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Teacher education in Logo-based environments:a handbook for teacher trainers

M.M.A. ValckeSta te University of Ghent, St. Pietersnieuwstraat 25, 9000,Ghent, Belgium and Open University, Heerlen; The Netherlands

Abstract. This article focuses on the development of a hand­book for teacher trainers. This handbook was developed asthe result of the EC project "Teacher Education in Logo­based environments". Seven countries give in this handbooktheir approach and view on how, why, etc.; they have set upinitiatives in relation to teacher education: Belgium, Greece,Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UnitedKingdom.

In the text, the overall rationale for the development ofthe handbook is described, and especially the initial points ofview on teacher education and educational computing ingeneral are presented.

Next, a short abstract of the contribution of each countryis presented. Some general outlines, based on the sevencontributions, are supplied as a conclusion.

Keywords: Logo-based environments, teacher education,teacher education support materials

Dr. Martin Valcke graduated at theState University of Gent, Belgium asa educationist. He soon began workin the field of educational computingwhich resulted in his doctoral workabout the implementation and evalu­ation of Logo Microworlds in primaryeducation. He has been involved in alarge number of national and interna­tional EC projects. Part of his workwas related to teacher education.

He is now research manager at theOpen University of the Netherlands

where he sets up research in relation to educational technol­ogy and distance educa tion.

Education & Computing 7 (1991) 293-304Elsevier

Introduction

Teacher education presents teacher trainerswith a variety of organisational, structural andcontent related problems. This text focuses onthis complex set of problems by the presentationof the international project "Teacher Educationin Logo-based Environments". This project wasfunded by the European Commission of the EC

and the following countries were involved: Bel­gium, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal,Spain and the United Kingdom. The project re­sulted in the development of a "handbook" forteacher trainers. In this text, the overall rationalefor the development of the handbook is de­scribed, and the initial points of view on teachereducation and educational computing in generalare especially presented. It was the opinion of theauthors of the manual that the choice for anapproach towards teacher education and towardseducational computing is not trivial. This is obvi­ous when looking at two main concepts in thetitle of the project: teacher education and Logo­based environments. These two concepts form thecommon rationale of the different contributionsand will be dealt with in the second part of thistext. The content of the handbook is outlinedbrietly with descriptions of the seven nationalteacher education initiatives.

Aims of the project: "Teacher education in Logo­based environments"

Throughout two years, representatives of edu­cational institutions of each participating countryinvolved in teacher education in educational com­puting, met on a regular basis to discuss ap­proaches towards teacher education. The generalaim of the project was not to develop a uniqueapproach towards teacher education. Rather, itwas felt to be necessary to collect and maintainthe wealth of the individual professional experi­ences of the institutions involved. A handbookwas considered useful in this perspective because

0167-9287/91/$03.50 © 1991 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.Y. All rights reserved

294 M.MA. Valcke / Teacher education in Logo-based environments

it can inspire or orient the approach of otherteacher educators.

In relation to each country involved, a nationalproject is outlined or a specific institute or orga­nization presents its own approach and initiativesto teacher education, with particular reference to

Logo. However, the handbook only contains asmall selection of the rich variety of approachesto "teacher education" and Logo in each regionor country of Europe. The overall purpose of thisbook can be stated as follows:(i) To present to the audience a range of ap-

Table 1Characteristics of the teacher education initiatives: a quick overview of the main features of each contribution. It is to be stressedthat each contribution in this book reflects responses to local, regional or national needs. The reader may-as a consequence-usethis book as a rich overviewof initiatives and approaches that might be helpful in responding to his own needs. key: B = Belgium;Gr. =Greece; Ir. = Ireland; N. = Netherlands; P. = Portugal; S. = Spain; U.K. = United Kingdom.

Keywords B. Gr. Ir. N. P. S. UK

Local initiative x x x x xRegional initiative xNational initiative x

In-service education x x x x x x xPre-service education x xTraining of trainers x

National policy about NICT x x x x x x

Constructivism x

Focus on Logo x x x x x xFocus on microworlds x x x X x

Focus on teacher use x x x x x x xFocus on future use of pupils x x x

Top-down strategy x x x x xSchool-based strategy X x x

Research oriented x x xPractice oriented x x x x x x xAction research-case studies x x

Views of teachers x x x xPrinciples of teacher education x x x x x

Single initiatives x x x x xContinuous support x x x x

Logo linked to objectives- in relation to mathematics x x x x x x- in relation to metacognition x x- in relation to project work x x x

Initiative of- Ministry of Education x- Teacher education centre x x x x- Research institute x x

Use of Logo with gifted children x

Support materials (syllabus) x x x x x xCurriculum work -x x x xExamination x

M.M.A. Va/eke / Teacher education in Logo-based encironments 295

proaches to teacher education in Logo-basedenvironments.

(ii) To raise issues in relation to principles whenusing Logo in a teacher education environ­ment.

(iii) To define the variety of aims of teachereducation in Logo-based environments.

(iv) To highlight the value of Logo in teachereducation.

When writing the specific chapters, the con­tributors kept in mind the following target audi­ence: teacher trainers, educators, advisors, in­spectors, lecturers in teacher training colleges,educational authorities and teachers.

This target population will find in the book avariety of examples of teacher education initia­tives; key features of initiatives that influencesuccess or failure of teacher education; ap­proaches to the evaluation of projects; referencesto support materials; theoretical foundations ofteacher education approaches and, in parallel,specific implementations of these theoreticalpoints of view.

In the context of teacher education, the con­tribu tors mainly had the 6 to 14 years age groupin mind.

Table 1 gives a quick overview of the mainfeatures of each contribution. It is to be stressedthat each contribution in this book reflects re­sponses to local, regional or national needs. Thereader may-as a consequence-use this book asa rich overview of initiatives and approaches thatmight be helpful in responding to his own needs.In this table, the concept of "microworlds", inparticular, needs to be explained in full. Thisconcept will be elaborated in the next part of thistext.

Teacher education and Logo-based environments

The concept "teacher education" will be usedthroughout this paper, to stress the fact thatsupporting teachers to use educational technol­ogy is more than mere "training". This becomeseven more plain when revealing the argumentsfor the choice of Logo-based environments. Thisis not only due to the technical characteristics ofthis programming language (Logo is extendable,highly interactive and has no threshold). Thechoice for this environment is mainly based on

pedagogical-philosophical and educational argu­ments.

Pedagogical-philosophical arguments

Logo is only one exponent of what is calledNew Information and Communication Technolo­gies (sncr). It is widely accepted that NIL'T notonly sustains "teaching", but also has an impacton the content of what is taught and the way"learning" is achieved. In other words, xrcr canaffect the teaching and learning of pupils. Certainuses of computers confirm traditional ways ofteaching and learning. Logo-in particular-givesnew opportunities to the teacher and to the pupils.A choice for a specific use of a computer reflectsa subjective preference, implicitly or explicitly, fora certain style of teaching and learning. For ex­ample, a computer can help the teacher todemonstrate the way complex geometrical figurescan be reconstructed to become a combination ofsimple, comprehensible geometrical structures.The same tool can also give the pupil the oppor­tunity and the power to explore this "manipula­tion" of geometrical shapes. The computer, atthis moment, changes the educational structureof the teaching and learning situation. In the firstsituation, the teacher is in control of what is to belearned and the way the concept or skill of "re­structuring" is acquired. In the second situation,control is given to the pupil, whereby all kinds ofpossibilities, while manipulating shapes, can beexplored. This brings about different learning ex­periences, which can serve as a basis for develop­ing personal "conceptualisations" about the phe­nomena observed. Logo supports this specific ap­proach to teaching and learning and this ap­proach is called "constructivism".

The constructivist approach to learning isshared by many educators [1-4,7]. Constructivismis a general theory, applicable to all kinds ofsubjects. It is essentially an epistemological the­ory, a theory that tries to explain how pupilsacquire new concepts and how pupils build theirown knowledge base. It is not a theory aboutteaching [6]. Constructivism is based on the fol­lowing hypotheses [2]:- "Knowledge is actively constructed by the cog­

nizing subject, not passively received from theenvironment.

296 M.MA. Valcke I Teacher education in Logo-based environments

- Coming to know is an adaptive process thatorganizes one's experiential world ... "The implications of these principles are clear.

Pupils are expected to be responsible for theirown learning. Their own experiences are the ba­sis for constructing knowledge.

In practice, constructivism is a theory aboutacquiring knowledge and embodies the followingpoints relevant for teaching:- The teacher should acquire skills to provide

the pupils with interesting learning environ­ments.

- The teacher takes the various-intuitive-con­ceptualisations of the pupils into account, whenplanning instruction.

- The teacher gives the pupils the opportunity toexplore the learning environments freely.

- The teachers present the pupils with learningenvironments that are interesting and relevantto explore.The teacher adopts a "problem solving" ap­proach to teaching.Group work can enhance the exploratory activ­ity.Errors in the work of the pupils offer relevantopportunities to reveal the individual's way ofacquiring knowledge.

As suggested, the constructivist theory de­scribes learning not as a "solitary" activity (ef therole of group work). Epistemic conflict involvestwo knowing systems. Pufall [5] illustrates thisvery accurately when he states: "Taken literally,it is suggested that our search for meaning entailsa search for shared meaning between knowingsystems.". Acquiring knowledge is a self-directedactivity, it is not a solitary activity. Cooperativework can help pupils to clarify their meanings toeach other and help them to discuss their inter­mediate conceptualisations. The constructivistapproach to teaching and learning can be foundin many contributions to this book.

Educational arguments: the potential of Logo

Logo has great potential in sustaining pupileducation. Initially, the use of the language withchildren was put forward especially to influencethe acquisition of mathematical concepts andskills. Today, Logo is used to attain a wide range

of objectives in different areas. This is illustratedby the many research projects focusing on thefollowing topics [8]:- Cognitive effects

Logo and mathematics- Logo and metacognition- Logo and problem solving- Logo and cognitive development- Logo and language acquisition

- Logo and creativity- Logo and attitudinal development- Logo and social-emotional development.

Part of Logo-research also focused on the con­text-factors, influencing the acquisition of thelanguage and the possible transfer of learningexperiences (teacher, classroom context,milieu ... ).

But the history of Logo has also revealed someweaknesses of the programming language. Teach­ers have difficulties with the link between Logoand the curriculum; they have difficulties with themanagement of the Logo-work and the evalua­tion. To overcome these problems, Logo-micro­worlds have been developed. A microworld is aspecific type of Logo-learning environment. Themost obvious features of microworlds are:CD They present a clearly defined part of reality.

In literature, we find, for example, mi­croworlds in relation to angles, coordinates,variables, scale ...

(ii) They can be manipulated. Each microworldpresents a set of commands and operations,reflecting a specific content area. In a frac­tion-microworld, there are, for example, in­structions to represent fractions, to calculatewith fractions ...

(iii) Pupils can explore them, or see the effects oftheir input. The above features of mi­croworlds have already suggested the inter­active nature of this type of Logo-software.Although microworlds do not put forwardquestions or problems, pupils can use themas a "laboratory" for exploring the problemsthey themselves define or the questions theythemselves put forward.

In the following parts of this text, the sevencontributions are briefly described. In the book,each chapter starts with an introduction to thenational educational system, the description ofthe individual organisation, institute or initiative,and finally the approachtes) towards teacher edu-

M.M.A. Valcke / Teacher educationin Logo-based environments 297

cation are discussed. Only the latter informationwill be summarized here. The presentation of thedifferent chapters will not be organized with aconsistent strucure. We prefer instead to high­light only special features of each initiative. Butwe have to stress the fact that these summariesdo not reflect the full picture and richness of thecontent of the different contributions.

Belgium

Teacher education in the use of Logo-microworlds

The Belgium contribution is presented by aresearch group (EDIF: working group EDucationalInFormation sciences) of the State University ofGhent. During recent years, four specific in­service teacher education projects have been setup in relation to the use of Logo. The foureducation projects were intended for primaryschool teachers working in community schools ofthe Gent area. Teachers of Grades 3 to 6 wereinvolved. The teacher education projects are "ac­tion-research oriented". A course can briefly bedescribed as follows:

Target group: ± 45 teachers from 6 elementaryschools in the Ghent region.

Practical organization: the education was orga­nized at the university; there were separate ses­sions for the teachers of Grade 3, 4, 5 and 6, oncea week; the schools got extra teachers to enableteachers to attend the teacher education sessions.

Content of the teacher education course:- For 25-30 hours each group of teachers ex­

plored and got acquainted with the use ofmicroworlds and the link between Logo andmathematics.

- In this project, the introduction to the Logoprogramming language itself was no longer aseparate part of the teacher education. Thisintroduction was embedded in the explorationof the microworlds.

- The project also focused on the relevance ofthe use of microworlds in the daily teachingpractice of the teachers. The official mathe­matics curriculum was continuously used as apoint of reference.

- Some new microworlds were developed and

worked out by the teacher trainer during theeducation cycle, in close collaboration with theteachers.The outcome of this project was twofold:

- a manual with an extensive introduction tomicroworlds;

- a set of activity cards containing lesson ideas,based on the use of the microworlds.These activity cards were only meant to give

the teachers suggestionsof what might be done inthe classroom. They were not meant to imposeany structure or any order of lesson activities ontheir classroom practice.

Gradual changes could be perceived in specificaspects of the teacher education projects:

A gradual shift in the kind of objectives beingpursued in the various teacher education projectscan be perceived. Initially, much attention waspaid to learning outcomes in terms of pupil be­haviour and the technical mastery of the com­puter and Logo by the teacher. Little by little, astrong need was felt to go beyond this level andto influence the teaching skills and approaches ofthe teacher. Finally, there was the conviction thatonly through a thorough rethinking of one's per­sonal ideas about teaching and learning, can onesuccessfully change current practice. One projectwas especially successful in structuring the attain­ment of the latter objective. This can be due to:the high degree of teacher involvement; the de­velopment of microworlds in a collaborative way;the cooperative development of activities basedon the use of microworlds, etc.

Since the objectives of the teacher educationcourses changed throughout the years, the con­tent of the teacher education activities changedalso. During the first teacher education project,the content was dominated by the introduction toLogo and the microworlds. In later projects, theacquisition of the Logo programming languageitself became of secondary importance. More at­tention was paid to the link between the mi­croworlds and the mathematics curriculum. Inthe last projects, full attention was paid to theskills in using and integrating the Logo-micro­worlds in the teachers' current practice. Discus­sions of organizational issues, time tables ... werealso part of the teacher education content.

The degree of teacher involvement in theteacher education projects: the initial project wasclearly a top-down project. Gradually, the per-

298 MMA. Va/cke / Teacher education in Logo-based environments

sonal and individual responsibility increased sincesuccess depended on the teachers' own efforts.

Greece

Training teachers in Logo in Greece

In the Greek contribution, two major projectsare described: The first project, entitled "Train­ing Teachers in Logo", involved primary and sec­ondary school teachers in in-service courses, withthe aim of introducing them to Logo's philoso­phy, its educational possibilities and to enablethem to apply this knowledge in their daily prac­tice. The second project, entitled "TrainingTeachers to encourage children to learn withLogo", aimed at training the entire teacher popu­lation of a primary school. Its general aim was toperceive and use Logo in an educational way andto apply what they have learned with the childrenthey normally teach. The presentation here con­centrates on the teacher training aspects of thisproject, which includes teacher training, pupileducation, evaluation and curriculum design on alongitudinal basis.

The two projects address two important as­pects of the problem of spreading the educationaluse of Logo in a non-technologically aware cul­ture.

The first project addresses the demand foreffective short-term teacher training on a largescale in a school system which is being (or willshortly be) equipped with computer technology,but in which, inevitably, there is a shortage ofteachers able to do something useful with it. Onthe other hand, the second project confronts theissue of a long-term integration process in rela­tion to the use of Logo with the entire schoolpopulation (all teachers and pupils), while-con­currently-injecting a constructivist approach toteaching and learning.

Furthermore, the authors believe that the twoproject-approaches are complementary. The for­mer meets the problem of a more readily applica­ble method of spreading Logo use in Greece,while the latter confronts deeper issues concern­ing the pedagogical use of Logo and generateschanges and ideas which might be implementedin the application of the former. At a differentlevel, the combined experiences support the view

that there is a need for designing Logo environ­ments related more directly to the various con­tents taught in current curricula, but avoidingcompromise as much as possible when exploitingLogo's educational strengths.

We elaborate some aspects of the second pro­ject:

The objective of this project is the training ofteachers, in order to make them able-at a firstlevel-to teach Logo to their pupils and, at asecond level, to offer them a new pedagogicaltool.

The experience was limited to the field ofmathematics, because possible applications in thisdomain are numerous and easy to develop.

The main focus is on the creation of a newpedagogical context, where the teacher stops be­ing the medium through which the knowledge isreceived by the student, and where he becomes acreative tutor. Unfortunately, in Greek schoolspersonal interventions of the teacher are veryrestricted, because he has to follow strict instruc­tions when teaching. In this context, Logo ismuch more than a sophisticated tool. It gives theteacher the opportunity to create his own way ofteaching. We must also take into account that theamount of time devoted to computer applicationsin schools is limited. Educational applications ofLogo can offer relatively important gains, despitelimited time and/or limited resources.

From the outset, the main concern regardingthe training of the teachers was to allow andencourage them to form their own strategies andtake control of the way in which they wouldimplement the above educational objectives.Thus, one reason for focusing on process was forthe teachers to use Logo as a tool to teachsomething that they considered familiar, relevantand useful in relation to their experience so far:they felt that the children had-in a traditionalcontext-very little chance to engage in activethinking, to take initiatives and to cooperate intheir normal classrooms, and that these experi­ences would be of great value to them.

Ireland

Teacher education in Logo-based environments

St Patrick's College of Education is the largestof five educational institutions in Ireland which

M.MA. Valeke I Teachereducation in Logo-based environments 299

are concerned with the education of primaryschool teachers. The college also provides in­service courses for practising primary teachers,including a full-time diploma course for specialeducation teachers and an evening BEd degreecourse for two-year trained teachers.

The pre-service education provision consistsof:

The" Elective Course on Computers in Educa­tion": where a problem-solving format is used.The student-teachers are presented with a pro­gramming problem or series of problems andencouraged to discover the inherent conceptsor principles.

- The " Introductory Course on Computers inEducation": to introduce student-teachers tothe use of the computer in the primary schoolclassroom, using a variety of software, with aparticular emphasis on Logo . The forma t ofthe course is mainly workshop with the mini­mum of lecturing.

- The "Logo-based Mathematics Course": aim­ing at the use of computers in education byrequiring teachers to use Logo as a tool forlearning mathematics and to develop the math­ematical knowledge of the student teachers inspecified areas.The in-service courses involving Logo-based

environments are for students of the Bachelor ofEducation degree programme for primary teach­ers who qualified before 1976.

St Patrick's College of education has also de­veloped a Logo Resource Pack for Teachers. Theresource pack consists of a teacher's manual,pupils' workbooks and supporting software. Theinitial pack, recently completed, deals with Logographics (including direct drawing, simple proce­dures and structured procedures) and mathemat­ics related activities. Each chapter in the teacher'smanual is divided into five sections, introductorycomments, Logo theory, teaching strategies, classprojects, and extension activities. The manual canbe used as an independent resource or in con­junction with the pupil books and software. It canbe used independently by teachers or as a manualfor an introductory course on using Logo in theclassroom. It is proposed to use this manual inthe Introductory Courses mentioned above. TheResource Pack has been tested in two primaryschools.

The Netherlands

Teacher education courses in Logo-based environ­ments

The Dutch contribution is written by teachereducators of a PABa (teacher education centre)who have been long involved in teacher educationprojects. The Dutch Ministry of Educationadopted a policy to promote the use of computersin primary and secondary education. In order tosupport the use of computers in primary educa­tion, the government invited experts in the fieldof teacher education to be members of projectgroups. These project groups planned and orga­nized courses for primary school teachers. Initialcourses tended to be too long; now the ma infocus is on short-term courses,

The members of the working group also devel­oped resource materials: "Midgetl.ogo" , Thesematerials have recently been published.

In the handbook, the work of the "Logo andmathematical activities" course is described inparticular. This course was influenced by thefollowing facts:

(i) Evaluation of teacher education courses re­veals that primary school teachers are interestedin computer applications that are immediatelyrelevant for their classroom context. They wish toexplore these programs and to discuss their di­dactical and organizational features. Primaryschool teachers need programs with an explicitlink with the existing curriculum.

(ii) Logo can be considered as a toolbox tomake all sorts of things . A set of tools can beuseful in one particular microworld , whereas an­other set is better suited in another microworld.It is also possible to create new tools. The num­ber of primitives in a toolbox has to be limited,taking into account the capabilities of the chil­dren.

(iii) Logo and mathematics are closely linked.In the Netherlands, mathematics education isheavily influenced by the notion of "context".Microworlds can present or represent such "con­texts" to learn mathematics.

This course is based on the resource pack"MidgetLogo", mentioned above. Seven pro­grammes are connected to the "MidgetLogo"

300 M.M.A, Valcke / Teacher education in Logo-based environments

microworld. Each of the programmes is accompa­nied by a worksheet for the pupils.

The course had the following content struc­ture:introduction to the course (1 hr)

- Logo-backgrounds, microworlds, tools, "Mid­getl.ogo" (2 hrs)introduction to Logo (2 hrs)exploring the possibilities of the" Midgetl.ogo"microworld (3 hrs)the role of the teacher in the classroom situa­tion and the use of worksheets (3 hrs)arithmetic/mathematics backgrounds. What is"mathematizing"? What is "context" in arith­metic/mathematics methods? (2 hrs)programme construction (2 hrs)

- personal adaptations of the microworld or de­velopment of a new programme and relatedworksheets (5 hrs)In addition to theoretical work (for example,

reading articles), the participants were also ex­pected to work with children using some of the"MidgetLogo" programmes.

Portugal

Teacher education in Logo-based environments

In relation to NICT, there is a national projectsupported by the Portugese Ministry of Educa­tion, called the Minerva Project. Its main peda­gogical goals are to provide schools with comput­ers and to educate teachers (in-service education)to work with computers as a tool.

This text describes the work done by a regionalMinerva Project node. In every node of the Min­erva Project, there is a special group of primary,middle or secondary school teachers who haveteaching responsibility and are based at Universi­ties or in a College of Education. The team is incharge of the implementation of the MinervaProject and the teacher education process in itsarea. (There is no tradition in Portugal for teach­ers at different educational levels to cooperatewith one another. However, in the Minerva Pro­ject, this is done for the first time.)

The Escola Superior de Educac,ao de Lisboa isa College of Education in Lisbon and is part of apolytechnic school (Higher Education). This Col-

lege of Education provides-as a node of theMinerva Project-a variety of pre-service coursesfor pre-school and primary school teachers. Thesecourses imply to a certain extent the use ofLogo-based environments.

The in-service courses are set up in two phases.The structure and content of the courses areinfluenced by the following principles:- The teacher education process must be a con­

tinuous one, if we want teachers to integrateconcepts and to change their attitudes. Anyteacher education process should provide con­tinuous support.

- It is important to educate teachers accordingto the methods which they are expected to usewith their students.

- Teachers should have an investigative attitudetowards the teaching-learning process, to ac­quire a reflective and critical approach towardstheir own teaching practice.

- The interconnection between scientific, techni­cal and pedagogical teacher education is fun­damental.

- Teachers should be considered as active agentsof their own learning process. Teacher educa­tion initiatives must be organized in a way thatallows teachers to work with colleagues in agroup setting, sharing responsibilities, exchang­ing experiences and elaborating educationalmaterials.The aims of the introductory phase are: to

provide teachers with an elementary technicalknowledge and 'a general view about the educa­tional possibilities of computers and to acquirethe necessary knowledge to work with their stu­dents. Evaluation reveals that the courses weresuccessful in achieving these goals. The secondphase of the teacher education courses has adifferent purpose. This phase aims:- to promote the discussion about different

strategies to work with students;- to exchange the experiences between the

teachers involved;- to encourage the elaboration and organisation,

in small groups, of support materials;- to organize work sessions to explore some as­

pects of Logo-language, especially issues re­lated to the projects in progress;

- to facilitate the use of reference materials.

M.MA. Va/eke I Teacher education in Logo-based environments 301

Spain

Teacher education in the Atenea project

In this contribution, the initiatives of a na­tional programme of teacher education are de­scribed in relation to the use of Logo-based envi­ronments. Part of this programme is called"Pro­grama de nuevas tecnologias de la informacion y facomunicacion" (PNTIC). Since a national pro­gramme is described, a lot of attention is paid tothe national and regional structure of this pro­gramme. In this structure especially, the 106 Cen­tros de Profesores (Teacher Centres, CEP) play amajor role. These Centros de Profesores are toprovide training, as well as scientific and peda­gogical updating, for the teachers in each localarea. The training is carried out through courses,seminars, meetings for the exchange of informa­tion on relevant experiences, work groups, work­shops and other activities. The CEP are meetingplaces where primary and secondary teachers candiscuss the professional issues that concern them.

Of particular importance in this contribution isthe focus of the project on the training of futureteacher trainers. The trainers in the CEP'S havedifferent functions:- to train the teachers from the pedagogic teams

of the schools;- to help the pedagogical teams to plan and

experiment curriculum-integrated applicationsof NICT;

- to take part in the follow-up and evaluation ofthe project.Because of its peculiar features and the oppor­

tunities it offers for education, Logo is thought tobe a computer tool which deserves to be regardedin a special way. The role of Logo in the teachereducation programme of the Atenea Project hasbeen fundamental. In this respect, the first im­portant decision was to reach an agreement upona standard to name the primitives of the languagein Spanish. Next, the need was felt to have athand enough Logo-based materials integratedinto the school curriculum. This motivated theproduction of the resource packages " Logo:Metodologia y Recursos Educativos" (Logo­Methodology and Educational Resources) and"Logo: Metodologia y Aplicaciones Diddcticas"(Logo-Method and Pedagogical Applications).

These resource packages provide instances of

applications in concrete teaching-learning situa­tions which will stimulate discussion amongteachers and provide them with ideas for plan­ning their own activities, either using the materi­als as they are or adapting them to the needs oftheir students. On the other hand, they are usedas resources for the training of teachers, so thatthe technical aspects remain subordinate to thepedagogic applications.

The training in Logo aims at providing theteacher trainers with grounds for decision makingupon whether or not a given Logo learning envi­ronment is adequate for a given teaching-learn­ing situation. It also tries to enable them to carryout applications based upon Logo or upon mi­croworlds and other tools developed in Logo.And, finally, it also tries to enable them to teachthe courses mentioned before.

The resource package "Logo: Metodologia yAplicaciones Diddcticas" consists of three volumeswith approximately a thousand pages and twodisks. Examples of these microworlds are: GEO­

PLANA, The Shapes Microworld, Graphic Repre­sentation of Functions, Vectors in the Plane, Co­ordinate Systems, Cartesian Coordinates and Po­lar Coordinates, the 3-D turtle, Spherical Geom­etry, Logo and Mechanics, Story Maker, MusicalMicroworld, Logic Programming in Logo =

Prologo, etc. These examples clearly show thatthe microworlds are not restricted to the mathe­matics domain.

United Kingdom

The microworlds course: an approach tocomputer-based in-service teacher education formathematics

In this contribution, the approach of a groupof researchers of the University of London insetting up the "Microworlds course" is described.One of the aims of the microworlds course was todevelop, innovate and evaluate a programme ofin-service teacher education concerned with theuse of generic computer applications (Logo,spreadsheets, databases and graph plotting pack­ages) within the secondary school mathematicscurriculum. The aims of this course were forparticipants to:- Develop competence and confidence in the use

302 M.M.A. Valcke / Teacher education in Logo-based environments

of the computer as a mathematical problemsolving tool.Reflect on their own learning processes andrelate these to the learning of the pupils withintheir classrooms.

- Develop ways of structuring the computer en­vironment within their mathematics classroomsand evaluate its role in terms of pupil's learn­ing.

- Confront the issue of the computer's influenceon the role of the teacher, and to increaseawareness of individual learning styles.

- Disseminate their expertise amongst col­leagues in schools and Local Education Au­thorities.The course design was influenced by the fol­

lowing considerations:- The atmosphere and pedagogical input of a

course influences the ideas that teachers takeaway with them and ultimately use in theirclassrooms.

- Course organisers need to share their coursegoals explicitly with the participants.The affective side of learning needs carefulconsideration.

- Achieving a balance of personal learning and aconsideration of classroom issues is important.Teachers need time to work on computer-basedprojects for themselves.

- Teachers need to develop their own ideas andclassroom materials, and try them out in theirclassrooms (rather than be given pre-de­termined packages of materials), in order thatthey can attain a feeling of ownership of thematerials and integrate them into their class­room practice.

- Teachers need support with their classroom­based work and, in particular, when starting touse the computer in the classroom.The relevant mathematical ideas within thecomputer-based work need to be continuouslyand explicitly addressed.Hardware issues must be subordinate to theissue of using the computer as an expressivemedium.The course was substantial in terms of contact

time, which allowed it to focus on educationalrather than technical issues. It was structured tobe 30 days over the period of one school year,with a mixture of blocks of time at the Universityand one-day sessions at fortnightly intervals. The

blocks allowed a focus in depth on specific issues,while the sessions at fortnightly intervals allowedtime to try activities out in schools and allowedspace for the course organisers to work with theteachers in the schools. The emphasis shifted ineach of the three terms of the course, and thischanging emphasis was reflected in the content ofthe termly blocks. At the beginning of the course,the three-day block provided the participants withthe opportunity to get to know each other and tobecome confident in using Logo; in the middleterm, the block was devoted to microworld designand production of curricular materials; in thefinal term, the block was focused on the question'of dissemination and evaluation."The course was structured around the follow­

ing teacher activities: "Hands on" activities, ex­tended projects, classroom-based work, case stud­ies, working with microworlds and developmentof dissemination procedures. As course tutors,the authors of this contribution had many discus­sions with the teachers involved in the project.The following list gives an impression of theissues dealt with during these discussions: Theappropriateness of the microworlds for the pupils,the role of intervention, writing Logo-procedures,the relevance of the Logo work to mathematics,the teacher's expectation of pupils, organisation,and pupil pairing, etc.

Conclusions

The reports in the handbook have highlightedthe fact that NICf will play an increasing role inthe delivery of the educational service in thecompulsory education phase. The strategy to beadopted in using NICT will be to integrate thetechnology into the total school curriculum asmuch as possible.

The following observations have been high­lighted in the various reports;- In terms of pre-service education, a major na­

tional initiative has been undertaken in somecountries, while in other countries only institu­tional initiatives have been adopted. The sameis also true for the in-service education ofteachers. There is evidence to support the viewthat every EC country should undertake a ma­jor national initiative in this respect.

M.M.A. Valcke / Teacher education in Logo-based environments 303

It is striking that in many initiatives the exist­ing teacher educational structures and institu­tions playa major role, both in pre-service andin-service education.A wide range of methods and strategies hasbeen adopted in the different countries in con­ducting pre-service and in-service education.

- Teachers are convinced of the potential rele­vance of the use of NIL"T in education.

- In terms of pre-service and in-service educa­tion of teachers, Logo has been regarded as anessential feature.

- Logo has also been seen to playa major part indelivering curriculum integrated learning expe­riences to the children.

- Success in delivering an effective in-service ed­ucation was due mainly to the following fea­tures:

Logo and implementation- the design of a structured introduction plan as

part of an innovation strategy- the relevance of the course content to the daily

practice- the balance between school-based and

college-based workLogo and resource materials- the provision of well-documented resource ma­

terials- the provision of ready-to-use Logo-microworld

materialsLogo and teacher-education structures- the training of teacher trainers

building up the proficiency of teacher in agradual way

- ease of contact between trainers and teacher inthe field

- access to the teacher trainers by the teachersin the field

Logo and teacher-education support- the provision of continuous support to the

teachers- the founding of a resource team- the establishment of an adequate support

structureLogo and teacher-attitudes- a high degree of personal involvement of the

teachers in the teacher education process- the involvement of teachers in the planning

and implementation of the teacher educationprocess

- the necessity to develop teaching materials and

classroom materials, in cooperation with theteachers

Logo and educational policy- the long-term nature of the courses- focusing on developing the "abilities" of the

teachers- seeing teacher education as part of curriculum

development- the link between the use of Logo and the

general teaching and learning approach of theteacher

- the fact that Logo was considered as part of aricher-technology-supported-learning envi­ronment

- the attention paid to the affective and socialsides of teaching and learning

- the fact that hardware issues were subordinateto the issue of using computersThe examples of teacher education initiatives

described in this paper prove that the use of theLogo programming language can be a very effec­tive and efficient way to support teacher educa­tion. Its value has been proved in terms of pupiland teacher outcomes. In particular, the languageis flexible and can be easily adapted to specificneeds. The examples of microworlds, toolkits,etc., in this book, illustrate the diversity of appli­cation fields and the rich nature of learning expe­riences when presented to the children.

Furthermore, the use of microworlds has indi­cated that Logo can be more than just a powerfuleducational medium to support actual educa­tional practice. It also shows that the use of Logocan help to introduce into our schools new, moti­vating and exciting dimensions to teaching andlearning. In this respect, it is striking that mostauthors in this book refer to the constructivistlearning approach as being very valuable in usingLogo with the children.

However, evidence from the reports has indi­cated that in using NICT in education, a high levelof commitment and a great deal of hard work isinvolved.

References

[11 P. Cobb, Information-processing psychology and mathe­matics education: a constructivist perspective, Journal ofMathematical Behaviour 6 (1987) 3-40.

304 M.M.A. Valcke / Teacher education in Logo-basedencironments

[2] J. Kilpatrick, What constructivism might he in mathemat­ics education. In: J.e. Bergeron, N. Herscovics and e.Kieran, eds, Proceedings of P.M.E.XI. (P.M.E., Montreal,1987) 3-27.

[3] S. Lerman, Constructivism, mathematics and mathematicseducation, Educational Studies in Mathematics 20(2) (1989)211-223.

[4] S. Papert, Mindstorms: Children, Computers and PowerfulIdeas (Basic Books, New York, 1980).

[5] P. Pufall, Function in Piaget's system: some notes forconstructors of microworlds. In: G. Forman and P. Pufall,eds, Constructivism in the Computer Age (Lawrence Erl­baurn, Hillsdale, NJ, 1988) 15-36.

[6] G. Schuyten, Constructivism as a theoretical frameworkfor Logo-based environments. In: G. Schuyten and M.Valcke, eds. Teaching and Learning in Logo-based Enoi­ronments OOS, Amsterdam, 1990) 1-15.

[7] C. Solomon, Computer Environments for Children (MIT,Cambridge, MA, 1985).

[8J M. Valcke, Effecten van het werken met Logo-micro­werelden. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation (Stale Uni­versity of Ghent, 1990).

Participating countries and institutions

Belgium

G. Schuyten, State University of Ghent, EDIF, H. Dunant­laan I, B9000 Gent, Belgium

Greece

e. Kynigos and Gyftodirnos, University of Athens, Depart­ment of Informatics, TYPA Panepistimioupolis, Ilisia, Athens,Greece

Ireland

J. Close, St Patrick's College of Education, Drurncondra,Dublin 9, Ireland

Netherlands

P. Booy, PABO De Driestar, Bleulandweg 492, 2803 HSGouda, Netherlands

Portugal

Maria de Lurdes Serrazina, Escola Superior de Educacao deLisboa, Tr. Terras de Santana 15, 1200 Lisbon, Portugal

Spain

Concepcion Lopez Sutil, Secretaria de Estada de Educacion,Ministeria de Educacion y Ciencia, Torrelaguna 58, 28027Madrid, Spain

United Kingdom

e. Hayles, R. Noss and R. Sutherland, University of London,Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WCIH OAL,UK