The future of teaching in Scottish schools

New teacher-led research officially launched this week indicates that the huge Government investment in Information Communications Technology (ICT) in Scotland's schools can help to increase student attainment levels.

The study - 'Will the Lights Stay On?', was supported by the General Teaching Council of Scotland's (GTCS) teacher researcher programme. It produces the first piece of quantifiable data confirming anecdotal evidence that ICT, when delivered through the Glow system (formerly known as the Scottish Schools Digital Network), can increase pupil attainment levels. Glow is the world's first national education intranet, digitally linking Scotland's educators and pupils from Shetland to the Borders.

Author of the report, Cathkin High School teacher Jaye Richards, undertook the study on her S3 Biology class at the Cambuslang school. Jaye delivered one out of her three Biology lessons a week using the Glow system over a five month period.

The results demonstrated a 32.27% increase in modular attainment and the class as a whole achieved nearly a 15% increase in attainment when compared to the control classes. All pupils' achievement rose, the greatest increase by lower and middle achievement groups - those students previously of general grades and below.

Jaye said:

"The research indicated that there had been not only an improvement in, but a transfer of learning. It appears that the pupils had developed a 'skill of learning' which became evident when the same group achieved higher scores in non- Glow units. This change in learning style is evident in the way pupils interact with the Glow system - there is increased collaboration, peer assessment and individual support than with traditional teaching delivery methods."

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, said:

"Technology has come a long way in recent years and is transforming the way education is delivered. We have invested heavily in information and communications technology (ICT) in school, and computers, electronic whiteboards and other new technologies are commonplace in classrooms. Glow provides 21^st century technology for 21^st century learning, maintaining and improving Scotland's reputation as a world class education system. Glow's ability to allow every pupil and teacher to communicate and collaborate electronically with one another to share ideas and resources is tribute to Scotland's inventiveness."

Glow is funded by a £37.5million investment by the Scottish Government and is managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). All local authorities will be using Glow by Spring 2009. Improving learning and teaching and making better use of teacher's time are key aims of Glow. Laurie O'Donnell, Directory of Learning and Technology at LTS said:

"Glow provides the 21^st century tools for learning and supports teachers in the context of Curriculum for Excellence. If every classroom teacher in Scotland saves an hour a week using Glow it pays for itself within a year, but more important are the benefits to our children and young people if their teachers have an extra hour to improve the quality of their lessons. We are very pleased that teachers like Jaye are using Glow to inform their own practice and develop their skills. We look forward to more teachers investigating how they can use Glow to motivate and improve their pupil's learning experiences."

GTCS Educational Planning and Research Officer Ian Matheson added:

"It is through projects such as ours that teachers currently working in schools are able to pass on their findings to other teachers. They want to research new and better ways to teach the children of Scotland. Our reports attract interest from the teaching community because they are undertaken by their peers who know what it is like to work as a teacher today. The GTCS support the teacher in their research by providing a research grant covering the costs of up to 10 days supply cover to enable the teacher to be released to carry out the research, pay incidental costs and offer support as a 'critical friend'. Teachers can apply at any time to research any of the varied themes in our research priorities available on the GTCS website."

Jaye believes that the Glow system is a classroom tool which complements other teaching methods and can achieve the attainment of key teaching policies - Curriculum for Excellence (CFE) and Assessment for Learning (AIFL). She believes that Scotland is at a tipping point where teachers need to see that ICT can have an explicit impact on learning, and she hopes that her small, but highly indicative, research will motivate others to try to replicate her success in the classroom. She adds:

"Pupils are more eager to learn with this system. There is less time lost in class, as the pupils can start the lesson as soon as they are at their stations. This removes time lost in the initial 10 minutes to settle into the class and the final 10 minutes getting ready to leave the class often. Many teachers perceive barriers to using new ICT systems e.g. - the initial time investment to set up the class site in the system; longer lesson planning; or time spent training. In fact, the system is so easy to use that it takes no longer to plan an ICT lesson than a traditional class. What is more, Glow enables teachers to upload lesson materials - multi media content as well as handouts, making it much easier to update each year. Yes, training is required to get the most from the system but there are school 'mentors' in every school who have been trained already and whose responsibility it is to take forward in-school training."

As a result of her findings, Jaye will now be undertaking further, in-depth research with Dr Steven Draper of the University of Glasgow, a highly experienced academic in the field of human/computer interactions, to assess how the teaching and learning methods were altered by the system and look further into how it can change pupils' access to learning.

A quote from Jaye's conclusion:

"What appears to have emerged from this initial study is that ICT can be used to raise pupil attainment in secondary schools quantifiably, and perhaps just as important a task as extending this study in the directions planned is starting a much wider debate about the fundamental paradigm shift which is required to make this use of ICT more widespread."

Jaye will be involved in Glow presentations/workshops at the upcoming Scottish Learning Festival later this month at Glasgow's SECC, before giving a full presentation of her work at the Scottish Educational Research Association in Perth this November.

View Will the lights stay on? Glow and embedding ICT into secondary school curriculum subjects: a quantitative and qualitative design-based classroom study full report

Further Information

For further information about the research or to arrange interviews with those involved or for images, please contact Kelly Paterson, Geronimo Communications on:

T: 0131 718 4085
M: 0788 215 2914
E: kelly.paterson@kindredagency.com

[added 23 September 2008]