Legacy and evidence-based outcomes

1. Legacy and evidence-based outcomes Don Passey Senior Research Fellow Department of Educational Research Director Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning Lancaster University

2. Legacy – my background • I undertake research, in the area of education and learning, particularly concerned with uses of digital technologies in schools, and by young people • I’ve been involved in research in this field for over 20 years • In the last 10 years, I’ve undertaken more than 50 research studies • Most of those have been commissioned, by government departments, agencies, local and regional authorities, charities and companies • I am asked to find out what works, how, and why

3. Legacy – in this session • Legacy – allows us to learn from our (and others’) past, to use and to develop from those experiences, and it offers a platform from which to build forwards • What has historically worked? And what are we doing now that will last and have impact – Learning from Legacy, Leading Legacy? • The term and its practices are encompassed by the notion of ‘Innovation in Learning’; doing things differently in order to do them better • Legacy is relevant to current and future educational concerns; pertinent to stakeholders; important for those considering key current and future issues including innovative developments and uses of resources including ICT and digital technologies

4. Key elements • Co-construction – how we develop models of teaching that are centred on teachers and students co-constructing learning • Collaboration – identifying and using the building blocks to ensure schools work better together in a ‘by schools, for schools’ network, so that students and teachers can work to co-construct learning, and teachers can collaborate to learn from each other • Creativity – using evidence-based examples, perhaps of innovative practices, to develop and foster creativity within and across the school, for students and teachers • Culture – how leadership can bring about lasting change and a lasting legacy

5. Examples and evidence • In this session, I want to offer examples of current practices and evidence-based outcomes • To demonstrate ways that schools, teachers and students have developed activities and approaches that focus on each of these four key elements • Co-construction • Collaboration • Creativity • Culture • Tomorrow, I want to provide frameworks through which to consider legacy – past evidence, current practice, and future concerns

6. Co-construction • There are good examples of activities and approaches that schools, teachers and students have taken that demonstrate co-construction • There are fewer examples of studies evidencing values and benefits arising from co-construction practices • Some studies do show that co-construction practices lead to longer-term as well as shorter-term benefits and outcomes • Outcomes arising from the BBC News School Report is an example • http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/16223788

7. Co-construction – key points • In 2008-2009, 514 schools were involved • 135 teachers reported unanimously that students enjoyed taking part; 93% of the 705 students reported that they had enjoyed the project • Student perceptions of their own gains were concerned not only with specific subject skills, but also with team working, creativity, attitude towards work, and social interactions • Students said they had learned more about news production and jobs • Teachers reported a significant improvement in students’ abilities to speak to an audience, write for an audience, produce images using a range of technologies, think of creative ideas for stories, listen to others, negotiate a point they feel strongly about, work hard to complete a project, meet deadlines, create a news story that reaches an audience beyond the school, contribute their views to a story, and consider safety when using digital media

8. Collaboration • Schools have widely sought to ‘improve’ • Approaches to improvement have focused not just on attainment, but also on behaviour, effort and well-being • Some schools have linked their focus, using appropriate data to support their ideas, and have gained improvement (particularly in levels of attainment for students from disadvantaged backgrounds) over the past 3 or 4 years • Where collaboration and co-construction have been key drivers, schools have also developed stronger community relationships • Sacred Heart Catholic School is an example • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14678240

9. Collaboration – key points • 75% of pupils achieved at least five GCSEs at grades A*-C, including English and mathematics in 2012 • 44% of pupils achieved the ‘English Baccalaureate' - up 6% on 2011 • In 2010 Ofsted judged the school to be outstanding • They constantly seek collaboration with parents, and have an open-door policy • Parents can approach the school on school and non-school issues • Ethos and a focus on reaching out to the community are seen as vitally important • Parents like the ‘rank order’ system, in all subjects, twice a year • Discipline is there to support effective learning • Size of the school and classes, and relationships are important • Treating children as children • Providing an ‘educational home’

10. Creativity • We can draw on a rich history of research that looks at improvement and success • These are reported across a range of observers who have published their monitoring findings (including Ofsted) • We can draw on experiences of a continuity of improvement, through a commitment to improving practice in the classroom, across the school and in the community • Creativity, of management, of teaching, and of learning, has often been at the heart of improvement practices and outcomes • Video-game creation is an example • Young Games Designers.mp4 • Interactive Opportunities - SchoolTV.m4v

11. Creativity – key points • The project encouraged teachers to bring together teams of young people to use a well-known video game, Little Big Planet 2, to create new levels that would be published and used by other players • After 5 months, 25 teams in 7 schools had created a completed level • At the end of the project 6 more students had become interested in the video games industries, 5 more in the games software industries, and 4 more in the visual effects industries • If this could be replicated across all secondary schools in the UK, 5,000 more young people could well become interested in the video games and video effects industries each year • Some young people who were disengaged from learning and likely to become NEET became re-engaged through the focus of this project • It highlighted areas of potential longer-term employment that were unknown or little known to the young people previously • Young people used and developed soft skills in parallel with the use of technical skills

12. Culture • Culture is the fourth element, but importantly it also pulls together the other three elements of co-construction, collaboration, and creativity • Exploring the inter-relationship of these elements, between cultural change and a culture of innovation, is a focus that leads us to a clear conclusion • Leadership and vision are vital in determining outcomes to address our current and future curriculum needs • Aston Pride was a project that ran in an inner city area of Birmingham for more than 5 years • They focused on a cultural change rather than change concerned with project implementation

13. Culture – key points • The project focused on long-term as well as short-term needs • Intergenerational learning was a key approach embedded within the implementation of the initiative. • Pupils were trained in using ICT in schools, family members were able to attend training sessions in schools, and teachers provided learning activities where parents could be involved at home in working with or alongside their children • Using technologies for learning was a key focus of the initiative • It was known at early stages that many community members were supportive of enhancing education for their children rather than for themselves • The initiative enabled parents to see the benefits that computers could bring for their children and to their children’s learning and, as a consequence, they gained interest in using the facilities for their own (employment, training, and leisure) purposes

14. Summary remarks • In summary, I want to consider three important factors: • New spaces • Portfolios • Curriculum, assessment and certification

15. New spaces • In all of these cases schools, managers and teachers see opportunities to explore and use ‘new spaces’ • Some of those ‘new spaces’ are community spaces • Some of them are opening up ‘new spaces’ at new times • Some arise from uses of digital technologies that exploit ‘new spaces’ to co-construct, collaborate and create • All open up ‘new spaces’ to a wider audience or community • These, as well as online communication spaces, virtual worlds, online learning resource environments, mobile applications and learning platforms all need to be managed as a part of blended models of education and learning in the future

16. Portfolios and e-portfolios • Learning can now arise across a more distributed landscape • Mobility is an increasing feature of societies and communities • Portfolios of work and achievement are likely to become more important • E-portfolios already provide opportunities for some learners to gather together details of their achievements at regular intervals, and systematically • The development of e-portfolios to support different blended models of education and learning are likely to be a future as well as a current need

17. Curriculum, assessment and certification • Developing and considering different blended models of education and learning will require a regular review and close consideration of current curriculum, assessment and certification • Already, universities are regularly reviewing their curriculum, assessment and certification procedures especially in terms of alternative forms of online and blended courses

18. Thank you • The workshop tomorrow will explore how your curriculum, your approaches and your local needs match key issues and exploit successful practice

19. References • INTEL: White Paper - Intel Education Transformation Research: Lessons Learned Across Five eLearning Programs. Intel, USA (2011) • Yaşar, Ö., Karadeniz, Ş.: The power of social media in informal learning. In A. Méndez-Vilas (Ed.). Education in a Technological World: Communicating Current and Emerging Research and Technological Efforts. Formatex, Badajoz, Spain (2011) • Leiringer, R., Cardellino, P.: Schools for the twenty-first century: school design and educational transformation. British Educational Research Journal. 37(6), 915-934 (2011) • Passey, D.: Independent Evaluation of the Aston Pride Phase 3 Computers in the Home Project (2009 to 2011): Final Report - March 2011. Lancaster University, Lancaster (2011) • Passey, D.: Independent evaluation of the Little Big Planet 2 project in Wolverhampton’s Local Education Partnership schools: Outcomes and impacts - Final Report. Lancaster University, Lancaster (2012). Accessible at: http://www.io.uk.com • Passey, D., Gillen, J.: BBC News School Report 2008/2009: Independent Evaluation. BBC, London (2009) • Prensky, D.: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. 9(5), 1-6 (2001) • Kane, T.J.: Extracting Evaluation Lessons From Four Recent Out of School Time Program Evaluations. The Evaluation Exchange, 10(1), 1-4 (2004) • Shurnow, L.: Academic Effects of After School Programs. ERIC Digest ED458010 (2001)