Action Research and
Policy Recommendations
Open University of Cyprus
Al-Quds Open University
Thanasis Hadzilacos
Ramallah, 9 December 2012
Capitalization Workshop
“action research policy recommendations”
(subproject by OUC and QOU)
Conduct scientific follow up (assisting PMT) in:
• assessing change process
• collecting lessons learnt
• formulating policy recommendations
Ask the whole school community
(Most significant change - WP1)
We asked over 100 school communities (teachers,
principals, inspectors, students, parents)
• “what has been the impact of ICT@Schools in the
direction of 21st century skills and student-centred
learning?”
• Enthusiasm, promise, opportunity
• Educational quality goals are very difficult
• Need infrastructure, teacher education, guidance and
motivation for whole school participation, digital
learning objects, curriculum reform, and a long time
Using ICT, but for what objective?
the main reason why we should use computers
at school is not to learn about computers
Focus on school
(Action research – WP2)
• 4 months closely supervised in school action
research (ten schools)
• Enthusiasm, promise, opportunity
• Beginnings of change
• A single teacher in a single class working
against the curriculum cannot bring change
• Unit of innovation: the school
A teacher Power Point presentation is teacher-centred ICT use;
it does much less for 21st Century Skills than a presentation by a
team of students with a paper poster.
Of course, the ideal would be for all students,
collaborating in small teams in class and over the internet,
drawing information from the library, the museum and the Web,
on a subject of their interest
evaluating this information for reliability and prejudice with the
help of the teacher,
making and publishing on-line presentations and
peer-evaluating each other’s work.
Such is student-centred ICT utilization for 21CS.
Focus on tablets
(Action research – WP4)
1. High expectations > long time + preconditions
2. Tablets can help, especially communication
3. Need many teachers, trained, with digital
educational resources, long-lasting activities,
in-school technical and pedagogical support
4. Give tablets to teachers first!
Align goals, teaching practices,
curriculum and evaluation
IF
the goals are 21st century skills, active learners,
student-centred instruction
THEN
we must reform
- Teaching practices
- Curriculum
- Evaluation
GRADUALLY!
Six Policy Papers (WP 3)
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PP1 –School-led Initiatives (SLI)
PP2 –Digital Educational Resources (DER)
PP3 – Mobile Learning (m-L)
PP4 –Teacher Professional Learning (TPL)
PP5 – 21st Century Skills (21CS)
PP0 - Information and Communication
Technology in Education (ICTE)
Paper Structure
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Short description
Objectives
Policy issues to be decided
Risks, Challenges, Opportunities
Policy Recommendations
• (5 pages each)
Objectives
Ο1.
Ο2.
Ο3.
Ο4.
21CS.
For students: to take an active role in their learning and acquire 21st century skills.
For teachers: to innovate, to feel comfortable and take an active role in utilizing ICT.
For MoEHE: to advance its strategy for 21st century skill student-centred learning.
For Palestine: Utilize ICT@E as an opportunity to reform school education including the curriculum in the direction of active student-centred learning and
Ο5.
Ο6.
Ο7.
Ο8.
Ο9.
Motivate, Encourage and Mobilise the educational community for ICT@E
Experimentation with new technologies and pedagogical methodologies
Locally Optimal use of resources
Decentralization
Diffusion of good practices
Ο10.
Ο11.
Ο12.
Ο13.
Availability of DER suitable for the curriculum (a Palestinian repository of open DER)
Utilization in ways that serve the curriculum towards acquisition of 21st century skills
Palestinian DER production - Active Participation (design and development) of Universities, educators and students, especially for Learning Activities
Utilize DERs as an opportunity to reform the curriculum
Ο14.
Ο15.
Ο16.
Extend (in time and space), diversify, integrate, personalize educational activities
Strengthen personal student involvement in their learning (ownership of learning)
Include special student categories (traveling, at home, special needs)
Ο17.
Ο18.
Ο19.
Ο20.
To prepare teachers for the utilization of ICT in Education, including “coping with technology”
To actively involve teachers in the production of Digital Educational Resources
To utilize ICT for teacher training in the same way that we want teachers to utilize ICT for their students (modernize and develop TPD programs)
Not to waste infrastructure as unused because teachers do not know how to use it.
Ο21.
Ο22.
Ο23.
To reform teaching practices with emphasis on student-centred learning.
To reform the curriculum putting emphasis on 21CS.
To change attitude towards assessment and use 21SC assessment as a tool for transforming education.
Policy Issues
PI 1.
PI 2.
PI 3.
PI 4.
PI 5.
PI 6.
Goals for teaching and learning ICT in schools
New MoEHE structure for dealing with ICT@E
Policy for teacher skills and motivation to produce, design, use, adapt and adopt ICT@E
Policy for infrastructure and technological developments, including budget allocation
Policy for quality, innovation and flexibility for ICT@E in relation to the curriculum
Policy for Internet safety for students and good usage by all
PI 7.
PI 8.
PI 9.
PI 10.
PI 11.
Balance between teacher initiative and curriculum directives
How many resources (money and effort) to assign to SLI
Feedback from SLI: evaluate, diffuse good practices among teachers, integrate into curriculum
How to combine SLI with training and infrastructure
How to motivate “late adopters”
PI 12.
PI 13.
infrastructure?
PI 14.
PI 15.
PI 16.
PI 17.
Where to focus? activities > content > environments> tools > internet services
How to cope with new technological developments? In particular how to deal with new versions of software or learning objects which require enhanced
PI 18.
PI 19.
PI 20.
PI 21.
Dealing with an expensive, fragile and time-limited investment
Personal use of public expensive mobile devices
BYOD: Bring your own device
Availability and good use of Internet and the Web
PI 22.
a.
b.
c.
PI 23.
PI 24.
PI 25.
Organizational issues:
Time and place: On whose time and in what centres the training
Centralized vs. Decentralized organization of TPD. Roles of MoEHE departments
Moving teachers from school to school
Supplying teachers with the necessary infrastructure at school and at home
Providing teachers with technical assistance at school and at home
Teacher formative Evaluation, Motivation and Rewards
Motivate teachers to contribute and benefit by making the MoEHE portal an actively used Learning Object Repository
Policy for Internet safety for students and good usage by all
Focus on Open-source, Creative Commons, OERs; obtain country-wide licences
Relation to the curriculum - Coordinate with training and infrastructure
Challenges Risks and Opportunities
C1.
C2.
C3.
Establish a long-term strategy, corresponding policies and far-reaching actions.
Coordinate the various MoEHE departments affected by ICT@E through a new structure.
Coordinate deployment of ICT@E: teacher Education, infrastructure deployment, digital educational resource production and curriculum reform
C4.
C5.
C6.
C7.
C8.
Set up ‘permanent’ structure for open calls, evaluation of proposals, support, diffusion…
Annual conference and prizes among SLI schools
E-Twining with schools outside Palestine
SLI-Teacher online communities
Student inter-school communities
C9.
C10.
Adopt, adapt, design & produce suitable DERs by teachers as innovative designers, producers and users
Adaptive teaching – personalised learning. Participation in the international scene - be innovative and produce your own (Pal)
C11.
C12.
C13.
Adaptive teaching and personalised learning
Multi-modal texts and multimedia resources
What will schools without tablets do?
C14.
C15.
C16.
C17.
C18.
C19.
C20.
There are not enough ICT@E developmental programs.
Training is offered without sufficient teachers' need-analysis.
Trainers themselves are not always adequate in ICT@E.
Lack of in-school follow-up of teacher training programs, including supervisor visits.
Sometimes the administrative and financial sides of the laws are not applied.
Schools are poorly equipped; infrastructure is not properly developed and renewed.
The curriculum does not encourage and often does not leave room for innovative teaching.
C21.
C22.
C23.
Ignorance, misunderstanding and superficiality
Risks related to assessment and curriculum reform
Resistance to change
PP0. Information and Communication
Technology in Education (ICTE)
• Expectations should be long-term, with a corresponding strategy
and policies.
• Ensure coordination with curriculum, from all departments, for
school deployment.
• Establish the Palestinian Institute for ICT in School Education.
• Divide long-term budget equally among infrastructure, teacher
education (TPL), digital resources (DER) and school initiatives (SLI).
• Implement in stages, with school as the unit of transformation.
• Utilize ICT for teacher Education just as teachers will utilize ICT for
their students.
• Strategy for Teacher DER development: “Recognize, Reward and
Request”.
• Upgrade, integrate and use the MoEHE portal(s).
PP1 - School-led Initiatives
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Establish a permanent structure (‘department’, ‘office’) for SLIs within the Institute for ICT@E
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Yearly open competitive calls for 1-2 year-long SLIs.
Choose SLIs that combine technology with pedagogy; require them to be explicit and specific about
student-centred and 21st C skills cultivated
Ensure that Teachers and schools share practices and products..
Monitor and evaluate but do not criticise SLIs, since they are experiments. Failures may be more
valuable
Organize Action Research around (some of) the SLIs in cooperation with Universities.
Ask International and Palestinian companies to sponsor SLIs.
Draw conclusions from SLIs as recommendations for curriculum changes and new activities.
Assign 10-20% of the budget spent on ICT@E for SLIs. Continuity is more important
Teachers in ICT SLIs should have some motivation and compensation.
Organize a yearly conference, issue a yearly booklet and award several prizes for SLIs
Establish policy for national and international school cooperation, like e-Twinning.
Ensure the cooperation of all related departments with the Office for SLI of the Institute for
ICT@E, especially the Supervisors and the Curriculum.
Take examples of practices from the EU Erasmus+ program for schools.
PP2 - Digital Educational Resources
• Establish a permanent structure for DER.
• Assign about 25% of the budget spent each
year on ICT@E for DER.
• Provide support for teachers developing DER
and Promote DER production
• Establish policy and guidelines for localization
of international DER.
• Encourage international collaboration with
corresponding institutions
PP3 – Mobile Learning (tablets)
• Establish a Palestinian School Network.
• Preconditions for m-learning at each school:
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Appropriately trained, equipped and motivated teachers.
Reliable Internet available in all school spaces
Sufficient appropriate DERs (learning resources and activities)
Clear policies, including follow-up, assessment and evaluation
• Start with SLI and Action Research m-learning projects.
• Promote such projects (conferences, competitions; success stories in media).
• Use all three modes of m-learning: individual tablets given out to students;
time-shared tablets; BYOD.
• Go very slowly to the large scale and only where preconditions are met.
• Cooperate with Universities for Research for m-learning activities
• Donations work best in a holistic educational plan -not just hardware
• Use m-learning beyond school and formal education, in new instructional
paradigms. Include people in Israeli prisons.
PP4 – Teacher Professional Learning
• Set the goals and standards for professional learning of teachers.
• Establish the policies for accomplishing the goals and monitor their
implementation.
• Accredit the courses offered.
• Evaluate the results of the training, including e-portfolio assessment
of the teachers and a portal for teacher professional learning
opportunities.
• Supplement courses offered by others, when needed.
• Cooperate with Universities: benefit from the experience of
distance learning; cooperate with academics with expertise in longterm programs for ICT in schools; benefit from practices and
experiences of universities in teacher pre-service learning.
PP5 – Pedagogy: 21st Century Skills
and Student-Centred learning
• Choose 21CS framework and prioritize
• Implement: Long-term, gradually, holistically
• Educate teachers and assess teaching
appropriately
• Reform assessment and the curriculum
• Advance a Palestinian version of 21CS
Main Recommendations
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Long term (generation) – Go gradually
Institute for Educational Technology in Schools
Focus on Teachers
Balanced spending: Infrastructure, Digital
resources, Teacher Education, School Initiatives
• Reform Evaluation, Curriculum (and teaching
practices will follow)
• Ensure coordination with curriculum, from all
departments, for school deployment (spiral).
Thanks to the people involved
• School students and teachers; principals, field coordinators,
inspectors, researchers
• MoEHE: The project coordinating committee and especially
Rabiha Elyan, Omar Atwan, Dr. Bashri Salleh
• Belgian Technical Committee: Dima Alarqan , Jan De Ceuster ,
Thierry Foubert, Anne Hendrickx, Rashid Jayousi , Rana
Quttaineh, Ayat Shaheen
• Open University: Majdi Zamel, Khaled Dweikat, Suaad Abed,
Randa Abdel Hay, Mahmoud Hawamdeh, Mohamed abu
Maliq, Eng. Saeda Mustafa, Yousef Sabbah
• Open University of Cyprus: Thanasis Hadzilacos, Maria
Fragkaki, Erato-Ioanna Sarri, Michalinos Zembylas
From the OECD study, 2015
• Technology can amplify great teaching but
cannot replace poor teaching.
• Not a magic bullet to improve learning, can
play a role if applied better in the classroom,
• of little help in bridging the skills divide
between advantaged and disadvantaged.