Final Report Small scale research and development awards TTA Project No 14

Project overview

This project was led by the Centre for Research in Primary Science and Technology (CRIPSAT) at the University of Liverpool (Terry Russell, Linda McGuigan, Tünde Varga-Atkins and Rachel Walker) in collaboration with Liverpool Hope University College (Tim Griffiths). The project took advantage of a convergence of two prior initiatives. Firstly, innovative hard copy materials had been developed to support the formative assessment of science at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3, (Russell and McGuigan, 2003) in conjunction with QCA; secondly, an ERDF project led by CRIPSAT provided opportunity to make those formative assessments available on-line, see http://www.cripsat.org.uk/current/elearn/eleassess.htm
The aim of this project was to explore the contribution to the professional development of ITT students of ICT functionality designed to support their understanding and implementation of formative assessment practices in science education.

The project undertook to confirm the principles of formative assessment with students through group presentations and published hard copy materials. Trainees were invited to use ICT to elaborate their practical and theoretical professional development in the area of assessment for learning by identifying, digitising and uploading to the web levelled examples of children's science thinking to a virtual repository.

The project illustrates proof of concept with some of students' successful attempts to use ICT to develop formative assessment practices during their school-based training.

Using ICT to develop and support formative assessment practices in science amongst Initial Teacher Trainees.

Names and Institutions of those undertaking the study

Professor Terry Russell
Linda McGuigan
Tunde Varga Atkins
Rachel Walker
Address: CRIPSAT University of Liverpool, 126 Mt Pleasant , Liverpool L693GR
T.J.Russell@liv.ac.uk
telephone: 01517943270
fax 0151 794 3270

Tim Griffiths griffit@hope.ac.uk
Liverpool Hope University College
Address: Liverpool Hope University College, Education Deanery, Hope Park, Liverpool,L16 9JD
Telephone: 0151 291 3537

Key findings and recommendations

Important lessons were learned about the possibility of inducting ITT students into the use of a virtual repository to support their formative assessment practices in science. The facility was found to be accessible and useful by those students who took advantage of the support on offer and found the time to integrate the functionality within the mandatory requirements of their SBE. Successful use of the system and a positive response on the part of students to the support it offered can be illustrated. The fact that the materials supported students' practice is not in doubt, and nor was this support something that only the most able or highly motivated students could access and utilize. However, the laisser faire regime offered to a sub-sample (additional to the core sample) in which support was available only on demand was not taken up to any significant extent. The facility on offer requires some investment of time for baseline skill development to enable its use. To have integrated the use of the system into the practice of the majority of students would have required far greater logistical and infrastructural support than was available to a small-scale project such as was undertaken.

The evidence suggests that the class teacher exerts a potentially significant influence on students in the course of their SBE. In the case of the project activity under consideration here, the activities that were being promoted might be described as innovative, possibly radically different to anything happening currently in most teachers' practice. It might be that, acting in a supervisory and advisory role, class teachers were reluctant to encourage students to engage in risky activity that invited uncertain outcomes. A more conservative approach would be to advise, 'Safety first!'

It was encouraging and promising that some participating ITT students reported improvement in their ICT skills. This outcome suggests that in the school setting that is their professional 'real-life' context, they value what has use to them, and that they are open to new learning. It is possible that this utilitarian approach might imply, at the extreme, that students will only engage with ICT if it is of immediate use to them.

It is not possible ñ indeed, it is dangerous - to equate quantity of use with quality. It is one thing to know the technical requirements of a system, but quite another to invest thinking into how to use that system in a pedagogically considered manner. But it is nonetheless important to encourage students to get started, to overcome the technical obstacles so that they glimpse the value of the hardware and software functionality that can support effective teaching. In reviewing the range of ICT skills with which respondents indicated some use or familiarity in support of their teaching, such as whiteboards or software, what is not revealed is how teachers use them for their teaching, and what sort of activities they plan with them. Teachers and student teachers need to acquire both the ICT skills and the pedagogical awareness of the optimal deployment of those skills.

On a more positive note, a study such as that reported here - one that has the ambition of transforming teachers' practices at the same time as they learn or adapt ICT skills is to be expected to be a long haul. Far more is involved than the acquisition of direct, untransformed skills. Some students - likely the most motivated and professionally ambitious amongst the sample - saw the value of what was being offered, and applied it enthusiastically. This is sufficiently encouraging to persist with the initiative. Indeed, it might be said that the introduction of the virtual repository notion was attempted in a set of conditions that were far from optimal. Many students will be keen to innovate, but the point in their training at which the project became involved with the development of their thinking and practice was, with the benefit of hindsight, too late to be optimal. Because the intention is to transform practice through the innovative use of formative assessment, this transformation has to be embedded in students' practice from early on, rather than as an optional add-on. Lack of time and resources to set the scene more carefully with schools and SBE supervising teachers were limiting factors.

Drawing on experience from other projects that have supported teachers and learners in the use of ICT, it seems that sometimes teachers/users need to make a first leap into the unknown. From this, they will gain confidence. Even a small step may be sufficient to start the process. Only after this initiation is it possible to concentrate on the quality of use. It may be that some of the ITT students who participated in the project were ahead of their receiving SBE teachers in this respect.

Design and methods

An action research design using qualitative and quantitative data collection was adopted. Questionnaires were developed to establish baseline experience and attitudes of trainees to ICT in particular. Interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of ITT students. Automatic software logging of the use of the virtual repository and discussion forum was available. A limited amount of classroom observation and video recording of formative assessment practice was possible.

For the purposes of analysis, the sample of students was divided into two: a larger, less supported (more laisser faire) group and a core sample that received more support. The larger group comprised a Year 3 B.A. (QTS) cohort, (147 students) and a PGCE cohort (180 students). They provided information about their ICT familiarity and experience. The smaller cohort of 15 Year 4 B.Ed. science specialist students comprised the study's core sample. More intensive and direct support was made available to this group.

Three similar introductory sessions were used to introduce the three cohorts of students to the formative assessment materials using a lecture and follow-up question and answer session. The rationale underpinning the Assessing Progress in Science materials was introduced and the practical use of the formative assessment units was described. Copies of the materials were provided for the laisser-faire group to borrow as required; loans were restricted to participating students in order to optimise their access. The smaller core sample had the advantage of a relatively small group introductory session and follow up discussion and were each given their own copy of the Assessing Progress in Science hard copy KS1 or KS2 materials appropriate to the Key Stage they were teaching.

Dissemination and other outputs

Staff development sessions for teacher trainers within Hope University College Outcomes will be disseminated by being posted on the websites of CRIPSAT and Hope University College.

Contribution to conferences

World of Learning, (2004) 'Some innovative approaches to e-assessment illustrated by reference to The eLearning Place project'. Terry Russell and Tünde Varga-Atkins
National Exhibition Centre. Birmingham November 17th and 18th 2004
Conference at Hope University College for staff. Tim Griffiths.

Outcomes

• Questionnaire on ICT use and experience
• Summary of the ICT awareness of trainee teachers
• Summary of the difficulties trainees face in implementing formative assessment strategies
• Description of the impact of ICT on teachers' knowledge of ICT and formative assessment practices in science.
• Multimedia sequences and digital photographs of ITT students engaged in using ICT to support formative assessment of children's science ideas.
• Capacity building in the form of enhancing professional understanding of all researchers and tutors involved and through offering professional insights to staff of schools hosting trainees.

Bibliography

Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998) Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 7 ñ 71:
Dann, R. (2002) Promoting assessment as learning: improving the learning process (London, RoutledgeFalmer;
Harlen, W.& Deakin Crick, R. (2003) Testing and motivation for learning, Assessment in Education, 10(2), 169-207
Russell,T. and McGuigan,L. (2003) Assessing Progress in Science QCA