Gary Beauchamp

Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards

The aims of this article are to review the existing literature on the introduction and use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in schools and to summarise the key issues arising from this analysis in order to provide a context for the articles which follow in this special issue of Learning, Media and Technology. The article reviews the evidence about the initial adoption of the technology in classrooms, the existing empirical evidence of its impact on teaching and learning in schools as well as presenting an analysis of some of the underlying theoretical and conceptual issues.

The features of interactive whiteboards and their influence on learning

In a small‐scale study of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)‐rich primary school, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) were found to be the predominant ICT tools used by teachers. The study sought to identify how the teachers used features of ICT to enhance learning, based on a list of ICT’s functions published for teacher education programmes. This list did not appear to account for all the aspects of the IWB’s influence that were described by teachers and observed in their lessons. Interview and observation data concerning digital whiteboard technology were probed further, using a framework for analysing activity settings designed for teaching and learning. This process generated a new taxonomy of features of ICT involving two levels: those intrinsic to digital media and devices and those constructed by hardware designers, software developers and teachers preparing resources for learning. Pedagogical actions supported by these features were identified and views concerning the impact of these actions on learning were analysed. This article reports the findings of the analysis, and exemplifies a use of the taxonomy in comparing practice across subjects. It suggests that this focus on ICT’s features may be valuable for both future research on the impact of ICT on learning and the design of new ICT resources.

Teacher Use of the Interactive Whiteboard in Primary Schools: towards an effective transition framework

abstract The growing use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in primary school teaching forms part of a number of initiatives within the schools of the United Kingdom to develop the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. The IWB presents both challenges and opportunities to teachers, particularly in terms of staff development and training. This study uses classroom observation and semi-structured interviews with teachers now working in a recently built, technology-rich primary school to develop a generic progressive framework and developmental model for schools introducing the IWB. This framework can be used to assess and guide teacher progress on the continuum towards becoming a ‘synergistic user’. As teachers make this transition there is a fundamental requirement to adopt an interactive teaching style, alongside the gradual development of specific ICT skills. The study also examines implications for teacher education and training for schools, both prior and subsequent to the introduction of the IWB into classroom use. These include specific technical and pedagogical competencies which need to be addressed for effective interactive use of the IWB in classroom teaching

The influence of ICT on the interactivity of teaching

There has been much concern with the ideas of interactive and dialogic teaching during recent years in the UK, ideas which have emerged from international comparisons. This paper concerns a research project in Wales which sought to explore how the interactive features of information and communication technology (ICT) support interactivity in teaching. The project found that much use of ICT by good teachers was at a relatively superficial level of interaction, yet when teachers used a deeper, more dialogic, level of interactivity in teaching, they achieved improvements in learning whether they used ICT or not. The potential of ICT to support more dialogic teaching was not being fully exploited. The paper reports the findings of the classroom observation dimension of the project, and examines the implications for pedagogical practices and the development/dissemination of ICT resources which can support more dialogic interactivity.

Teacher education in the United Kingdom post devolution: convergences and divergences

This paper examines the roles of research in teacher education across the four nations of the United Kingdom. Both devolution and on-going reviews of teacher education are facilitating a greater degree of cross-national divergence. England is becoming a distinct outlier, in which the locus for teacher education is moving increasingly away from Higher Education Institutions and towards an ever-growing number of school-based providers. While the idea of teaching as a research-based profession is increasingly evident in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, it seems that England, at least in respect of the political rhetoric, recent reforms and explicit definitions, is fixed on a contrastingly divergent trajectory towards the idea of teaching as a craft-based occupation, with a concomitant emphasis on a (re)turn to the practical. It is recommended that research is urgently needed to plot these divergences and to examine their consequences for teacher education, educational research and professionalism.

Interactivity and ICT in the primary school: categories of learner interactions with and without ICT

This article will analyse primary teachers’ views on the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in the broader context of pedagogy in the classroom. It uses data collected from primary teacher interviews in the early stages of a funded research project (which analysed interactivity and ICT in learning and teaching) to explore and categorise primary teachers’ thinking about interactivity and the role of ICT within it. It distinguishes between technology-mediated interaction and other categories of interaction to provide both a tool for classroom analysis and a focus for professional development in ICT for primary teachers.

Teachers learning to use the iPad in Scotland and Wales: a new model of professional development

In learning to use a new technology like the iPad, primary teachers adopt a diverse range of experiential, informal and playful strategies contrasting sharply with traditional models underpinning professional development which emphasise formal courses and events led by ‘experts’ conducted in formal settings such as the school. Since post-PC devices like the iPad have been linked with transformational educational learning, there is an imperative to better understand how teachers can be encouraged to use them more effectively. Despite their growing popularity in schools, there is little research to indicate how and under what circumstances teachers learn to integrate these technologies into their daily practices. This paper uses data collected from two national studies of iPad use in Scotland and Wales to propose a new model of professional development. This model reflects findings that the teachers reject traditional models of sequential, or staged, professional development (often led by external providers or ‘experts’), in favour of a more nuanced and fluid model where they learn at their own pace, in a largely experiential fashion, alongside their pupils in a relationship which reverses the traditional power nexus. The model has the potential to inform professional development for both trainee and serving teachers in learning to use the iPad in the primary classroom.

Interactive whiteboards and all that jazz: the contribution of musical metaphors to the analysis of classroom activity with interactive technologies

The teacher’s role has often been described as one of ‘orchestration’, and this musical analogy is a powerful one in characterising the manipulation of features in the classroom setting in order to generate activity or ‘performance’ which leads to learning. However, a classical view of orchestration would fail to recognise the extent to which effective teaching and learning make use of serendipity and improvisation – characteristics more often associated with jazz. This paper uses the characteristics of various musical genres to characterise teaching approaches observed in the authors’ work in two research projects investigating the use of ICT in mathematics classrooms. In particular the authors demonstrate how jazz and other musical analogies can be useful when describing some of the more effective classrooms in which serendipitous events were exploited and performances were improvised by pupils as well as teachers. They discuss the ways in which teachers were able to use ICT to establish conditions under which more jazz‐like performances were likely to occur, offering opportunities for more creative, improvised teaching and learning. They also examine lessons that can be learned by examining differences between musical and pedagogical settings.

`It's one of those scary areas': Leadership and management of music in primary schools

Publishers PDF made available in accordance with the publishers self-archiving policy.

Teacher education in times of change

Why are policies regarding teacher education politically, sociologically, and educationally significant? While teacher education as a practice has long been recognized, the importance of teacher education policy has only recently begun to be appreciated. Teacher Education in Times of Change offers a critical examination of teacher education policy in the United Kingdom and Ireland over the past three decades, since the first intervention of government in the curriculum in 1984. Written by a research group from five countries, it makes international comparisons and covers broader developments in professional learning, placing these key issues and lessons in a wider context.