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STEPS plan for Schools

Diana Bannister
University of Wolverhampton

February 2013

STEPS plan for schools

About the STEPS Plan

This has been developed by Diana Bannister to encourage a common framework and terminology for school development across the project. This will form the outline of your work as you begin to collaborate within the Living Schools Lab network. This approach has been based upon the model of action research, but offers a more practical plan that can be used by the project at many different levels. During the Advanced Schools workshop (17th and 18th January 2013), Diana Bannister discussed the STEPS plan and also the need to think about small focussed actions that could be documented. This will help us to collate evidence for the project and enable us to share practice that could be up scaled or mainstreamed. The Advanced Schools should then be able to work with the Advanced Practitioners to enable them to create a STEPS plan that can demonstrate practice classroom level. The Advanced Practitioner should also select a Focus Theme. Throughout the project, the idea is that the Advanced Schools work with the Advanced Practitioners to see how their practice can be shared and developed at a National level, but also as part of the Living Schools Lab network. It is recommended that the National Co-ordinator works with the Advanced School and the Advanced Practitioners to identify commonalities between the STEPS and to determine the kinds of support that could be made available. It would also be useful to consider how the STEPS could address National priorities. Your STEPS plan is a working document and should help you to document your progress as you focus on a specific theme within the project and how you will record whole school level developments. This will also help to provide information for the Community of Practice and at a later stage for the Case Studies. Each Advanced School has been asked to create a STEPS plan to submit to the National Co-ordinator by March 15th 2013. We will then begin to build a picture of the STEPS that are being documented across the network and work with you to look at how we can co-ordinate the showcasing, demonstration and validation of practice. If you require any further support, please contact Diana Bannister. DianaBannister@wlv.ac.uk

STEPS plan for schools

STEPS plan for schools

Our STEPS plan

Name of School: Country: Plan completed by: Lead Teacher: National Co-ordinator:
Dr Skevi Demetriou Dr Costas Hambiaouris Geroskipou A Primary School Cyprus

School Focus Theme(s): Collaborative learning & ICT

One of the reasons that we chose a topic as broad as this is to be able to accommoddate all teachers with different areas of expertise on Education & ICT that wish to design and implement lessons in order to take part in this project. We did not want to have a very specific topic that would only be of interest to a few teachers in the school. We wanted the whole teacher community to be able to embrace this project.

Current STEPS (Complete each box with short description or bullet points only)

Share/Present
What are you doing already that is important related to your chosen focus theme? This should be something that you can evidence with practical examples. (Something we know):

At the school, we use ICT in many ways ranging from use for managerial and administrative purposes to integration in the teaching and learning process. Teachers integrate technology in their teaching in order to promote learning. Technology at the school is used by the teachers, by students individually or collaboratively. Some examples of such use of ICT are illustrated below: - Presentations and seminars offered to the teaching staff by teachers with expertise on Education & ICT or by commercial partners (e.g. people from SMART and PROMITHEAN have given seminars to the teaching staff on how to embed the use of the interactive whiteboard constructively and effectively in the lesson). - Many teachers at our school are actively integrating the use of ICT across the curriculum, e.g.: (a) Mathematics: (i) Use of Geogebra for geometry

STEPS plan for schools

collaboratively (ii) Targeted use of various pieces of software offered by the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, by the Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, by the Greek Pedagogical Institute and by other educational institutions and trustworthy resources in order to accomplish educational goals etc. (iii) Pilot lesson using the SIMS2 online environment in the context of Mathematics. In particular, collaboratively constructing a house in this environment could help teach symmetry etc. (b) Greek language and Culture: (i) Use of brainstorming and mapping software such as Kidspiration (ii) Use of Kar2ouche for creative writing (iii) Use of the Hot Potatoes software etc. (iv) Use of online tools to create words, sentences and little stories (e.g. fairy tales) for first and second grade students. (c) Social subjects: (i) Use of software allowing reflection on practice. For example Consequences that is an interactive computer based software, was used to help children identify problematic behaviour and interact with the characters in the software to fix it. (ii) Collaborative use of Movie Maker to create short video clips about various subjects. (iii) Use of online applications to create their own garden. (d) Computer games are used across a wide range of subjects to aid the achievement of learning goals. For example, in Geography we used an innovative game developed at the University of Bristol (with the involvement of a lead teacher from our school) that aids knowledge construction through both collaborative and individual learning. Additionally, the second grade used a software on traffic education to learn the traffic rules and to avoid dangerous situations in the streets. Also, the first grades use computer games to teach addition and subtraction. - The software tools accompanying our interactive whiteboards are used across all subjects. - Use of various websites with educational content on Mathematics, such as: www.math-play.com www.free-training-tutorial.com www.sheppardsoftware.com www.mathplayground.com www.pbskids.org www.e-learningforkids.org www.iboard.co.uk www.henryanker.com These websites were integrated in the Mathematics lesson to help teach and to also practice on fractions, dividers, factors and other mathematical concepts. - Use of TV clips with educational content from www.edutv.gr to learn about verbs, nouns etc during the Greek language lesson. - Use of Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) to create an online

STEPS plan for schools

community of practice of the class where communication is fostered and exchange of material is promoted. - Use of Microsoft Office to achieve learning goals across many subjects: PowerPoint was embedded in the lesson during a project-type lesson where students had to perform research on a topic and then present what they have learnt. Also, Excel was incorporated in the Mathematics lesson to create charts, categorise values, analyse the results of a school research etc. Additionally, Publisher was used to create cards, invitations etc during language lessons. - Use of online software to create their own imaginary characters and comics (www.bitstnpsforschools.com) - Use of online dictionary (www.greek-language.gr).

Teach/Technology
Can you share some examples of what you have seen and identify examples of practice? (Something we want to show/demonstrate):

What we want to show / demonstrate: - Co-construction of a text: The students will jointly write up a text on a particular subject, using software that allows multiple users to simultaneously write a text. - Computer games at a classroom level: A computer game designed at the University of Bristol (the lead teacher was one of the designers) will be implemented in a lesson. - Flipped classroom using technology: (i) The teacher will provide resources on a topic to the students, such as a video of the teacher delivering a particular body of knowledge (video lesson), links, texts, examples etc. The resources will be used by the students outside school time. (ii) The next day, in the classroom, the students will apply that knowledge by solving problems and doing hands-on, practical work collaboratively. The teacher will then act as a fascilitator / tutor for when students encounter difficulties etc. - Collaborative use of thechnology in the Arts lesson: create collage with pictures, create a story in the form of a movie with images, express your emotions on a drawing and create a story/movie of the emotions. - Use of google earth and google maps collaboratively during a Science or Geography lesson. - Use of movie maker collaboratively to create a jointly constructed movie under the umbrella of a specific purpose. - Collaborative use of Photostory to create collages and clips. - How to create an online community of practice with the students of your class? The use of Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) and Weebly (www.weebly.com). - One of the reasons that we chose a topic as broad as this (Collaborative learning & ICT) is to be able to accommodate all teachers with different areas of expertise on Education & ICT that wish to design and implement lessons in order to take part in this project. We did not want to have a very specific topic that would only be of interest to a few teachers in the school. We wanted the whole teacher community to be able to embrace this project and contribute to the efforts made.

Evidence/Research/Collaboration
Think about what has led you to the developments on your school focus theme. Is there particular research that has informed your work? Are there particular partnerships that will take you forward?

STEPS plan for schools

(Something we have learned/Something we are learning about): - Another reason for our choice is that on one hand, we identified that the students of our school many times find it it difficult to work collaboratively on a task withought arguing. On the other hand, they appear to be increasingly interested in and motivated by anything related to technology. We therefore decided to work towards combining collaboration and ICT in this project. - Additionally, a vast amount of literature suggests that technology may enhance collaboration and learning if incorporated in a lesson thoughtfully or even if used in the form of a leisure activity. - Questions: (a) How can technology promote collaborative learning? (b) How can we innovatively apply technology enhanced collaborative learning on practice with our students? (c) How did students from their perspective perceive the efforts done for the LSL? What did they learn / like? - How will we measure our success: (a) We will reflect on our practice: We will video tape our lessons and watch them in order to jointly reflect on our practice (focus group). (b) We are planning to run small scale survey type research and perhaps semi-structured interviews or focus groups with students to see how they experienced it from the insiders perspective. - Replicable STEPS: 1. Identify an emerging need (technology related) arising from the teaching practice: On one hand, the students of our school many times find it it difficult to work collaboratively on a task withought arguing. On the other hand, students appear to be increasingly interested in and motivated by anything related to technology. Therefore, the teachers decided to work towards combining the two under the umbrella of learning. 2. Search about the topic: All involved teachers did their own research on the topic of collaborative learning. They sought to find ways to promote collaboration using technology and to also achieve learning using innovative forms of technology enhanced collaborative learning. 3. Discuss & Exchange ideas: We all came together and discussed what we found on technology and collabborative learning at a focus group. We shared our ideas and jointly reflected on them. We tried to involve as many teachers as possible. 4. Plan: Each one of us planned and designed actions that would fall well in line with our chosen topic. An action plan was then formed with all of the proposed actions each teacher would do. For example, one decided to use computer

Plan/Innovate
Try to identify 2 or 3 key questions. How will you implement what you are trying to achieve? What are the replicable STEPS for others who may want to do the same? How will you measure your success? (Something we will do):

STEPS plan for schools

games collaboratively, another to use technology collaborative in a lesson carried out outside the classroom etc. All actions needed to feed in to the topic of our project. 5. Act: Our action plan was then put into practice. We are currently on our way of applying all of our ideas for good practice related to our topic as defined in our action plan. 6. Reflect, Evaluate & Redesign: This step will take place both throughout the implementation process of our action plan and at the end of the project. The reflection will involve regular meetings where we reflect on our practice and discuss about what went well and what didnt go as planned. All these will inform our future practice and help us improve.

Support
(Define the areas of support required and how this will be achieved):

- Lack of technological tools at the school: for example not all classrooms have projectors and/or interactive whiteboards. - More CPD training is needed for the teachers. - Access to scientific knowledge / journals / research findings? This is an issue since teachers cannot freely access journal papers on educational research since schools dont have a subscription. Therefore, there are barriers when a teachers wants to learn about what educational research says about a particular topic or what is new in terms of technology enhanced learning. Whereas information from commercial sources is rigorously pushed towards teachers, it is difficult for a teacher to acquire and read a journal paper (you need to pay a subsciption) and therefore have access to educational research. - ICT is not taught as a separate subject in primary school and therefore some students dont have the basic skills required o take part iin a technology ehanced lesson.

The work presented in this document is supported by the European Commissions FP7 programme project Living Schools Lab (Grant agreement N 317587). The content of this document is the sole responsibility of the consortium members and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission and the Commission is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained herein.