The joint negotiation of ground rules: establishing a shared collaborative practice with new classroom technology

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleClassroom discourse is structured by socially accepted ways in which knowledge is presented and by established procedures for carrying out educational activities. However, the underlying linguistic and social ground rules are usually implicit, for students as well as for teachers. The implicitness of these ground rules has been attributed to students’ failure to successfully participate in educational discourse. In this article, I describe a research project in which primary students jointly negotiated ground rules for working together in an online discussion forum. The aims of the study were to examine (1) how collaborative practices were created in interaction, and (2) how participants made visible to each other what counted as appropriate collaborative discourse. The findings indicate that there are many implicit ground rules in place when a new mode of communication is introduced in the classroom. Moreover, students and teachers do not always share the same (implicit) understanding about what is and is not an appropriate communicative action in new learning environments. One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the data is that when introducing new communication technology in classrooms a new educational genre of communicating needs to be defined and underlying ground rules need to be re-established within the particular educational context

In the mind and in the technology: the vicarious presence of the teacher in pupil’s learning of science in collaborative group activity at the interactive whiteboard

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThe focus of research into the use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in the classroom has been largely in relation to teacher–pupil interaction, with very little consideration of its possible use as a tool for pupils’ collaborative endeavour. This paper is based upon an ESRC-funded project,1 which considers how pupils use the interactive whiteboard when working together on science-related activities. It provides an analysis of video and other data from science lessons in UK Years 4 and 5 primary classrooms (pupils aged 8–10 years). Concentrating on a series of lessons constructed by three (out of 12) of the project teachers, together with their written and spoken commentaries, it takes each set of lessons as a case for study and comparison. This paper focuses in particular on the nature of the ‘vicarious presence’ of the teacher evident in the group interactions at the board. We address the following questions: How is the teacher’s vicarious presence evident in the work of pupils at the interactive whiteboard? How does this presence influence the behaviour of pupils engaged in science activities? In this account, we suggest that the teacher remotely mediates the activity of the pupils at the board in two specific and interlinked ways. Firstly, the vicarious presence of the teacher seems to be in the minds of pupils, enabling them to appropriate and use introduced rules and procedures, in this case in relation to group talk. Secondly, it is in the ways in which the constructed task environment on the IWB guides and mediates the pupils’ actions, enabling them to connect with, interpret and act upon the teacher intentions for the task. Here, the teacher’s vicarious presence is in the technology. We conclude that the IWB can provide both a tool and an environment that can encourage the creation of a shared dialogic space within which co-constructed knowledge building can take place. However, this only occurs where there is active support from the teacher for collaborative, dialogic activity in the classroom and where the teacher is able to devise tasks that use board affordances to promote active learning and pupil agency

In the mind and in the technology: the vicarious presence of the teacher in pupils' learning of science in collaborative group activity at the interactive whiteboard

a b s t r a c t The focus of research into the use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in the classroom has been largely in relation to teacher-pupil interaction, with very little consideration of its possible use as a tool for pupils' collaborative endeavour. This paper is based upon an ESRC-funded project, 1 which considers how pupils use the interactive whiteboard when working together on science-related activities. It provides an analysis of video and other data from science lessons in UK Years 4 and 5 primary classrooms (pupils aged 8-10 years). Concentrating on a series of lessons constructed by three (out of 12) of the project teachers, together with their written and spoken commentaries, it takes each set of lessons as a case for study and comparison. This paper focuses in particular on the nature of the 'vicarious presence' of the teacher evident in the group interactions at the board. We address the following questions: How is the teacher's vicarious presence evident in the work of pupils at the interactive whiteboard? How does this presence influence the behaviour of pupils engaged in science activities? In this account, we suggest that the teacher remotely mediates the activity of the pupils at the board in two specific and interlinked ways. Firstly, the vicarious presence of the teacher seems to be in the minds of pupils, enabling them to appropriate and use introduced rules and procedures, in this case in relation to group talk. Secondly, it is in the ways in which the constructed task environment on the IWB guides and mediates the pupils' actions, enabling them to connect with, interpret and act upon the teacher intentions for the task. Here, the teacher's vicarious presence is in the technology. We conclude that the IWB can provide both a tool and an environment that can encourage the creation of a shared dialogic space within which co-constructed knowledge building can take place. However, this only occurs where there is active support from the teacher for collaborative, dialogic activity in the classroom and where the teacher is able to devise tasks that use board affordances to promote active learning and pupil agency

A “Learning Revolution”? Investigating Pedagogic Practices around Interactive Whiteboards in British Primary Classrooms

Interactive whiteboards have been rapidly introduced into all primary schools under UK Government initiatives. These large, touch-sensitive screens, which control a computer connected to a digital projector, seem to be the first type of educational technology particularly suited for whole-class teaching and learning. Strong claims are made for their value by manufacturers and policy makers, but there has been little research on how, if at all, they influence established pedagogic practices, communicative processes and educational goals. This study has been designed to examine this issue, using observations in primary (elementary) school classrooms. It is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and builds on the authors’ previous research on ICT in educational dialogues and collaborative activities

A learning revolution? Investigating the pedagogic practice around interactive whiteboards in British pprimary schools

Interactive whiteboards have been rapidly introduced into all primary schools under UK Government initiatives. These large, touch-sensitive screens, which control a computer connected to a digital projector, seem to be the first type of educational technology particularly suited for whole-class teaching and learning. Strong claims are made for their value by manufacturers and policy makers, but there has been little research on how, if at all, they influence established pedagogic practices, communicative processes and educational goals. This study has been designed to examine this issue, using observations in primary school classrooms. It is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council and builds on the authors’ previous research on ICT in educational dialogues and collaborative activities

Wiki-Supported collaborative learning in Primary Education: Analysis of how a “dialogic space” is created for thinking together

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis paper explores how wikis may be used to support primary education students’ collaborative interaction and how such an interaction process can be characterised. The overall aim of this study is to analyse the collaborative processes of students working together in a wiki environment, in order to see how primary students can actively create a shared context for learning in the wiki. Educational literature has already reported that wikis may support collaborative knowledge-construction processes, but in our study we claim that a dialogic perspective is needed to accomplish this. Students must develop an intersubjective orientation towards each others’ perspectives, to co-construct knowledge about a topic. For this purpose, our project utilised a ‘Thinking Together’ approach to help students develop an intersubjective orientation towards one another and to support the creation of a ‘dialogic space’ to co-construct new understanding in a wiki science project. The students’ asynchronous interaction process in a primary classroom—which led to the creation of a science text in the wiki—was analysed and characterised, using a dialogic approach to the study of CSCL practices. Our results illustrate how the Thinking Together approach became embedded within the wiki environment and in the students’ collaborative processes. We argue that a dialogic approach for examining interaction can be used to help design more effective pedagogic approaches related to the use of wikis in education and to equip learners with the competences they need to participate in the global knowledge-construction era

What influences student teachers' ability to promote dialogic talk in the primary classroom?

This thesis examines what it is that enables postgraduate student teachers to promote the recently introduced curriculum innovation, dialogic talk, in primary classrooms. Drawing on literature relating to the way talk has been enacted in English classrooms for the last thirty five years, it suggests that patterns of verbal interaction have continued to prove resistant to change, despite policy imperatives and university courses. Adopting a collaborative action research approach, data were collected in three cycles over three years to investigate the perceptions of three successive cohorts of postgraduate students of the role of talk in learning, and the place of the teacher in developing it. Using a sociocultural lens, students’ conceptual and pedagogic understanding of dialogic talk, and their ability to promote it, is examined in depth through nine case studies, as are the factors which the participants themselves identify as enabling or inhibiting engagement with innovation. It is suggested that the lack of a commonly agreed definition, and of readily available theoretical guidance, has reduced dialogic talk to just another label. As such, it can play no significant part in developing practice beyond rapid question-and-answer routines of ‘interactive teaching’ and the potentially reductive IRF (Initiation, Response, Feedback) script recorded by researchers (Mroz et al, 2000; Myhill, 2006) before, and after the inception of the National Literacy Strategy (1998a). Turning to the role of the university, it questions the place of the ‘demonstration lesson’ and whole cohort lectures, urging that significant changes need to be made to the role of the teaching practice tutor, and the nature of ‘partnership’ between schools and university departments. Finally, it speculates that without a significant change in the way university departments examine, and address, the values, attitudes and memories of talk that student teachers bring with them from their own primary classrooms, there will continue to be replication of practice.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Orchestration with the interactive whiteboard: provisionality and permanence

The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) is the first Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool primarily well-designed for whole-class interaction. It is now in regular use in most British primary schools. As with the introduction of other technological tools into the classroom, strong claims have been made that the IWB will have a revolutionary effect on pedagogy. We problematise these claims through taking a sociocultural approach to teachers' use of the IWB, viewing it as a relatively new tool within their existing and evolving teaching practices. Research, including our own, has already revealed that the IWB can aid teachers in planning and orchestrating lessons using a wide range of multimodal resources. In this paper we explore specifically how the teacher's management of the IWB can support both a constant and a changing resource, as a reminder or provider of information, whilst also being the backdrop for the cumulative, co-operative development of understanding. Our UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project has focussed on use of the IWB within four classes of children aged 7-11 years, at the upper end of primary education. Each class was video recorded during two sequences of two lessons, providing 16 lessons overall. Teachers were also interviewed to discover how they account for their use of IWBs within their teaching and learning. Within our observations, the IWB enabled the teacher to create clear but provisional structure, as well as providing the opportunity to modify representations in a number of ways. Different tools, those created by the teacher and those within the IWB functionalities, were utilised to support gradual revealing of information or instruction. These were felt to offset pupil overload of information, allowed for discussion of developing understanding, and enabled teachers to control the pace of the lesson more easily. Teachers also made use of commercial software and scanned photographs and images, which pupils annotated during lessons in the creation of key points or recognition and use of key terms. Instances of use explored in this paper demonstrate how the IWB can be applied by competent teachers as a tool to structure and adapt their learning material to the immediate and future needs of their class, within the context of overall lesson objectives. Our conclusions are that successful use of the IWB may be characterised as a skilful balance between its use as a facilitator of a pre-structured, well-resourced lesson format with the flexibility of affording more improvisational and spontaneous teaching

PEER INTERACTION IN THREE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING SETTINGS

Draft version Do not cite without permission of the authors This study is focused on the development of an instrument to analyze the quality of peer interaction. Within this instrument several existing analysis protocols were integrated. The instrument was used to analyze three different cooperative learning settings. The assumption was that one instrument could be used in these three settings, because in all settings peer interaction was the most important objective. In this paper we describe the theoretical backgrounds of cooperative learning and peer interaction on which the instrument of analysis is based. Furthermore, we describe the three different settings: a cooperative setting without the computer, a setting with a collaborative computer task, and a setting where collaborative learning is mediated by networked computers. Research shows that the use of certain collaborative learning activities in the classroom can enhance pupils ’ performance as well as their social development. (Cohen, 1994; Dillenbourg, 1999; Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Slavin, 1996). However, these positive results can only be achieved if pupils engage in high quality interaction. In current research on collaborative learning processes, pee