Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

According to the BBC, Professor Dylan William, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education will state the obvious at the Institute of Fiscal Studies Conference, “Children who are taught by the best teachers learn twice as fast as those with poor teachers”, but will also question the value of ICT equipment in schools and the BSF programme, “I want children to have nice buildings and computers. But we need to look at how we can spend this money effectively.” Key to cost effectiveness is the professional development of teachers since money can be wasted if teachers do not change the way they teach. He cites previous research which showed that reducing class sizes from 30 to 20 pupils did not change teaching methods, but this could be transformed if pupils were trained to give their teachers continuous, immediate feedback. Apparently, one way would be to use a traffic light system:

Pupils show a green light if they have understood what has been taught, an amber one for partial understanding and a red one if they do not understand.

Or a teacher could write a sentence in French on the board, and ask children to give a thumbs up if it is written correctly, or thumbs down if they think it is not.

This way, Prof Wiliam says, a teacher can evaluate what proportion of the pupils are following the lesson, and at what speed to take the class.

How this idea is represented in this news report should be taken with a pinch of salt perhaps, but it sounds like a classroom response/voting system might be a good investment! Professor William makes an important point though, Professional Development is often regarded as an additional feature, and despite the apparent investment of £150 million in continuous professional development perhaps its cost effectiveness should also be evaluated.

Image credit: Fred Delventhal

Tags: Teacherprofessional development, classroom response systems