'The visual helps me understand the complicated things': pupil views of teaching and learning with interactive whiteboards

This study is one element of a government-sponsored evaluation into the introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) to Years 5 and 6 in English primary schools. This element of the research aimed to gather information regarding pupil views of IWBs and the impact these tools can have on teaching and learning. To extend current literature, the method targeted pupils’ views of how IWBs can impact on metacognition: thinking about learning. Using a template that has been developed by the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University, pupils were encouraged to talk about learning in different contexts: this methodology and its rationale are described. The results show that overall comments from the pupils are positive, with the resulting themes encompassing how the IWB can facilitate and initiate learning and impact on preferred approaches to learning. The pupils describe how different elements of software and hardware can motivate, aid concentration, and keep their attention. On the negative side, pupils candidly describe their frustration when there are technical difficulties, their desire to use the board themselves and their perceptions of teacher and pupil effects. As IWBs are becoming more and more prevalent in schools, we discuss implications and make recommendations for teachers and manufacturers. Introduction This article reports on pupil views of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs). The pupil views templates are one research method used in a government-sponsored project evaluating 852 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 36 No 5 2005 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2005. the introduction of IWBs into Years 5 and 6 in selected primary schools. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the implementation of the boards in six Local Education Authorities (LEAs) dispersed throughout England, with 12 schools in each LEA participating in the project. Boards produced by three of the main IWB manufacturers were included in the sample. An extensive critical literature review, including all empirically based studies, has been completed and provides a sound theoretical basis for the research; this is published elsewhere (Smith, Higgins, Wall & Miller, 2005). The main research study used a multimethod approach that included real-time computerised coding of observational data, video analysis, teacher and pupil interviews, and an online pupil attitude questionnaire; these methods are fully reported in the main report (Higgins et al , 2005). The method reported in this paper aimed to gather information on the pupils’ perspective of IWB use and the resulting teaching and learning process. Information was also sought regarding pupils’ views on learning and the impact of IWBs on metacognition. Background: researching pupil views In 1989, Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child increased the emphasis on the entitlement of children to have their voice heard. It states that: ‘children and young people have a right to be involved in the decisions that affect them. This right extends from decisions affecting them as individuals, to decisions that affect them as a collectivity’. Since then there has been increased educational research investigating and consulting pupils about different aspects of schooling. For example, pupils have been asked about their experiences of curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy (Pollard, 1996) and Tunstall and Gipps (1996) researched pupils’ views of formative assessment. Pupils’ attitudes to school and the work they are given were looked at by Blatchford (1996) and Flutter and Ruddock (2004) explored the role pupils as researchers could have in school improvement. Few studies have explicitly looked at learning and the associated metacognitive processes. One study that has tackled this issue is that of McCallum, Hargreaves, and Gipps (2000). A mediated interview was used with children as young as 7 years old to explore ‘learner conditions and classroom conditions that they [pupils] believed were conducive to learning’ (p. 279). However, even this study does not go as far as to examine pupils’ thinking about learning within different contexts: the metacognitive process. This trend continues within IWB research: pupils have been asked for their views (Glover & Miller, 2001; Goodison, 2002; Levy, 2002), but we have found no research that has explicitly asked about learning, metacognition, and the role an IWB has to play in this process. This is the purpose of this study. The data triangulate with interview data from teachers and more traditional interview data collected from pupils, shown in the main report (Higgins et al , 2005). Pupil views of teaching and learning 853 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2005. A method for speaking to children about metacognitive processes This methodology has origins in Bubble Dialogue (see http://www.dialogbox.org.uk/ BubbleDialogue.htm) based on work by McMahon and O’Neill (1992) using speech bubbles to support discussion and role play in citizenship and values education. The research of Hanke (2000) and Higgins, Miller, Wall, and Packard (2004) has also shaped the research process; both of which looked at gathering pupil views across the primary age phase and the latter explicitly looking at the pupils’ perspective of how ICT can be used to aid learning. A template was designed to stimulate talk about learning to be a mediational tool in an interview. The image on the template is recognised by children as the learning context under scrutiny (Figure 1) and discussion is initiated by this. The design of the image means that the pupil can interact with it: adding faces to the teacher and pupils and drawing representations of their favourite lesson on the IWB. This method of mediation is useful in overcoming any interviewer-interviewee tensions, a variance that can be particularly pertinent between adult and child (Greig and Taylor, 1999). This template forms the basis of a mediated interview on the issues. By providing an image of the learning environment under examination, the process becomes a threeFigure 1: Example of template used to collect pupil views 854 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 36 No 5 2005 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2005. way interaction between the researcher, the pupils, and the template, stimulating talk about the learning context (Figure 2). Most research has been restricted to pupils’ attitudes and beliefs about teaching, curriculum content, and school/classroom structures (the process of teaching). This method aimed to gather this information and to also go beyond it into metacognition (the process of learning). This was done through the use of the speech and thought bubbles on the template. The thought bubble provides information about the conscious ‘internal’ mental processes: what they perceive ‘is going on inside their head’ (metacognition). In contrast, the speech bubble looks at factors external to the individual: the learning of other pupils, teachers, and parents and practicalities of learning in the specified context (cognition in general). An overlap between the two fields of data is expected with regard to advantages and disadvantages of IWBs and subject differences in their use. A diagram of the rationale is shown in Figure 3. The mediated interview began with the completion of the more general speech bubble and then moved on to the metacognitive processes (the thought bubble). This meant that the pupils’ thoughts could progress steadily towards the more complicated discourse about learning and thinking. The templates were designed so that they could be administered by one of three different researchers in the field using a structured set of prompts (Table 1) to increase reliability across the interviews. The templates were used with groups of four to six children, much like a focus group (Greig and Taylor 1999). Issues arising from the stimulus were discussed and the pupils were encouraged to write down their thoughts and ideas in the appropriate bubble on individual templates. It was emphasised, however, that they did not need to comply with any conventions (e.g. spelling or grammar) and could complete the template in their Figure 2: Model of interaction using the template Researcher Pupil Stimulus Prompts Questioning