Ruth Kershner

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.

Children's Views of the Primary Classroom as an Environment for Working and Learning

Primary teachers have always thought a great deal about how to organise the classroom environment to support children’s learning, bearing in mind the demands of the curriculum and the needs of the children involved. New initiatives can add to the often competing factors which must be taken into account. The numeracy strategy, for example, offers ‘U-shaped’ seating as a means of ensuring that every child can see the teacher, the board and their own table top when they are seated for whole-class and group work (DfEE, 1999: 29). It is not suggested in the numeracy strategy guidelines that these arrangements for a single daily lesson should dictate the seating for learning in other curriculum areas, but relatively few teachers find it easy to adapt furniture arrangements for different activities in the way that research has suggested is helpful or even essential (Hastings et al., 1996). The tendency in making decisions about the classroom environment is to work out what is both desirable and possible in the given physical setting, and teachers have different views about this (Pointon and Kershner, 2000). The study reported in this article is intended to show how pupils’ views may usefully be taken into account as well. This is one of the areas where research by teachers is potentially very fruitful (Flutter et al., 1996; Wheeler, 1995), and this study was designed to involve the class teachers in the research process.

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.

Making decisions about organising the primary classroom environment as a context for learning: the views of three experienced teachers and their pupils

Abstract This paper presents the views and perceptions of three experienced teachers about their management of the classroom learning environment. Research was carried out in three different schools using a variety of methods. In this paper reference is made mainly to the teacher interviews and the rating scales completed by their 9–11 year old pupils. The findings are discussed in terms of general educational principles like pupils’ involvement in decision- making, as well as in terms of the importance of specific environmental factors (notably seating arrangements and classroom wall displays). In the three schools there were found to be distinct differences in the teachers’ and pupils’ identification of significant elements within the classroom environment. A need is identified for further research into the ways specific environmental factors may affect childrens learning and on the processes by which a classroom culture develops.

Professional learning during a schools–university partnership Master of Education course: teachers’ perspectives of their learning experiences

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work.

Student teachers' distinctive contributions to research on primary school children's beliefs about knowledge and knowing

Student teachers’ research is usually valued more for its contribution to their professional learning than for its contribution to the research topic itself. This paper reports on a research collaboration with eight student primary teachers in England, intended to build on a previously established project investigating young children’s epistemological beliefs. Analysis of the students’ written reports leads to an elaborated conceptual framework that draws attention to the need for a dialogue with all children about the interfaces experienced within, between and beyond each school context. The conclusions point to the distinctive research position held by student teachers in crossing boundaries between school and university contexts, and the particular relevance of the research topic for illuminating the out-of-school knowledge integral to children’s sense of self and learning.

The teacher scheme for educational dialogue analysis (T-SEDA): developing a research-based observation tool for supporting teacher inquiry into pupils’ participation in classroom dialogue

British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme (ref. RG66509), 3 years (Jan 2013 - Dec 2015).