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ELFE school visit report: Max Planck Gymnasium Germany
PART I: BRIEF INNOVATION DESCRIPTION
I.1. Descriptive background information
The Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Duisburg is a secondary school offering academic tracks for
students in the grades 5- 13. The school has 27 classes with 1043 students, 477 male and 555
female students. There are 57 teachers, 32 male teachers and 25 female teachers. The number
of male teachers corresponds to 26.6 full-time teachers and the number of female teachers
corresponds to 20 full-time teachers.
I.2. Summary of the INNOVATION
The Max-Planck-Gymnasium participates in a number of projects. Among these projects is an
internationalisation project where Internet and e-mail are used as means of communication.
The school is offering art/ICT as optional subject in grade 9/10 and music/ICT as optional
subject in grade 9/10. It participates in the self-learning project SelfGO which in 2004
received the Comenius Prize as a project that hints at the future in e-learning in respect of
pedagogical use and content.
PART II: ANALYSIS
A. School background data
The school is a “Gymnasium,” an academic oriented secondary school. It is located in the
inner area of Duisburg, in the Ruhr area. The school is situated in two buildings with a
walking distance of about 10 minutes between each other. To pass from one building to the
other you have to walk through an urban residential area
B. Data on the ICT infrastructure - both hardware and software
B.1. ICT Support Structure in the School
There are 33 computers available for use by the students in the entire school. There are two
computers available for administration only and two computers available for teachers only.
All 33 computers used by students are located in computer rooms. All the computers used by
students are multimedia computers and connected in a local network. The computers can at
the same time access e-mail and WWW.
Laser printer, CD-ROM drive, CD-Writer (CD-R, DVD), video projector and scanner are
available at the school. Word processing, desktop publishing; spreadsheets; database;
graphics: presentation, statistical/ mathematical programmes; programming languages; drill
and practice programmes; tutorial programmes (for self learning); simulations (e.g. real world
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stimulations); programs for constructing and administrating tests; internet browser; e-mail
software; encyclopaedia on CD-ROM; video/audio/authorware/; music composition and
presentation software (e.g. PowerPoint) are available for teaching and learning. Educational
software is available for mathematics, language/mother tongue, foreign language(s), creative
arts (music, visual arts) and computer education/informatics.
One person serves as computer coordinator. He spends on average 2 hours a week on this.
There is no formal time made available for him to undertake ICT support for the school.
However, he does not have a full teaching timetable, which allows him to tackle small
problems, or contact the service company to request assistance. There are no dedicated funds
for ICT technical support and schools have to address this themselves. The teachers believed
that the technical support offered was not enough.
A majority of the teachers had attended at least some basic computer courses and some
courses on pedagogical use of computers. The head teacher explained that ICT training for
teachers is not compulsory. The teachers interviewed had received some ICT training on
voluntary basis and some in relation to projects.
B.2 Specific items on ICT in the curriculum, school plans, projects, etc.
One of the goals mentioned in the schools program (“Schulprogramm 2000”) is the use of
new media in teaching as a help and a way to approach independent learning. The innovative
teachers talked about a future where pupils would bring their own notebook computers to
school and teachers would have the confidence and knowledge to use ICT fully in the
classroom. The computer should be seen in the same way as the pen and should be in every
classroom. The other teachers interviewed felt that ICT should be used to improve teaching
methods, but would not like the idea of teachers being replaced by computer learning.
Computers are used for staff administration, financial administration and communication with
parents and others outside the school on regular basis. By the end of the final grade students
should have communicated via e-mail with teachers for learning purposes; communicated via
e-mail with peers from other schools within and/or outside the country; used e-mail or
bulletin boards for group projects/collaboration; used external databases to retrieve and
extract information from different sites across the Internet and/or WWW; and designed and
maintained Web sites. The use of ICT varies a lot between students. The students reported
about the use of ICT in different contexts, such as social sciences, science, design and history.
The teacher competency in ICT use shifted from some teachers with in-depth knowledge to
teachers with hardly any knowledge. The innovative teachers interviewed had worked with
ICT since the 80’s.
All students interviewed said that they use computers at home. They use it to prepare
presentations, search for information on the web, e-mail and chatting.
The school has received extra funding for ICT related activities during the last three years
from the Land, the municipality and from private sources. There is a project in the
municipality which brings together people working in different schools. The municipality has
agreed to replace computers every three years to keep equipment up to date.
B.3. ICT history of the school
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The school has been using computers for teaching and/or learning activities for the last 6 – 10
years. The use of ICT for instructional purposes started with collaboration between teachers
interested in ICT and the art department on how to use ICT to improve design. This led to the
introduction of the Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash Multimedia programmes for the
pupils to use. E-mail use started in 1998 and the use of WWW in the same year.
The school has participated in a number of international exchange programmes, including
China, Atlanta (USA), Morocco and the Netherlands. Students from the schools visit each
other as well as communicate by e-mail. There is also a project where students are supposed
to learn different ways of learning. This is systematically used throughout the curriculum, and
pupils are assessed as having demonstrated particular learning skills. This programme started
ten years ago and focuses in particular on students in Year 5 and 6. The school is also
participating in two other projects: 1) E-Line (a European project) with Netherlands, Norway
and the Czech republic and 2) the project ‘SelfGo’ (independent learning).
B.4. Specific ethical values for implementation of ICT
The policy document “Schulprogramm 2000” does not contain anything about measures taken
to support girls or students from minority groups. The only group, which is covered under a
special heading, is support to gifted students. There had been a specific course for girls, but
the school realized that more girls than boys had opted for ICT courses, therefore there were
no longer a need to promote ICT to girls specifically.
C. Specific data to answer the research questions
C1. What difference does the use of ICT make in schools where ICT is
intensively used for instructional/pedagogical purposes?
The head teacher noticed that the process of change is slow and has to be done gradually. ICT
is an integrated part of the curriculum but it is difficult to determine the impact it has had on
teachers’ practices. He believed that there was more orientation towards design and improved
presentation of work. ICT was mainly used for the creation of diagrams and similar graphics
in some subjects.
Group work and peer assessment appear more frequently in the school now than earlier. One
of the students interviewed expressed the opinion that she specially liked to work with ICT
because they work in groups.
All computers used by students are in computer rooms, which means that all activities where
computers are used must take place in these computer rooms. There are three computer rooms
in the school.
The school undertakes assessment of ICT skills, rather than using ICT as a method of
assessment.
C2: To what extent are teachers’ practices and outcomes changed?
The head teacher wanted ICT to be all around and an everyday tool for teaching and learning.
The innovative teachers hoped that ICT would be seen as a normal tool available in all
classrooms and used in more subjects.
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The role of teachers has changed, but the link to ICT was seen as not the only reason for this
change. ICT challenges teachers to do things in different ways, e.g., to help pupils cope with
all the information they have access to. The innovative teachers talked about using ICT for
teaching in a more individualized way. Teachers are more like moderators now.
The head teacher believed the teacher-student relationship had changed a lot, dependent on
the subject, e.g., more group work, oral work, peer assessment and independent work.
Modern foreign languages seem to have changed the most. The innovative teachers noted that
sometimes students know more about ICT than the teachers. This could be a problem for
certain teachers.
ICT is used as a tool in a project involving ICT/Art, ICT/Music and ICT/Civics. There is a
work going on using ICT for creating maps and diagrams in some classes. ICT is also offered
as a separate subject for Years 11-13. In the project E-line computers are used to establish
contacts with students in other countries. In the project SelfGo are the students encouraged to
develop independent learning.
The head teacher believed that pupils have developed better research skills. The innovative
teachers noted that students were very interested in the use of ICT. Only 65% of the students
who would like to take part in the ICT/art, ICT/music and ICT/civics courses could do so.
The innovative teachers mentioned motivation and basic ICT skills as important competencies
needed to use ICT for pedagogical purposes. The other teachers interviewed said that they
would need individual training in order to work more with ICT and they would also need time
to take part in such training.
C3. What are perceived advantages and disadvantages of the use of ICT in
teaching and learning?
C3.a: On advantages and disadvantages
The head teacher believed that ICT is a powerful vehicle for individualisation, which enables
teachers to differentiate between the competences of different students. ICT is not necessarily
a good motivator of pupils, as they already have access to it at home. Pupils have developed
better research skills. There is also more orientation towards design and improved
presentation of work. He had no quantifiable proof that pupils have improved, but believed he
could see that it has had a positive impact on some. The innovative teachers reported that
there were no disciplinary problems relating to ICT classes. The other teachers mentioned that
ICT improved the teaching methods, but they were also concerned about the potential for
copying and focusing on surface presentations. Linked to this is also a risk of cheating.
Presentations are much more attractive and professional looking, so that even students with
poor handwriting can get good results. ICT can make more demands on students and they
have to work hard to cope with the amount of information available. The students learn new
skill such as scanning photos. In the E-line project students had the opportunity to reflect on
their lives, as well as bridging gaps between cultures. Students can work independently using
computers, choosing specific aspect of study as well as how much time they spend on it. The
students liked to e-mail, chatting, communicating with people in other countries and finding
out information. They also expressed fears that the use of computers may stop students from
socialising with each other. Another advantage of ICT use mentioned by the students was the
need to learn this for future work.
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The head teacher and the innovative teachers welcomed the changes, but were not satisfied
with the resources available. Also the other teachers seemed to be generally happy with the
use of ICT. The students also welcomed many of the changes.
C3.b: On problems and (possible) solutions:
The head teacher pointed at the lack of support for technical problems as the most important
barrier to implement the use of ICT in education. Teachers’ time is too expensive, so schools
have to look around for solutions, which are not ideal. As systems become more complicated,
so the problem becomes more difficult to deal with. The innovative teachers also referred to
this problem. Students wanted to have better equipment and faster Internet connections.
C4. What factors influence the (implementation of) intensive use of ICT
The head teacher talked about a natural and spontaneous development of the curriculum
concerning the use of ICT. The plan for the school now is to focus on specific classes such as
internet/ICT lessons, evaluate the work that is done and then roll it out to the rest of the
school over time.
A large majority of the students have used e-mail and/or WWW during their years in the
school. Also a majority of the teachers use e-mail and/or WWW in their teaching in some
way. The innovative teachers reported that the computers are used in Music, art and civics, in
the SelfGo project in grades 11 – 13 and prepared in grade 10, grade 5 and 6 for German and
English, in grades 5 – 10 for creating maps and diagrams and that ICT is a separate subject
from grade 11 to 13. The other teachers reported about some use of ICT, but they did not
think it had changed that much in their classroom practice. Many activities in the school are
taking place in classrooms where there is no access to computers. All students interviewed
confirmed that they were using or had used ICT in the school in different subjects.
According to the head teacher is the municipality very interested and supportive of ICT. It has
supported the schools participation in the projects E-line and SelfGo. At the same time he also
noted that the municipality did not provide sufficient funds for technical support in the school.
There are no community projects at the moment using ICT or any policy of opening up the
school to parents or the wider public.
C5. How are the students influenced by this different way of teaching
as compared to the traditional classroom education, both individually
and as a collective (e.g. are they acquiring new competences as a
support to traditional competences in the subjects)?
A typical student will at the end of the final grade have used dynamic modelling and
graphical modelling of mathematical functions; software for simple data manipulation and
statistical analysis; word processing / desktop publishing; an interactive multimedia
encyclopaedia on CD-ROM; and software for learning programming skills. According to the
school objectives the student should have acquired the following skills at the end of the final
grade: operating a computer (saving files, printing, keyboarding); writing documents with a
word processor (typing, editing, layout); calculating with spreadsheets programs (sheet
creation, using formulas); communicating via e-mail with teachers and other students; and
sending, searching for, and using electronic forms of information.
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The innovative teachers reported that the use of ICT varies a lot between students. There are
differences between the students’ performance and abilities, therefore there needs to be care
in pairing up students for ICT group work, otherwise one will hold the other back or one will
do all the work. The other teachers reported that the students participating in the E-line
project had helped them to reflect on their lives and to understand other cultures. The students
did not believe they worked in an other way with their fellow students during ICT work than
during other lessons.
C6. What are the possibilities to sustain and to transfer good ICT based
teaching/learning practices?
C6a. Sustainability
The use of ICT is accepted in certain subjects, but there it is not technically possible to
integrate it in all parts of the education offered in the school. The head teacher expected
present activities to continue. The innovative teachers saw cooperation among teachers as an
important factor in order to be able to continue with the present use of ICT in education. The
other teachers interviewed would be prepared to use ICT more in their teaching if they could
get more in-service training and more time. They also pointed to the problem that there is not
enough time during a 45-minute lesson to get to a computer room, check the computers, see
that students start to work and to do something which makes sense.
Extra funding and initiatives taken by the municipality have played an important role to
support the use of ICT as well as the fact that the curriculum prescribes the use of ICT in
some subjects.
C6b. Transferability (Within the School or to Other Schools)
The head teacher saw support and training as the most important things which were needed to
transfer the innovation to other schools. Support by the municipality and willingness to
suggest projects could be other important factors according to the head teacher and the
innovative teachers. The other teachers identified access and standard of computer equipment
as well as time for in-service training as important factors.
C7. To what extent did the local discussions on and experiences with use of
ICT have contributed to whole school development?
The introduction of the intensive use of ICT has mainly influenced a number of courses
offered in the school. These courses have been a result of collaboration between teachers.
Within these courses there has also been changes in the teacher student interaction, where
teachers turn into be more of moderators. The school has been involved in some projects
where ICT is used. These projects have to some extent influenced teacher collaboration and
teacher – student interaction.
There are no hints that the use of ICT should have changed management structure, decisionmaking structure and/or organizational processes. The physical arrangements have mainly
changed through the fact that there are a number of computer rooms in the school. There are
no other signs that the use of ICT has had an impact on the physical arrangement in more
general terms.