e-Help
Seminar 6 Can ICT
turn
students
into
historians?
Toulouse
17-19
February
2005
In 2003 research was carried out at the United
States National Learning Lab in Maine to assess the
most effective way that young people can learn. The
researchers employed a variety of different teaching
methods and then tested the students to find out how
much they had learnt. From this the researchers were
able to calculate what they called the Average
Retention Rate. The results were as follows:
Teacher talking to a class (5%)
Student reading a book (10%)
Student watching an audio visual presentation (20%)
Student watching a teacher demonstration (30%)
Students taking part in a discussion group (50%)
Students involved in an activity that is related to
what the teacher wants them to learn (75%)
Students teaching others (90%).
These research findings do not surprise me.
I once carried out some research on a group whom I had taught over a
period of six years (11 to 17). The information they had retained from
their history lessons reflected the findings of US National Learning
Lab, in that the most effective learning was related to the amount of
active participation from the student.
However, it seems to me that the majority of teachers spend much of
their time using teaching methods which, according to US National
Learning Lab, are fairly ineffective. I suspect the main reasons for
employing traditional instructional methods are as follows: (1) this was
the way that the teachers were taught when they were pupils at school;
(2) this was the way that teachers were trained to teach; (3) this is
the accepted way of teaching amongst colleagues - i.e. peer group
pressure; (4) teachers enjoy being performers; (5) the teacher feels
more in control of the situation when traditional instructional methods
are used.
Tradition is the great enemy of innovation. One of the advantages of
using the Internet in the classroom is that it encourages teachers to
think again about teaching methods. One of the fears that I have is that
teachers producing materials online will attempt to duplicate the
methods they use in the classroom.
The idea that students should play an active role in their learning is
not a new idea. In the 1960s educationalists like Jerome Bruner argued
that people learn best when they learn in an active rather than a
passive manner. He used the example of how we learn language. It is
claimed that this is the most difficult thing we have to do in our life,
yet we learn it so young and so quickly – so easily in fact, that some
experts in this field have argued that language is, to a certain extent,
an inherited skill.
Bruner argues that the reason we learn language so quickly is due to the
method we use. As we are introduced to words, we use them. We test them
out. Words immediately became practical. We can quickly see why it helps
us to know these words.
This method is very different from the way most subjects are taught at
school. The student is usually a passive receptacle trying to take in
information that they will need for some test or examination in the
future. To complete this task effectively depends on students employing
what sociologists have called deferred gratification. This is something
that most young people are not very good at. They want their pleasures
now, not in the distant future.
In his book, The Process of Education (1960), Bruner argues that it is
possible to teach any topic or subject using the same methods that we
use when learning language. This involves structuring the material so
that the student can test out and use the information in a practical
way.
Bruner’s ideas on learning helps to explain why the Learning Lab
researchers found that the highest Retention Rate occurred when students
were given the opportunity to teach other students. As teachers we have
all had the experience of having to teach something we do not know too
much about. How quickly we learn when we know that the next day we will
be faced by students asking us questions about the material.
It is fairly straightforward to set up situations where students teach
other students. For example, the class could be divided into two. Each
group is given a different topic to teach. When the material has been
prepared the children are paired up with someone from the other group.
Another strategy is to get the students to prepare teaching materials
for another class to use. I saw this approach being used successfully by
one of our members, Richard Jones-Nerzic, at the International School of
Toulouse.
A student in a traditional teaching environment can be very passive or
docile but when he or she has to take on the role of teacher and
instructor, the student is empowered. The “student as teacher” can
prove to be an extremely positive and liberating experience for both the
student/teacher and the class that makes up the audience.
Anybody who has read the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (by Barry Hines) or
seen the film Kes (directed by Ken Loach) will remember the scene where
Billy Casper teaches the rest of the class about kestrels. Billy Casper
undergoes a transformation in this scene because probably for the first
time in his life he has been given the opportunity to share his
knowledge and expertise.
How can we as teachers create similar situation to the “Billy Casper
effect” in the classroom? I would like to finish off by looking at one
practical example of how it could be done.
The example concerns the subject of the Home Front. During the war the
British government was constantly monitoring the success of its various
policies concerning the Home Front. The government was also aware of the
possibility that it might be necessary to introduce legislation to deal
with any emerging problems.
The students have to imagine they are living in Britain in December
1941. The students are asked to write a report on one aspect of
government policy (evacuation, rationing, refugees, etc.). The web page
provides work on a total of 36 different topics, so it should be
possible for each student to have a different topic.
Every student has to report back to the class about the topic he or she
has investigated. (1) Each student has to provide a report on what has
been happening in their assigned area since the outbreak of the war. (2)
The student then has to make proposals about the changes they would like
to see in government policy. (These proposals are then discussed and
voted on by the rest of the class.)