todetermine the most effective ways ofusing these technologies in adultlearning.

Recommendations


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■ As the Introduction to this reportpoints out, the Moser Committeeacknowledged that ICT is a powerfulmeans of raising levels of adult literacyand numeracy. It said that:

• The Web enables access to the bestmaterials and the most excitinglearning opportunities.

• ICT offers a new start for adultsreturning to learning.

• The internet and digital TV technologycan reach into the home.

In order to throw light on these and otherclaims that the Moser Committee made,we have previously carried out a numberof evaluation studies of the use of ICT inthe teaching of adult literacy andnumeracy for the Basic Skills Agency,Department for Education and Skills(DfES) and for Ufi/learndirect. Thisresearch found some positive signs, butsuggested that there was a long way togo if expectations were to be met.

Much of the earlier research in this areawas based on surveys or interviews, andwhile it gave an insight into some of theprincipal variables that may be involved,it provided few detailed accounts of whattutors actually do when using ICT. Wetherefore carried out detailedobservational research in classrooms,and reported on the findings in Mellar et

al. (2004). These findings then enabledthe generation of a first set ofhypotheses about effective strategies,which formed the starting point for thepresent study.

The project reported here was conductedas part of the research agenda developedby NRDC. It was carried out by theInstitute of Education, University ofLondon, and completed in March 2005.

Aims

We set out to develop and evaluateeffective ICT-based teaching strategies,and were looking for development ofboth literacy and numeracy skills and ICTliteracy skills. These strategies werecollaboratively developed by the tutorsinvolved in the work and the researchteam, using theoretically grounded ICTtask designs targeted at specific learningobjectives.

Specific questions

Our main questions were firstly toidentify effective ways of using ICT tosupport the learning of other Skills forLife, and secondly to identify effectiveways of learning ICT skills themselves.We also sought to gather data on threeother issues:

• the motivational impact of ICT onlearners

Background to the study



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• how ICT was impacting on the widerlearning context

• effective support for the developmentof tutors in the use of ICT in Skills forLife.

Method

In the development phase of the study(July 2003 to July 2004) we worked withnine tutors in devising uses of ICT tosupport learning in their classroomcontexts. At the end of this developmentphase, the tutors created case studiesof their approaches, which we hope tomake available soon.

In the second phase (October 2004 toMarch 2005), seven scenarios of ICT usecovering a range of technologies,software and pedagogical approacheswere evaluated. Each project was led bythe practitioner-researcher whodeveloped the approach, and usuallyalso included another tutor (a ‘buddy’)who implemented the same approach.

At the start of this evaluation phase, thelearners were given tests on ICT skills,ICT confidence and ESOL listening skillsand/or the GO reading test developed bythe National Foundation for EducationalResearch. The teaching sessionstotalled 40 hours, spread over twoterms. Each classroom was observedon three occasions, and a sample ofindividual learners was additionallyobserved carrying out the tasks.Learners were again tested at the endof the teaching sessions.

Teaching adult learners

While much that might be said about ICTand learning and teaching could becommon for a wide range of learners,there are a number of key points whichwe believe are of specific concern foradult learners, and which informed thedesign of our interventions.


events

• Adults have differing expectationsabout ICT, and may also lackconfidence in the use of technology.

• There may be differences betweenthe ICT skills and attitudes totechnology of younger and older adultlearners, and particular care mayneed to be taken to develop the skillsof older learners.

• The use of a wide range of up-to-datedigital technologies might bemotivational for adults.

The political/institutional context

• Adequate access to resources issomething that Skills for Life learnerssometimes struggle to obtain.

• The relationship of ICT to employmentis one of great significance for manyadults, and is often part of the reasonthey are doing these courses.

Approaches to teaching

Ways of employing ICT in order todevelop experiential learning that maybe of importance to adult learnersinclude:

• the (often joint) construction ofartefacts


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• enabling learners to act out newroles.

Social interaction

• The encouragement of collaborationbetween learners is important, butcan be difficult to achieve in groupswhose composition changes quicklyand where learners have differentlearning goals, as is often the case inadult learning contexts.


• Tutors need to be clear about the roleof ICT in the learning process.

• Tutors should encourage learnerautonomy, particularly in the case ofadults, who need to take charge oftheir own learning.


• Tutors need to have clear learningobjectives for language, literacy andnumeracy, and for ICT.

• ICT should be used for a purpose.• Tutors need to be aware of (and seek

to develop) a wider range ofimportant ICT skills, going beyondsimple ‘technological literacy’.

Wider benefits of learning

• ICT often has a role in the wider lifeaims of learners outside bothlearning and work (for example,keeping in touch with friends andrelatives through email).

Note on numeracy

During the year we trialled severalapproaches to using ICT within adultnumeracy provision. Unfortunately, thetutors concerned were unable to take thework forward into the evaluation phase ofthe project because of other workcommitments. While this report istherefore concerned largely with ICT andliteracy and ESOL, we have since carriedout further studies on the use of ICT withadult numeracy. A report will be publishedby the NRDC later this year.



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■ The seven studies are named by thetype of technological application thateach used. The first five cases areESOL classes based in furthereducation colleges and the last two arecommunity-based literacy classes. TheNational Test and Mindmaps classesconsisted mainly of older, retired,white, UK-born learners with Englishas a first language, returning toeducation after a long break. Seventy-one per cent of this group were female,while 30 per cent regarded themselvesas having some form of disability.

The other classes consisted mainly ofyounger immigrants from a wide rangeof countries, and almost none hadEnglish as a first language. About 30per cent were in full-time education, 30per cent with full-time familyresponsibilities and the remainderevenly split between employment andunemployment. Forty-eight per cent ofthis group were female.

WebQuests

These classes aimed to improve boththe language and ICT skills of EntryLevel 1 ESOL learners by usingWebQuests, an inquiry-orientatedactivity in which some or all of theinformation that learners interact withcomes from the internet.

The tutor’s main objective was tointroduce ICT skills by giving students achance to explore and experiment withcomputers and the internet and tomove away from demonstrations orlengthy paper-based instructions. Morespecifically, she was interested to see ifknowledge of one procedure couldtransfer to another without muchguidance.

Learners were motivated by the needto acquire or improve their English inorder to function in the community, andso were keen to improve these skillsquickly. By introducing collaborationthrough small group work, the tutorencouraged learners to ask each otherquestions before calling on her.However, learners found it difficult toget help other than in their firstlanguage, and although there weresuccessful examples of collaboration,the shortness of the tasks was notconducive to them learning from others

Case studies

3


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or experimenting, and most of theclass was conducted as a large groupor one-to-one.

Learners found the WebQuestsapproach intriguing, and by using bothPowerPoint and Word, they learnt totransfer skills from one to the other.

The tutors were particularly focused onlearners gaining confidence inspeaking in front of the class andanswering questions, and they weresatisfied with overall progress. Thetests confirmed strong gains in ICTskills and confidence.

e-PortfoliosThis course used electronic-Portfolios(OPEUS), a web-based technology thatallows users to design websites inwhich they can store and display theirwork, thus creating electronic books orportfolios. It was intended to developboth language and ICT skills for agroup of ESOL learners aged 16–20,who had access to computers outsideclass hours.

Peer collaboration was invited by thetutor at the short lesson reviews at theend of each session. These allowedlearners to discuss their learningachievements. However, the tutor feltthat he might not have placed as muchemphasis on collaborative working ashe had intended, and that the task ofproducing individual electronicportfolios made learners more self-centred.

Learner autonomy was fostered by thesharing of computers, learners beingencouraged to observe or work with apeer before attempting a task on theirown. Any learners who completed atask quickly would be invited to helpothers, although there was a tendencyfor these ‘instructors’ to be toodirective or to perform the taskthemselves.

The tutor felt students who started withgood ICT skills and a mature attitude tostudying benefited most from theapproach used, while those with apoorer attitude benefited less, despitehaving good ICT skills. The test resultsreflected this complex reality, showingsignificant gains in ESOL listening andreading comprehension and a non-significant increase in ICT skills.

TabletsThis project used portable tablet PCs,which incorporate handwritingrecognition. The aim was to createlanguage learning opportunities forEntry Level 3 ESOL learners throughthe use of innovative ICT, and toinvestigate whether the use of tabletscould extend the classroom to the realworld. It also emphasised collaborativeworking, with learners sharing tabletsin groups of three or four.

Learners were allowed to choose whoto work with, and they commonlygrouped themselves with others havingthe same nationality or language, andso used their first language when quickexplanations were required.



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Peers helped each other with ICT andliteracy tasks. But although they tookturns to use the pen, the moreconfident ICT user (not necessarily themost proficient in English) was oftenseen to take over and/or teach theother.

During a museum visit, the learnersinterpreted their task in a variety ofways, some copying labels and otherstaking notes or attempting to draw.

Learners enjoyed using the tablets,preferring them to paper, and weresometimes allowed to take them home.

Test results showed significant gains inICT skills and ICT confidence, but not inlanguage skills, although somelearners felt their writing skills hadimproved.

m-learningA group of ESOL learners usedhandheld computers with mobilephone and camera functionality to sendtext, images and sounds from variouslocations to a website, which theyedited themselves, working on boththeir ICT and language skills.

There were 45 learners in four classes,mostly male, and with various firstlanguages. The tutors’ aim was totransfer and extend their existingknowledge of text-messaging andemailing.

The work was intended to allow theseESOL learners to develop fluency and

competency in English through findingout how to use the technology andengaging in meaningful goal-orientated interaction. Observationsindicated that the acting out of the roleof interviewer was also a powerfulmotivator.

Learners who worked together inwriting up their information were seento discuss grammatical forms, andremind each other of what they hadlearnt in class.

Tutors reduced the amount of explicitinstructions in the use of thetechnology, and concentrated onhelping the learners to work outprocedures for themselves.

Learners were also encouraged tomake greater use of the services onoffer at the college, and were sent outin pairs to photograph and interviewthe people who ran them.

Tests showed significant gains inlistening and ICT skills, although ICTconfidence did not increasesignificantly.

Digital videoThis course for second languagelearners (mostly Entry Level 3) aimedto develop both ICT and languageskills. The learners used a digital videocamera to create films, and wereencouraged to take turns and assumedifferent roles.

They began by viewing amateur videos


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on the BBC website, and this providedrich material in terms of listeningpractice and oral work.

Most learners came with very few ICTskills, however, and their main reasonfor joining was to learn about theinternet, email and word-processing.Some felt that learning video skills wasa distraction.

The ICT tasks were demanding, andthere was a less formal focus onlanguage skills. But working togetherencouraged greater practice of these,and enabled the tutor to take on a morefacilitative role.

A very successful aspect of theinterviews carried out by the learnersfor the videoing was that they had tounderstand and respond to theanswers of interviewees.

Facilitating the task of rotating roles ascamera person, director, assistantdirector, interviewer and intervieweewas important, but not alwayssuccessful, with stronger learnerssometimes unwilling to help weakerones.

At times, the need to achieve outcomesdominated other aspects of theteaching-learning situation, and whilethe tests showed an increase inreading skills and a significantincrease in confidence and in ICT skills,they showed a slight decrease in ESOLlistening skills.

Mindmaps

The tutor used a Mindmappingprogram (Inspirations) to support thedevelopment of planning for writingskills and email, both as a tool forcommunication between learners andas writing practice. She aimed equallyat achieving literacy as well as ICTskills.

The software was used to help improvethe planning of written work throughorganising thoughts and structuringwork into separate paragraphs.

At the start of the course there waslittle collaboration. The teaching stylewas principally didactic, with learnersmostly encouraged to work through theexercises on their terminals andpapers individually. But over time, thetutor introduced peer interaction toimprove overall class dynamics and tohelp her better manage the classroomdemands.

Taking a step back and adopting afacilitating role, she found she hadmore time to observe learners andhelp them more effectively. Forinstance, in teaching learners how touse email with attachments, she putthem into groups and had the groupsemail one another, thus encouragingautonomy and reducing the timedemands on the tutor.

Learners felt pairing up had helpedthem with language skills as well asboosting their ICT confidence.



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Overall, there seemed to be animproved atmosphere and enhancedcommunication as learners interactedmore.

Tests showed gains in reading andcomprehension and significant gains inICT skills.

National TestThis case study examined community-based provision using computers as ahook to attract mainly older, retired,white women back into education.Learners were encouraged to join abasic ICT class with embedded literacyskills, and to take the National Test inliteracy.

The course used online Skills for Liferesources such as the BBC Skillswisewebsite alongside paper-basedmaterials. The teaching style wasmainly individual, one person per PC,with the tutor explaining tasks andinstructing. There was some interactionbetween learners as they asked oneanother for assistance, but no planningfor collaborative working.

The tutor felt that direct teaching bettersuited her own style and the needs ofthe learners. She felt that using ICThelped them work at their own level,and noted that positive feedback fromthe National Test had motivated someto continue working on their own.

Increased participation was observedtowards the end of the course withlearners gaining enough confidence to

ask for more online work to do at theirown pace.

While some had difficulty retaining newinformation between classes, and mostwere unable to work at home as theyeither lacked PCs or confidence,several who started with no ICT skillsreported making progress. They foundthe online grammar exercises useful,and tests showed gains both in ICTskills and confidence and in literacy.


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■An analysis of the qualitative elementsof the classroom observational datahighlighted three areas of significance:autonomous learning, collaborativelearning and differentiation.

Autonomous learning

This was one of the main pedagogicgoals of the tutors. The classroomobservations showed that this goal wasoften met through using ICT to developappropriate tasks that could beundertaken by students with varyingskill levels and learning abilities.

Learners were intrigued by the use ofWebQuests, for example, andparticularly by the fact that they wereable to work without needing tounderstand everything on the screen.They were therefore not held back bytheir limited ability to read or by theneed to call on the tutor. One tutoropted to provide no support at all forlearners navigating around onlineshopping sites, and yet they were stillable to complete the task successfully.

In the area of ICT skills particularly,learners were often seen to be makingclear progress with relatively littleinput from the tutors.

In the Mindmap class, the tutor set outto allow more space for exploratory

and independent work. Autonomouslearning was made possible by theappropriate choice of task and theorganisational skills taught throughMindmapping.

However, it is clear that some learnersstill expected to be taught on a one-to-one basis, and were unwilling to workindependently or with others.

Collaboration

Most of the groups began with littlecollaborative learning, although insome contexts (for example, digitalvideo) learners worked with oneanother in order to share use of thetechnology, even though nocollaborative tasks had been set. Manyof the tutors sought to incorporatemore collaborative learning into theirteaching over time, but this was notalways successful, and a number ofissues were observed:

• Sometimes the task set (for example,the construction of e-Portfolios)actually pushed learners towards amore individualised approach.

• While discussion in the groups wasoften positive, and pairing helpedwith both language and computerskills, some learners did not trusttheir partner enough to forgo theteacher’s intervention.

Classroom observations


• When collaborative work was forcedby the need to share technology, itwas less successful than when tutorsdeveloped tasks requiring peerinteraction.

When equipment was shared, it wascommon for the more confident ICTuser (not necessarily the mostproficient in English) to take overand/or teach others.

The construction of an artefact – oftenjointly – was frequently a useful focus,generating motivation, collaborationand purposeful action. In certaincontexts, role-play was also important.

Differentiation

The classroom observationshighlighted the advantages that ICT hasto allow for differentiation, particularlywhen used to construct an artefact.Some learners preferred to work morequickly or more slowly than theirclassmates, and the organisation oftechnology-based activities often madethis possible. When learners finishedquickly, it was often relatively easy forthe tutor to generate extensionactivities using ICT.


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The classroomobservations

highlighted theadvantages that ICT

has to allow fordifferentiation


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Tests

The overall changes on each test, forall the groups combined, were quitelarge. The effect size1 for the ICT SkillsAssessment was 0.84, for the ICTConfidence Questionnaire 0.58, for thereading test (GO) 0.52, and for thelistening test (ESOL) 0.35.

The test results probably understatethe learning gains as the tests weregeneral, rather than specific tests ofwhat was being taught. Many of thetutors thought their learners had madegreater progress in language than theresults were likely to show because thetests did not relate closely to thelearning objectives. It was necessary toadopt these tests, however, forcomparison with the other studies andin order to create sample sizes thatwere large enough to allow statisticallysignificant results to be found.

ICT Skills Assessment

All groups improved in ICT skills,significant changes being noted on thedigital video, m-learning, tablets,WebQuests and Mindmap schemes ofwork. There appeared to be a

somewhat uniform level of ICT skillslevels across the schemes of workafter the study. This could be due to atest ceiling effect, but as no learnerscored full marks, it may rather be areflection of the level of ICT to whichliteracy learners were taught.

In the case of the e-Portfolio scheme ofwork, the lack of significant measuredoverall improvement in ICT skills maybe because the test did not measureweb page authoring skills.

ICT Confidence Questionnaire

Each scheme of work had a positiveimpact on most learners’ ICTconfidence. Although some felt theirconfidence had decreased, there wasan overall improvement within eachscheme of work. One learnerexpressed no overall change inconfidence, 18 a decrease and 59 anincrease. Those working withMindmaps showed the greatest overallchange.

Reading (GO test)

Five of the seven schemes of workused the GO reading assessment.

Learners’ progress

1 The effect size is the difference between the two means (in this case the pre- and post-test means) divided by thepooled standard deviation. Roughly speaking, a figure of 0.2 indicates a small effect, 0.5 a medium effect and 0.8 a largeeffect. For comparison, an improvement of one GCSE grade in Maths or English would represent an effect size of 0.5-0.7. This example is taken from What is an ‘Effect Size’? A brief introduction, Robert Coe, CEM Centre, DurhamUniversity, March 2000 available at http://www.cemcentre.org/renderpage.asp?linkid=30325016



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There was an improvement in themean reading level within eachscheme, and although these wererelatively large, they were onlystatistically significant for the e-Portfolio and m-learning schemes.Lack of significance in the others couldbe due to the low number ofparticipants who took both sets ofassessments.

ESOL

Five of the seven schemes of workused the ESOL listening assessment.Learners participating in theWebQuests made the greatestimprovement, but this change was notfound to be significant (possibly due tothe small number who took bothassessments), while learners in the e-Portfolio and m-learning schemes

made statistically significantimprovements.

Comparison between schemes of

work

The table compares the effectivenessof the seven schemes of work, showingthe mean improvement on each test,and the effect size.

• Digital video: successful in meetingits ICT goals, large effect sizes,literacy gains not significant but verypositive, and ESOL losses.

• e-Portfolio: somewhat weak on ICTskills but very effective in deliveringliteracy and ESOL goals. The ICTskills concentrated on in this course(web page authoring) were nottested.

• Mindmaps: strong impact on ICT, and

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t s

ize

N Me

an

imp

rove

me

nt

(%)

Eff

ec

t s

ize

Table 1 Comparisons between the schemes of work

WebQuests 7 33* 2.68* 8 20 0.58 5 27 1.08

e-Portfolio 25 5 0.33 26 3 0.18 27 10* 0.66* 23 8* 0.72*

Tablets 20 13* 0.72* 19 21* 0.75* 15 1 0.05

m-learning 19 14* 0.84* 8 8 0.21 14 10* 0.76* 19 7* 0.24*

Digital video 6 9* 0.87* 7 19* 1.24* 5 16 1.49 5 -2 -0.33

Mindmaps 7 47* 4.56* 7 43* 2.06* 6 10 0.54

National Test 4 33 1.02 2 22 4.83 4 4 0.14

* indicates statistical significance at at least the 5% level.


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strong positive impact on literacy,though not statistically significant.

• m-learning: strong impact on ICTskills and on literacy and ESOL.

• National Test: big improvement inICT scores, though not statisticallysignificant, but little impact onliteracy.

• Tablets: strong improvements in ICTscores, but little impact on ESOL.

• WebQuests: strong impact on ICTskills, and possibly on ESOL scores,although not statistically significant.

Additional indicators

MotivationThere are many indicators within theobservational and interview data of themotivational impact of using ICT. Ontheir own, these observations may saylittle, but seen together and against thebackdrop of the quantitative data, theystrengthen the argument that ICT had astrong motivational impact.

On a number of occasions, learnerssaid that they found the ICT aspect oftheir work intriguing and exciting, thatthey were highly motivated to attend,and even to buy a PC to continuelearning at home. In a discussion aftera visit to a museum using the tablets,one learner said that this was the classat which he learnt how to write best,and that he had not expected this giventhe ‘playful’ nature of ICT work.

Tutors often reported positiveoutcomes in terms of learners’motivation following changes in theirpedagogic style, and this wasconfirmed by our observations.

However, in a number of courses,younger learners who were veryconfident at using the internet to playgames, video and music struggled tofollow the programme. One tutorsuggested that those who had startedwith good ICT skills and a matureattitude to studying benefited mostfrom the approach used, while thosewho began with good ICT skills but anegative attitude did not benefit.

Learning experienceNineteen learners who had beenspecifically observed in the classroomwere interviewed at the end of thetrials. They were positive aboutlearning ICT, ESOL, and/or literacy,with just one being unhappy about hisICT learning experience.

Most learners reported that the coursehad had some impact on their lives,changing their confidence orknowledge, influencing their work andimproving social interactions.



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3

Use of technology

It was found, not surprisingly, that themore time students spent usingtechnology, the greater the improvementin both their ICT skills and confidence.More specifically, student use ofPowerPoint and word- processing wasassociated with gains in the ICT skillsscore, although of these, only the use ofword-processing was also associatedwith increased ICT confidence.Interestingly, tutor use of PowerPointhad a negative effect on learners’ ICTskills, while use of a whiteboardcorrelated with improvements in bothICT skills and confidence.

Class organisation

Table 2 shows the distribution of classtime between whole class work, smallgroup work and individual work. Thetime spent working as a whole classcorrelated significantly with the changein the ESOL listening scores. Thoseclasses where more time was spentworking as individuals had better gainsin ICT skills, while those classesspending more time working in smallgroups (2-5) did less well.

Teaching activities

While no relationships were foundbetween any of the teaching practicesand changes in literacy and ESOLperformance, gains were made in both

ICT skills and ICT confidence whentutors spent more time managing smallgroup or individual activities rather thanteaching directly. Extending, where thetutor builds on or adds to materialpreviously discussed, or adds to anddevelops a comment by a learner, wasstrongly associated with improvementsin ICT skills and confidence. There was astrong positive correlation betweentutors’ use of the whiteboard and the useof Extension, and as noted earlier, therewas a correlation between use of awhiteboard and gains in ICT skills andconfidence. It is possible, therefore, thattutors used the whiteboard to supportthem in extending an activity, and it wasthis use which had the beneficial impacton ICT skills and confidence.

The following teaching activities hadsignificant positive correlations withimprovements in the ICT skills scores,although the correlations were small:

• Discussing: Tutor engaged in two-waydialogue with learners.

• Instructing: Tutor telling learnerswhat to do and what task to undertake.

• Listening: Tutor actively listening tolearners’ comments or questions.

• Modelling: Tutor showing the learnerhow to do something using the actualtechnology or its representation on aSMARTBoard.

Teaching and learning


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On the negative side, Explaining, wherethe tutor told learners how to dosomething, was found to be significantlynegatively correlated with improvementsin ICT skills and ICT confidence scores.

Relationships between test scores

Those who scored well on the ESOL testtended to score well on the GO test,showing that there was some degree ofoverlap between the skills measured bythese tests. In a similar way, those whoscored well on the ICT confidence testtended to score well on the ICT skillstest. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in all fourtests, those starting out with low scoresmade greater gains than those withhigher initial scores.

No correlation was found betweenchange in ICT skills and ICT confidencescores and changes in reading andlistening scores. This suggests that thetwo areas of skills were being learntindependently. However, there weresome indications in the data that initiallanguage skills may impact on ICTlearning, and conversely that initial ICTskills may impact on language learning.These relationships tended not tosurvive when age and class size weretaken into account. This interactionbetween skills is clearly an area that isworth further investigation.

Age and gender

There was a negative correlation forESOL (older learners made leastprogress), and a positive one for ICTskills and ICT confidence (older learnersmade most progress). There was a

significant positive correlation for malesbetween change in ICT confidence andage, though the relationship for femaleswas not significant. It may be thatyounger males overestimated their abilityat the start of the courses, but at the endhad a more realistic view of their skills.

Class size

Test results indicated that learners insmaller classes made greater overallgains than those in larger classes.However, class size was itself related toage: the older learners were in smallerclasses, and it is not clear whether therelationship between class size and ICTgains was a reflection of the age ofindividuals in the class.

Drop-out and attendance

The only statistically significantrelationship between attendance and thetest results was with the ICT confidenceinitial score, indicating that those withconfidence in their ICT skills were morelikely to attend regularly and less likelyto drop out.

Table 2 Classroom organisation

Individual Small group Whole class

WebQuests 49% 16% 35%e-Portfolio 52% 14% 34%Tablets 4% 68% 28%m-learning 33% 40% 27%Digital video 60% 12% 27%Mindmaps 64% 10% 26%National Test 81% 0% 19%Average 46% 26% 28%



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3

■ Our approach to development wasbased on reflection, group meetings,continuing design and on-site supportfrom development officers. Evidencefrom tutors’ diaries and interviewsshowed that they developed in theirunderstanding of pedagogy with ICT, inparticular they demonstrated:

• increased confidence in teaching withtechnology (awareness that ICTencompasses more than justcomputers in teaching);

• greater awareness that the use ofmodern technologies in teachingimplies the need to identify new waysof teaching;

• strengthened belief in a learningmethodology that puts learnerautonomy at its heart;

• greater readiness to changepedagogies to foster peer learningthrough collaboration;

• more confidence in experimentingand trying new technologies toachieve specific goals.

This process took time and effort, butenabled tutors to develop intoconfident, innovative users oftechnology. Several tutors went on tobe mentors within the Learning andSkills Development Agency-led project‘Exploring E-Learning for Literacy,Numeracy and ESOL Teachers’.

In the first phase of our project, thetutors had developed robust models ofICT use in literacy and ESOL. In thesecond phase, they each recruited a‘buddy’ to repeat the teachingapproaches they had designed. It wasfound that the tutors were able toinduct their buddies relatively quickly.Although the investment in time on thepart of the buddies was considerablyless than that of their mentors, thetests showed no significant differencesbetween the scores of learners taughtby the tutors and those taught by theirbuddies. The robust models of ICT usedeveloped by the tutors were able tosupport the buddies’ performance.

Implications for professional

development

In work that we did with the NationalInstitute of Adult Continuing Education(NIACE) in an action research projectlooking at the implementation of theICT Skills for Life Curriculum (NIACE,2005), we were able to obtain data onthe backgrounds of a large number oftutors delivering ICT Skills for Life. Thisinformation suggests that ICT tutorsare sometimes poorly prepared forteaching Skills for Life, and that Skillsfor Life tutors sometimes have a ratherlimited view of ICT.

Tutor development


The tutors we worked with started outas individuals with a special interest inthe area, and went through an intensiveperiod of training and reflection, whichfor some has consolidated theirpositions as leaders in the field. Thisintensive form of staff developmentclearly has an important role to play.

Within the NIACE project there wasconsiderable discussion about the levelof ICT knowledge required by tutors.The tutors in this project weredelivering both language and ICT skills,and while most were not ICTspecialists, neither were they novices.They did take the technology seriously,were often very skilled in particularaspects, and did not treat ICT as‘merely a tool’.

Another issue that came out stronglyfrom the NIACE study was the need forgood exemplar materials. As weargued above, given robust models ofICT use, the practices of the tutorscould then be relatively efficientlypicked up and used by their buddies.

The tutors in this project tookthe technology seriously, wereoften very skilled in particularaspects, and did not treat ICT as‘merely a tool’

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3

■ In the evaluation trials, classesimproved in almost all cases in bothliteracy/ESOL skills and ICT skills andconfidence, although the balancebetween improvements in the two setsof skills varied from class to class. Thelearning gains for classes were oftenstatistically significant, lending strongsupport to the Moser Report’s claimthat ‘learners who use ICT for basicskills double the value of their studytime, acquiring two sets of skills at thesame time’.

As we have shown earlier, we hadencouraged tutors to change their styleof teaching, and as a result, theysometimes saw themselves as takingrisks with their pedagogy and wereoften pleasantly surprised that thechanges worked, typically noting thattheir classes became more social and‘gelled’ better, and that pressure onthe tutor was reduced so they wereable to devote more attention tounderstanding their learners’ needs.


events

The learners’ age was a significantfactor in predicting learning gains. Inthe case of ESOL skills, older learnersmade least progress, and in the case ofICT skills and confidence, older men(but not women) made most progress.

Initial ICT confidence scores correlatedwith learners’ persistence in that thosewith lower scores were likely to attendless frequently and were more likely todrop out. Although not unexpected, thisresult does highlight the issue that,while ICT-based teaching can be verysuccessful for many learners, there areothers who do not have the necessarylevels of ICT confidence to benefit fullyfrom the approach.

No correlation was found betweenchanges in ICT skills and ICTconfidence scores and changes inreading (GO) and listening (ESOL)scores, suggesting that the two areasof skills are learned independently.However, there are some suggestionsin the data that initial language skillsmay impact on ICT learning, and alsothat initial ICT skills may impact onlanguage learning. This is an areaworth further investigation.

Learning and teaching resources

Most users found the use of ICTmotivating, with only a very smallnumber finding the technology adistraction from their language work.Mobile technologies (tablets, PDAs,mobile phones) were particularlymotivating, and enabled greaterflexibility in teaching and theopportunity to move outside the

Conclusions and implications


classroom. Relatively small amounts ofmobile technology were made availableand it is likely that increased accesswould be even more effective.

Learning-teaching events

Our tests showed, unsurprisingly, thatboth ICT skills and confidenceimproved with the amount of timelearners spent using technology. Morespecifically, learner use of the internet,PowerPoint and word-processing werefound to be associated with gains in ICTskills, although tutor use ofPowerPoint was negatively correlatedwith learners’ gains in ICT skills,highlighting the need for activeinvolvement on the part of the learnerrather than passive observation.

Collaboration

We laid particular emphasis on learnercollaboration, and observationsindicated that tutors were oftensuccessful in managing this. Somecarefully structured collaborativeactivities, though others simply allowedlearners to work together in their ownways. However, classes whereindividual learners spent more timeworking on their own showed bettergains in ICT skills (though not ICTconfidence) than those which spentmore time working in small groups.

Examination of the classroomobservation data showed that therewere many occasions wherecollaboration seemed to be effective,and that it could be especiallyimportant in bolstering learners’

confidence in using the technology.However, the data also pointed upsome problems.

When collaborative work was forced bythe need to share technology it was notas successful as when tutorsdeveloped tasks that required peerinteraction. When technology wasshared, one person sometimesdominated the use of the technology,and it is possible that this underminedthe usefulness of collaborative workfor developing ICT skills.

Collaborative learning faces particularchallenges in an adult learning context,where frequent changes in classmembership can make it difficult for atutor to achieve continuity. However,the classroom observations offersufficient evidence of the potential ofcollaborative working to support thecontinued exploration of theseapproaches, although further work isneeded to determine how best to usecollaborative work with technology.

Construction of artefacts/role-play

Most of the schemes of work involvedlearners in the construction of anartefact – often jointly. Classroomobservations indicate that this wasoften a useful focus, generatingmotivation, collaboration andpurposeful action, and also pointed upthe value for ICT used in this way inallowing differentiation within theclassroom. In certain contexts, role-play was also an important part ofthese activities – for example, where

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learners presented themselves asjournalists, photojournalists or TVinterviewers.


No correlations were found betweenany of the observed teaching strategiesand changes in performance in thereading (GO) and listening (ESOL) tests,but a number of correlations werefound for ICT skills and ICT confidence.

We encouraged teaching strategiesthat aimed to increase the autonomy oflearners so that they were able toengage in self-directed learning, andthere was a positive correlationbetween the amount of time spent bytutors managing activities with gainsmade in both ICT skills and confidence.

The most effective teaching strategy interms of ICT skills and confidence wasExtending, where the tutor builton/added to material previouslyintroduced by them, or added to acomment by a learner, and the strategywas particularly effective whensupported by a conventional whiteboard.Other effective activities that helped toimprove ICT skills were: Discussing,Instructing, Listening and Modelling(showing learners how to do somethingusing the actual technology or itsrepresentation on a SMARTBoard).

One strategy was found to have anegative effect on ICT skills andconfidence, and that was Explaining(where the tutor tells the learner howto do something). Tutor use of

PowerPoint also had a negative impacton ICT skills.


ICT can change the focus on theknowledge to be learned. This wasevidenced by tutors talking more aboutmanaging information, and perhapsless about learning it; more aboutbrowsing and scanning and less aboutcomprehension. Going beyond theskills described in the ICT Skills for LifeCurriculum and those tested in the ICTSkills Assessment, tutors sought topromote a further range of ICT skills,such as the ability to evaluateresources or to transfer skills from onecontext to another.

Tutor development

Teachers’ understanding of pedagogyincreased and they developed intoconfident, innovative users oftechnology in the classroom. Theperiod of training and reflection withinthe project enabled some toconsolidate their positions as leadersin the field, indicating that such anintensive form of staff development canbe important.

Such was the robustness of the modelsof ICT use employed that tutors’practices could be picked up and usedby their ‘buddies’ with relativeefficiency. Clearly, then, two forms ofstaff development are required – thatneeded by those who have to generateand develop models of ICT use, andthat needed by those who wish to pickup and adapt tried-and-tested models.


Condelli, L., Wrigley. H., Yoon. K.,Seburn, M. and Cronen, S. (2003). WhatWorks Study for Adult ESL LiteracyStudents. Washington, DC: USDepartment of Education.

DfEE (1999). A Fresh Start: Improvingliteracy and numeracy. The report of theWorking Group chaired by Sir ClausMoser. London: Department forEducation and Employment (DfEE).

DfES (2003). The Skills for Life Survey:A national needs and impact survey ofliteracy, numeracyand ICT skills.London: Department for Education andSkills.

Mellar, H., Kambouri, M., Sanderson,M., and Pavlou, V. (2004) ICT and adultliteracy, numeracy and ESOL. London:NRDC. Available at:http://www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_258.pdf [Accessed: 9 March2006]

NIACE (2005) ICT Skill for Life – ActionResearch Project, Report to DfES,October 2005. Available at:http://www.niace.org.uk/Research/ICT/ICT-SfL-Action-Research-Project.pdf[Accessed: 9 March 2006]

References

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NRDC


University of London

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London WC1H 0AL

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7612 6476

Fax: +44 (0)20 7612 6671

email: [email protected]

website: www.nrdc.org.uk

NRDC is a consortium of partners led by the Institute of Education,University of London with:• Lancaster University• The University of Nottingham• The University of Sheffield• East London Pathfinder• Liverpool Lifelong Learning

Partnership

• Basic Skills Agency • Learning and Skills

Network • LLU+, London South

Bank University • National Institute of

Adult Continuing Education• King’s College London• University of Leeds

Funded by theDepartment forEducation and Skills aspart of Skills for Life: the national strategy forimproving adult literacy and numeracyskills.

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Harvey Mellar, Maria Kambouri Kit Logan, Sally Betts, Barbara … · 2015-03-12 · adult literacy, language and numeracy (LLN), major reforms of teacher education and training, and