It Becomes More and More Entertaining! - Improving Education Programmes With IT Differentiated Instruction, Actual Competence, IT Strategy

Summary of the Danish Ministry of Education’s theme booklet “Det bli’r sjovere og sjovere! – Bedre erhvervsuddannelser med it-differentieret undervisning, realkompetence, it-strategi” (It becomes more and more entertaining! – improving vocational education programmes with IT differentiated instruction, actual competence, IT strategy), ISBN 978-87-603-2650-9 Ministry of Education theme booklet no. 2, 2007.

Summary

From complete reorganisation projects involving all levels of the organisation to electronic materials that are included in the regular teaching without any major effects on the teacher’s planning and preparation.

From development projects implemented by a large number of schools in cooperation to initiatives that the individual teacher incorporates into his or her own lessons.

From simulations of authentic situations or sets of circumstances in a dynamic company environment to questionnaires set up in spreadsheets.

From teaching aids that include the use of video, stills, sound, text, interactive texts, etc. to text-based educational materials that can be prepared in a word-processing program.

This is how broad the range of examples is presented in this publication, and this is how complex the subject matter is when we consider how to improve vocational education programmes with the use of IT. However, this publication does not concern the IT tools per se . One of the central points in the description of the examples is that IT only makes a difference when the use of IT works as a catalyst for a process that changes the way in which the teaching is planned and organised.

Action-oriented seminars

During the period December 2006 to April 2007, the Ministry of Education held three action-oriented seminars on the use of IT in vocational education programmes. At the seminars, experts and practitioners from the educational institutions presented their opinions on the following themes:

• Instruction differentiation
• Actual competence assessments
• Strategies for improving education programmes through the use of IT

This publication takes these three seminars as its point of departure and is aimed at all interested heads and teachers at the relevant educational institutions – and not only those responsible for IT and actual competence assessments.

Our goal is to serve as a source of inspiration for those involved in the work with IT strategies and the implementation of these in the education programmes. Instruction differentiation and actual competence assessments are at the centre of this implementation.

This publication describes and puts into perspective the examples relating to the practices of the educational institutions involved. It provides links to presentations and video recordings from the seminars, to articles and references relating to the themes of the publication and to various teaching resources presented at the seminars.

Instruction differentiation with the aid of IT is the anchor of the publication. Actual competence assessment is principally one element of a method of teaching creating the conditions for differentiation. Finally, IT strategies are the management’s tools to ensure that IT is used to further individualised and flexible instruction.

Differentiated instruction with the aid of IT

The publication describes experiences with differentiated instruction with the aid of IT within technical and commercial vocational education programmes. In general, differentiated instruction is not a question of specific materials and tools but about organisation. Differentiated instruction is teaching organised with a view to support the pupils’ different needs and potential in relation to learning. Whether the use of IT supports instruction differentiation will depend on the kind of scope that the teaching provides the individual pupil to set his or her own intermediate aims and learning processes in cooperation with his or her teachers and within the framework of the particular education programme’s overall aims set by the government.

Research into differentiated instruction with the aid of IT shows that if the use of IT is to improve vocational education programmes, IT must be used to facilitate pupils’ access to learning resources, to exchange comments and pupil products and to further cooperation. Moreover, IT must be used for the creation of suitable challenges for all pupils, for the improvement of the pupils’ all-round development of competences and for the strengthening of pupils’ desire to learn, their sense of responsibility and commitment.

The key word characterising differentiated instruction is flexibility. It is essential to bear in mind that flexibility can concern all aspects of the instruction, both the time and place of the instruction as well as its contents and methods.

In connection with the seminar “IT as a learning tool for instruction differentiation”, participants shared experiences relating to the use of IT to support individuality and the flexibility of the teaching. The examples are wide-ranging.

One example relates to coordinated initiatives at entry level with a view to developing completely new principles for the planning and organisation of the teaching. In this respect, IT is included as an element in project-organised learning, the aim of which is to strengthen individuality, flexibility and trade-specific skills. This example stems from the entry level for Building and Construction at Aalborg Technical College. The effects of the adjustment process towards project-organised instruction with the aid of IT are very noticeable: the pupils are happy, the teachers are happy, the college scores higher and higher in the benchmarking with other colleges, the number of pupils increase and the drop-out rate falls significantly from about 30 to 16 percent. The head of education summaries the effects by saying: “It becomes more and more entertaining!” The example shows that it also becomes better and better, and all in all, it is a very significant reward from the complete reorganisation process that the project is characterised as.

Another example relates to virtual teaching with the aid of IT. The idea is to create an electronic classroom where the pupils are able to complete a relatively structured learning process without having common timetables and meetings. The example stems from the commercial entry level at Education Centre Copenhagen West, CPH WEST and concerns the teaching in the subject of e-business. The example shows how a change in the organisation of the teaching combined with a targeted use of IT can provide completely new opportunities for planning and undertaking the teaching of small and geographically dispersed groups of pupils.

A third example concerns material for a specific subject, in this case German. The aim was to provide the possibility of increased variation in the teaching through the use of e.g. web-based teaching materials developed specifically for the teaching at the commercial foundation course (levels E–D). This example also stems from CPH WEST. The example shows how the use of IT in teaching can create variation that has a motivating and inspiring effect on both pupils and teachers.

A fourth example concerns the cooperation between specifically commercial vocational schools about the development of web-based learning materials. It relates to the cooperation between a large number of commercial vocational schools referred to as Erfa. The example shows how – via cooperation – schools are able to multiply the effect of resources spent on the development of teaching materials. In addition, the cooperation means that the development processes are systematised, improving the quality of the materials produced.

Actual competence assessments with the aid of IT
Actual competence assessment is not necessarily a separate issue to differentiated instruction. Actual competence assessment can be an integrated element of and a precondition for differentiated instruction. It is stated in the legislation on vocational education programmes that the individual pupil completes his or her course based on a personal education plan, which the pupil and his or her principal teacher draw up in cooperation. With the current amendment of the Act on vocational education programmes coming into force in 2008, it will be a requirement that the schools and colleges undertake actual competence assessments within the first two weeks of any course that they provide. These assessments can take various forms and require different tools. The specific format of these assessments is not crucial as long as it uncovers each individual pupil’s qualifications for selecting and completing his or her education programme. In this connection, it is necessary to distinguish between different types of knowledge and skills.

Factual knowledge can be tested in questionnaires with standardised reply options. This applies to the theory of any given course programme, including definitions of concepts and the meaning of terminology. One example is the chromatology of the painting and decorating course.

Competences are uncovered by testing the pupils’ capability of employing these competences in specific situations. Such competences cannot be tested using questionnaires with standardised reply options; instead the pupils are asked to solve a variety of tasks. Depending on the area of competence, these tasks can be academic or practical in nature.

Creativity concerns the particular pupil’s ability to reflect on knowledge together with the ability to seek out the knowledge that he or she does not have. It requires the ability to go into depth within a specific area of knowledge and analyse and combine various types of knowledge, exercising reasoned judgments in complex tasks. Case analyses and problem-oriented/project-organised forms of testing are particularly suitable.

Computers are excellent for testing factual knowledge as feedback is immediate. Fast feedback provides clarification and learning in one step; it is easy to get an overview of the results achieved and make comparisons between results achieved at different points in time. We will later provide examples from vocational schools of digital test types compared to tests of factual knowledge.

To some extent, computers are also very useful when it comes to testing competences, such as various forms of simulation via the use of interactive video and/or computer animations. For these artificial situations, pupils are asked to use their knowledge to analyse or solve the problems portrayed. For instance, the pupils may be asked to make various choices in response to specific situations that they are presented with, and the choices they make will constitute the premises of new situations portrayed. In this way, the pupils create their own stories and the characteristics of any one of these stories will demonstrate the particular pupil’s competence. We will also provide an example of this type of test below.

In connection with case analyses and problem-oriented/project-organised forms of testing, it is clear that computers are very useful as a tool to access and communicate information. However, for these tests, immediate computer feedback is not possible, as the assessment of the pupils’ performance requires an evaluation process, which must be conducted by the teacher.

In connection with the seminar “IT and actual competence assessment”, participants shared experiences relating to the use of IT in connection with actual competence assessments at various stages in vocational education programmes.

For its painting and decorating course, Randers Technical College has developed a digital “painters’ school”. It is a portal that provides a great deal of information on course programmes and employment, on the theory and practices of the course programme/industry, and in addition, it includes exercises on which pupils and/or future pupils can test their knowledge. According to its own assessment, the college has found a format that strongly supports differentiated instruction. With the educational material and the pedagogical-didactic concept according to which they operate, the teachers experience how the stronger pupils now have greater opportunities of finding challenges and solving these assignments at their own pace with or without help. Moreover, the teachers indicate that they have now more time to support the weak pupils.

The Competence Centre for e-learning at Aarhus Business College has great experience with IT-based tests. The staff at the Competence Centre participate in the development of national tests for the Folkeskole (municipal primary and lower-secondary school) and have developed different systems for testing also competences within specific subject areas of the vocational education programmes. Among the examples is a test used to place the pupils correctly for English lessons. Teachers experience real benefits of using this IT-based test to make actual competence assessments in language subjects where it is possible to make the competence goals measurable. These various tests have great re-use value and can easily be used by other teachers.

The Competence Centre for e-learning also has experience with test systems that support the assessment of competences required to perform actual work tasks within a company. This concerns a web-based, dynamic case company for simulation of practical situations or sets of circumstances within an office environment, the so-called @venterprise. The example shows how it is possible to create teaching aids that can support development and testing of competences in spite of the fundamental challenge, which we referred to earlier, that it is a person’s capability to use his or her competences that needs to be the object of any competence test.

The last example from the seminar on IT and actual competence assessment is from the vocational education programmes at University College Vitus Bering Denmark and it concerns a system for screening pupils’ learning competences. The system was developed by Steen Hilling, psychologist. With the aid of a questionnaire, the pupils’ cognitive competences are screened with a view to identifying the individuals’ strong and weak sides in relation to the learning situation. The college has had excellent results using these tests. It is worth noticing in this connection that after any such test, there is an in-depth follow-up session on each pupil, which is conducted by the education and career counsellor, the pupil’s principal teacher and subject teachers in cooperation. During the relevant period, the college has seen the drop-out rate fall from 30 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2006. The work with the tests and the increased focus on the pupils’ individual learning potential get a share of the honour for this significant drop.

IT strategies
How do you start development processes that create a synthesis between the use of IT and the development of more flexible and individualised forms of leaning – in such a way that the two become synonymous and so the use of IT is not just a requirement that is added to all the other things that teachers have to do? This is one of the central questions for schools and colleges formulating and implementing IT strategies.

By making clear demands and letting it have consequences when these demands are not met – may be one suggestion.
By supporting the processes of change – could be another suggestion. Make laptops available to teachers, allocate the hours to develop IT-based teaching aids, support the competence development through consultancy services and offer continuing education.
By bringing in IT solutions wherever change is required within the community of the school or college – could be a third suggestion; by generally keeping the use of IT as close to the day-to-day practices and the tasks that we have to find solutions for anyway.
Maybe these three suggestions are not as different as they may sound. Maybe it is possible to do all three at once. The three suggestions do not necessarily contradict each other and one thing is certain: the advice stems from the practices and experience of schools and colleges that have been integrating IT into their education programmes over the last five to ten years.

At the seminar “IT strategies that work”, representatives from a technical and a commercial vocational school communicated their experiences in relation to formulating and implementing IT strategies.

EUC MIDT (vocational training centre in Viborg) described the efforts of recent years to establish a common learning platform using the ABC Academy produced in Denmark. These efforts constitute a continuation of the work with the reform of the vocational education programmes in 2000 and have gone through several stages. During the period 2005–06, the management decided to equip every teacher with a laptop and allocate a small number of hours to the individual teacher’s development of IT-based teaching aids. The example from EUC MIDT shows that the formulation and implementation of IT strategies is also a learning process for management and staff. Among the learning points, the management emphasised the importance of thinking through every step, including pedagogical issues, teachers’ competences and commitment, equipment for the teachers, teachers’ access to the IT resources from home, equipment for the pupils and formulating clear goals and milestones for the adjustment process.

Lyngby Business Academy summaries its strategies in four statements, which illustrate the principles of IT integration. Centrally, there is a wish to have one platform gathering all tools, communication and resources. There is increasing recognition that IT integration is change management, which has the knowledge employee as its goal. This is not an easy process, because – among other things – old habits die hard.

In addition to the seminar contributions, we have obtained interviews with management representatives from Dalum Agricultural College and from Herning Social and Welfare College and thereby gained experience from other types of schools and colleges, which – together with the technical and commercial vocational schools – will be covered by the same Act on vocational education programmes as of 2008. Management and staff describe Dalum Agricultural College as a traditional educational institution faced with a number of challenges in relation to IT integration. Teachers are used to making use of IT tools. However, these tools are generally a farmer’s production management tools rather than tools that have any impact on the organisation of lessons and teaching methods.

At Herning Social and Welfare College, IT is integrated into the teaching on the basis of the objective that the pupils are to develop IT competences through their education. It presupposes that IT is used in lessons, which in turn presupposes the availability of facilities and teacher competences. The philosophy is that wherever development takes place at the school, it must involve the use of IT tools. The college has recently completed a major project of renovation and extension, which means that there is now access to IT in all rooms in the form of, for instance, electronic blackboards, projectors, Internet access and modern sound equipment.

Perspective
Surveys of pupils’ experiences with the use of IT in lessons have shown time and time again that pupils experience major differences from one teacher to the next, “Whether we use IT in our lessons and whether we do it in one way or another depends very much on the individual teacher’s commitment and qualifications,” pupils tell us.

We hope that this publication and the seminars preceding it will contribute to a process of experience sharing on all levels of the schools and colleges. We hope that this initiative will contribute to a trend where – to a much greater extent than now – the use of IT is the outcome of decisions that both the management and the teachers support; where the use of IT is not dependent on the individual teacher’s competences and commitment but is a reflection of the school’s collective competences and commitment; where the use of IT is qualified via the cooperation of parties who collectively represent high levels of competence within subject-specific, educational and IT-related areas.

This publication proposes a considered and critical integration of IT into the teaching of vocational education programmes; however, it also advocates the benefits of a process of development based on a belief in the merits of creating a learning environment, in which the teaching – through the use of IT – takes its point of departure in the individual pupil’s competences and learning profile.

Happier pupils, happier teachers, an increase in applications and a fall in the drop-out rate are good indications that the project as a whole makes perfect sense and that the trend is going in the right direction. It is an excellent perspective to point out that the effect of the adjustment processes is that it becomes more and more entertaining when the schools and colleges report that at the same time it becomes better and better.