Paul Warwick

Using interactive whiteboards to orchestrate classroom dialogue

This paper focuses on the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) as a tool for encouraging and supporting classroom dialogue. The authors’ concern here is with the promotion of ‘dialogic’ communication between teachers and students, which is now widely recognised as educationally valuable. In this study they investigated how teachers could use the technical interactivity of the IWB to support dialogic interactivity. The design of the study was predicated upon a partnership between the authors and three UK (primary, middle school and secondary) teachers of 8‐ to 14‐year‐olds; examples of practice reported here derive mainly from secondary history. Outcomes include illustrative examples of teachers’ effective strategies for using the IWB for orchestrating dialogue. Implications for teachers’ initial training and professional development are considered.

Can the interactive whiteboard help to provide ‘dialogic space’ for children's collaborative activity?

This paper is based on a project investigating the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) as tools for childrens group-based learning in primary science. A series of science activities were designed with participating teachers, in which groups of three or four children used the IWB to access information, consider options, plan actions and make joint decisions. Of particular interest in this paper is whether the IWB helps to provide a shared ‘dialogic space’ for reasoned discussion, within which children are able to jointly access relevant information, share different points of view and achieve collective solutions to science-based problems. Our analysis is framed by notions of ‘dialogic teaching’, in which the relationship between the guiding role of the teacher and childrens active involvement in their own learning is highlighted. We offer some conclusions about the value of IWB technology for supporting childrens talk and collaborative activity, which may assist its use and development.

Primary Teachers' Understanding of the Interactive Whiteboard as a Tool for Children's Collaborative Learning and Knowledge-Building.

This paper reports on the second phase of a joint teacher/researcher project that explored teachers’ understandings of the potential of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) as a tool for primary school children’s collaborative group work. By examining teachers’ written analyses and discussions of work carried out in their own classrooms, the paper seeks to contribute to the debate about the ways in which the use of IWBs can contribute to changes in pedagogy. It highlights the interrelationships between collaborative learning and factors identified as important in the research carried out by teachers, amongst them the children’s technical skills and confidence, the mediating role of the teacher, the IWB affordances for knowledge‐building and the teachers’ own knowledge, attitudes and professional development. The paper also provides an account of how participation by the teachers in a course with Faculty staff, focused on the collaborative co‐construction of knowledge related to learning and to classroom research grounded in the values and principles of socio‐cultural theory, supported changes in pedagogic practice.

Promoting teacher and school development through co‐enquiry: developing interactive whiteboard use in a ‘dialogic classroom’

This paper reports on the work of a teacher–researcher collaborative group in the UK, who explored the idea of ‘a dialogic approach’ to classroom interaction and examined its relationship to use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in orchestrating classroom talk. We focus on how the co‐inquiry process within this group led to the articulation of frames of reference that acted as a basis on which to consider and develop pedagogy in relation to the use of the IWB. Concentrating on one teacher in the group as an illustrative case, we illuminate the ways in which her evolving understanding of the dialogic approach impacted on her use of the IWB in her classroom, influenced the group’s deliberations about the role of the IWB and underpinned subsequent staff development in her school. We conclude that a simple conception of transforming learning through the introduction of classroom‐based technologies cannot explain the evolution of classroom practice. Instead we invoke a more subtle and synergistic relationship between teachers’ pedagogic intentions and their growing perception of the relevant affordances of the IWB. Further, we suggest that school development of the use of particular classroom technologies must be based on a clear view of effective pedagogy.

A comparison of primary school pupils' ability to express procedural understanding in science through speech and writing

Pupils reaching the end of their primary schooling in the UK have some grasp of the relevance of their process activities in terms of evidential value. The majority find it easier to express this understanding verbally rather than in writing. One reason for this is the facility that pupils have for using the two modes of expression, yet it is clear that other factors are in play. Both pupils and teachers have different agendas for what it is appropriate to address in speech and in writing, and thus the two modes of expression often serve different purposes. This paper concludes that there is much that might be done to improve the critical nature of the dialogue pupils enter into in their written work, thus exposing more clearly their level of procedural understanding.

Primary Children's Management of Themselves and Others in Collaborative Group Work: "Sometimes It Takes Patience…".

We focus on childrens approaches to managing group work in classrooms where collaborative learning principles are explicit. Small groups of 8–10 year olds worked on collaborative science activities using an interactive whiteboard. Insubsequent interviews, they spoke of learning to ‘be patient’ and ‘wait’, for multiple social and technical reasons. Conclusions are drawn about how childrens dialogue during and after lessons constitutes and develops their collective capacities to deal with frustrations and problems arising for themselves and others. Attention to childrens thinking and language about managing group work should promote their future success in collaborative learning.

Using Data Comparison and Interpretation to Develop Procedural Understandings in the Primary Classroom: Case study evidence from action research

The development of a science education that includes a focus upon the nature of science suggests the need for “pedagogic tools” that can be used to engage children with the procedural understandings that are central to the scientific approach to enquiry. This paper reports on a collaborative action research project that focused on the use of secondary data as just such a “tool” for stimulating engagement with procedural understandings among primary school children. It argues that the comparative analysis of secondary and investigative data can provide a basis for such engagement. However, such comparative analysis will only mirror the collaborative nature of the scientific enterprise where children have guided opportunities to discuss their understanding of the issues revealed by the comparisons. The research suggests that children work best with this data if the scientific approach to enquiry is contextualized through connection with the knowledge claims made in science.

From Classroom Analysis to Whole-School Professional Development: Promoting Talk as a Tool for Learning across School Departments.

This paper provides an account of a school-centred research and development project aimed at improving teacher and pupil understanding of talk as a tool for learning. The paper establishes the basis for a dialogic pedagogy and reflects on strategies for creating an effective classroom climate that promotes productive and purposeful talk. It goes on to explain how a collaborative approach, founded on the use of classroom-based research for professional development, was developed to encourage discussion and dissemination of practice amongst teachers across subject departments. In the classroom-based research a pragmatic approach was adopted, involving mixed-method data collection and analysis; this included video analysis of lessons, interviews and research logs to encourage reflective practice amongst teachers. This project suggests that the approach was highly successful in developing a staff as a community of learners and suggests that an approach which involves the collaborative analysis of classroom practice can lead to significant whole-school developments. The case is made for promoting a whole-school focus on the use of talk for learning and proposals for further developments are outlined.

Primary teacher trainee perspectives on a male-only support group: moving male trainee teachers beyond the ‘freak show’

This paper reports the perspectives of male trainees on mechanisms instituted to support them during their Post-Graduate Certificate of Education in Early Years and Primary Education in England. The male trainees were interviewed towards the end of their training, using semi-structured interviews that provided scope for pursuing several lines of enquiry around their experiences as males on the course. In this paper the authors examine specifically the male trainees’ responses to innovations in Faculty support for male trainees, rather than focusing on their broader experiences as males in primary education. The authors are thus concerned to interpret and understand the trainees’ perspectives on how support mechanisms did, or did not, ensure a more positive training experience. Most prominent amongst these mechanisms, in this pilot year, was the formation of a male-only support group. The findings support the idea that, for these trainees at least, focused meetings addressing the concerns of men in primary schools can help to support their development and sense of ‘belonging’ on a course where females are overwhelmingly dominant in numerical terms. The reported success of this initiative was, in the view of the trainees, strongly reliant on the active involvement of practising male teachers and the directly relevant foci of the meetings, determined by the trainees and invited teachers. The presence of a designated male member of the Faculty staff was also viewed positively.

Articulating and connecting frameworks of reflective practice and leadership: perspectives from ‘fast track’ trainee teachers 1

This paper considers the relationship between reflection and leadership, and applies this within a DfES initiative for the training and education of new teachers in England. Drawing on familiar constructs around reflection and leadership, the paper probes the ‘fast track’ scheme within initial teacher training and education (ITT), the main purpose of which is to provide an ITT experience which develops education leaders for the future. It asserts that the core components of reflection and leadership are values and relationships.