Interactive education: teaching and learningin the information ageR. Sutherland�, S. Robertson� & P. Johnw�Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK
wFaculty of Education, University of Plymouth, UK
Introduction and background
In 1999, the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) in the UK launched the Teaching and
Learning Research Programme, in response to con-
cerns about the impact of educational research on
educational practice.1 This is a major programme of
research with the objective of supporting the teaching
and learning community to improve the achievement
of learners across a wide range of contexts, by provid-
ing evidence from high-quality research and ensuring
its impact on practice. The programme recognises the
complexities of teaching and learning and intends to
build on the achievements of both the teaching and the
research communities. Collaboration between re-
searchers and practitioners is central to the programme
together with a commitment to transform research
findings into practical action that has a wide impact.
This special section derives from the work of one of
the ESRC Teaching and Learning Programme pro-
jects, InterActive Education: Teaching and Learning
in the Information Age (http://www.interactiveeducation.
ac.uk), whose overall aim is to investigate the ways in
which new technologies can be used in educational
settings to enhance learning. The project was pre-
dicated on two assumptions: first that teachers are
central to learning in schools and that much of pre-
vious research on the use of information and com-
munications technology (ICT) for learning has
underemphasised this crucial role (Sutherland & Ba-
lacheff, 1999); second that ICT should be incorporated
into a designed learning situation as appropriate, with
attention being paid to the whole classroom context
including classroom talk, work on paper and other
technologies that are usually available to a teacher.
The project centred around the design and evalua-
tion of teaching and learning initiatives within the
areas of English, geography, history, mathematics,
modern foreign languages, music and science. This
work was organised around subject design teams
(SDTs) that consisted of partnerships between tea-
chers, teacher educators and researchers, who devel-
oped subject design initiatives (SDIs) that addressed
key learning areas within their subject domain. These
design initiatives were informed in an iterative way by
theory, research-based evidence, teachers’ craft
knowledge and the research team’s expertise. Also,
the research was structured around five interwoven
strands: teaching and learning; management and pol-
icy; subject cultures; professional development; and
learners’ out-of-school uses of new technologies.
The research was framed by a socio-cultural theory
of learning, which suggests that the mental functioning
of an individual has its origins in social life (Wertsch
1991). This position stresses the crucial role that
communication through language and other semiotic
systems plays in learning and points to the importance
of creating classroom environments that support the
communication and exchange of ideas. From the
outset of the project, we were aware that a socio-cul-
tural perspective might not be adequate to theorise the
ways in which explicit and implicit policy initiatives
shape the possibilities for using ICT in the classroom.
As a result, we drew on a series of frameworks within
the policy-making and policy-shaping domain.
Methodological approach
Our view is that methodology should be viewed as a
process of human construction of generalisations as
opposed to a ‘toolbox’ of ready-made methods.
It entails mutually linked components of general as-sumptions about the world at large (axioms), specificconstructed theories of the given target area, under-
Correspondence: R. Sutherland, Graduate School of Education,
University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1JA, UK.
Email: [email protected]
1For more information on this programme, see http://www.tlrp.org
410 r Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004 Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, pp410–412
SPECIAL SECTIONGuest Editorial
standing of pertinent phenomena, and finally, ways ofconstructing specific methods to transform some as-pects of the phenomena into purposefully derived data.Data are always constructed – or better – derived fromphenomena on the basis of the investigator’s reasoning(Valsiner 2000, p. 63).
This implies that members of the research team have
to interrogate their own assumptions and constructed
theories, and considerable attention was given to the
relationship between analytical categories and data
collection. Within this context, the specific research
methods being used are multi-layered operating at a
macro-, meso- and micro-level within schools. In
particular, the research teams are developing expertise
in digital video as a research tool and integrating the
use of both qualitative and quantitative data into the
research process. In order to capture the dynamic in-
teraction between teacher and students, a video cam-
era is placed in the corner of the classroom and left to
record without interference. The video data are then
viewed in real time and passages identified for more
detailed analysis using categories, that are developed
from both theory and data. In order to explore the
learning dimension of what students have been doing,
we develop conjectures from our analysis and play
back critical episodes of video data. The video- and
computer- based textual record is therefore both a
source of data and a stimulus for reflective discussion
with teachers.
From personalised to participative learning
A key result of the project is that high levels of student
engagement are normally associated with the use of
ICT, whether in school or at home. Students can work
for extended periods of time investigating their own
questions and experimenting with ideas in an inter-
active and iterative way. We have seen this whether
students are investigating language and spelling, in-
vestigating the properties of quadrilaterals, developing
their own compositions in music or writing e-mails to
a German correspondent. This relates to the power and
potential of ICT for learning. However, there is a
creative tension inherent in this capability of ICT. We
have found that extended individual engagement can
lead to the construction of idiosyncratic knowledge
that is at odds with the intended learning. For example,
when a group of primary students were investigating
the properties of a parallelogram through interacting
with geometry software, they recorded the following:
It has four sides, they are like train tracks, they areparallel, it doesn’t have any right angles, it’s the colourturquoise, it can be a diamond.
All of these statements are correct, but some of them
are not appropriate within the context of school
mathematics.
Using digital video, we were able to capture class-
room processes of knowledge construction and are
beginning to understand the ways in which effective
teaching and learning with ICT involves finding ways
of building bridges between ‘individual and idiosyn-
cratic’ and ‘institutional’ knowledge. Making visible
the individual work of students through group work
and whole class work becomes even more important
when ICT is used in the classroom. This can involve
students presenting their work to a critical audience
with the teacher commenting and directing. Here, the
interactive whiteboard or a projected computer image
can be a powerful new tool. For example, when
Marnie Weeden worked with 13–14-year-old students
on learning about proof and geometry, she explicitly
built a process of sharing ongoing work into the
classroom activity. This impacted on learning and
knowledge building as these students explained:
The fact that we were sharing, put in a competitionelement into the investigation plus we were able tocompare what we had found out. It was a group effortso when a group found out about something anothergroup could continue from there.
It kinda made you work more because you knew youhad to show something at the end of it. If you don’thave to show it, what’s the point of working hard at it?
Constructivist views of learning have tended to as-
sume that it is possible to move seamlessly from in-
formal knowledge worlds into the more formal worlds
of school knowledge. We challenge this perspective.
We contend that students are unlikely to develop ideas
about mathematical proof from ideas of everyday
reasoning without the support of a teacher. We further
argue that students are unlikely to develop ideas about
the Italian Renaissance from their ideas about popular
culture without the support of a teacher. They are also
unlikely to develop ideas about the etymology of the
Teaching and learning in the information age 411
& Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004 Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, pp410–412
English language from their everyday experiences of
speaking and writing English, without the support of a
teacher. What this suggests is that the teacher is cru-
cial in organising the social and cultural milieu of the
classroom so that students can begin to use the lan-
guage; practices and tools that are a central part of a
particular knowledge world. ICT alone cannot do this
and it is unlikely that students will be able to organise
for themselves the social networks that relate to learn-
ing about mathematical proof, the Italian Renaissance
and the etymology of the English language. And it is
even less likely that the more socially disadvantaged
students will be able to do this for themselves.
The papers in this section are illustrative of the
theoretical and methodological assumptions outlined
above. They also represent four out of the five research
strands that guide the research process. The profes-
sional development process is described and analysed
in the paper: ‘From Transaction to Transformation:
ICT, professional development and the formation of
communities of practice’. Drawing on a range of data,
the authors illustrate how interconnected micro-,
meso- and macro-communities evolved within the
project to create the settings for improved professional
growth. The paper ‘Transforming Teaching and
Learning: Embedding ICT into Everyday Classroom
Practices’ focuses on teaching and learning in the
classroom, highlighting the creative tensions inherent
in embedding ICT in subject-based learning. This
paper also emphasises the influence of young people’s
out-of-school uses of ICT on in-school learning, which
is discussed in more detail in the paper ‘Different
Worlds? A comparison of young people’s home and
school use of ICT’. Finally, drawing on three dimen-
sions of policy (mandate, capacity, governance) the
paper ‘You can’t not go with the technological flow,
can you? Constructing ICT and teaching and learning’
argues that recognising the nature of the effects of
policy and management on teaching and learning is
crucial to understanding the potential of ICT for en-
hancing learning.
The findings from the collection suggest that if
personalised learning becomes synonymous with in-
dividualised learning, then it is likely to limit the
knowledge creation of future generations of citizens.
On the other hand, if personalised learning becomes
linked to participation in communities of learning and
partnerships between teachers, parents and young
people, then we will be building a solid basis for
educating young people for the 21st century.
References
Sutherland R. & Balacheff N. (1999) Didactical complexity
of computational environments for the learning of
Mathematics. International Journal of Computers for
Mathematical Learning 4, 1–26.
Valsiner J. (2000) Culture and Human Development. Sage,
London.
Wertsch J. (1991) Voices of the Mind. A Sociocultural Ap-
proach to Mediated Action. Harvester, London.
412 R. Sutherland et al.
& Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004 Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, pp410–412