Review article 1
Ruthven, K., Sara Hennessy & Rosemarry Deaney. 2005. Incorporating Internet resources into
classroom practice: pedagogical perspectives and strategies of secondary school subject teachers.
Computers and Education, 44 (1), 1-34.
This article examines the pedagogical perspective and strategies of teachers working to incorporate use
of internet resources and associated ICT tools into humanities, social studies and science lessons in
English secondary schools. The teachers were participants in small scale, school based projects in
which they investigated self-devised, technology-integrated pedagogical strategies in their own
classrooms. Each of the five projects- Project A: using online resources in supported study of science
topics; Project B: Using a virtual archive in developing skills of historical interpretation; Project C:
Making intensive use of ICT in independent study of geography topics; Project D: Using internet
resources in researching a Latin coursework topic and Project E: Mediating the study of geography by
less academically successful pupils, proved to have important distinctive features. The salient ideas
and issues emerging from a cross project analysis are then summarized in terms of the following
themes: Organizing lessons around teacher- supported pupil activity; Enhancing lesson resources
through use of Internet material; Structuring and supporting pupil access to internet resources;
Instrumenting use of ICT tools to support subject learning; building and capitalizing on pupils’ sense
of capability and agency; Supporting and shaping public activity through informal teaching; managing
lesson relocation, room configuration and technical malfunction. The study shows that the themes of
organizing lessons around teacher supported ICT based, pupil activity and its counterpart of
supporting and shaping pupil activity through informal teaching capture a pedagogical orientation to
the use of Internet resources and ICT tools shared by all the projects examined. This orientation is
reinforced by the possibilities identified under Enhancing lesson resources through use of internet
material and building and capitalizing on pupil’s sense of capability and agency. It was teachers’
commitment to this presentation which led them to tolerate the travails identified under Managing
lesson relocation, room configuration and technical malfunction. The authors agree that what
motivated teachers was the contribution the Internet resources and ICT tools could make to lessons
organized around substantial pupil activity on assigned tasks.
Keywords: Internet applications in education; Teacher attitude and cognition; Subject teaching
and learning; Secondary education; England.