PEDAGOGICAL JUSTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF GROUPS - NEMED
ANNEX 3
Description and pedagogical justification of work groups
CONTENTS
CONTENTS 2
UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, Group 1, ICT and Multigrade Schools 3
Technical UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST Group 2: Multigrade Classroom Management 7
ELLINOGERMANIKI AGOGI Group 3: Links with local society 15
UNIVERSITY OF LISBON Group 4: Learning Modes 18
UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, Group 5: Educational Resources 31
UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, Group 6: Multigrade Schools and Policies 32
EVALUATION 34
DISSEMINATION 42
EDITOR: UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, Page 16 of 52
PEDAGOGICAL JUSTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF GROUPS – NEMED
GROUP 1, University of Aegean, ICT AND MULTIGRADE SCHOOLS
UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, Group 1, ICT and Multigrade Schools
GROUP1 ICT and MULTIGRADE SCHOOL University of Aegean LEADING THE GROUP
Participating: University of Eotvos Lorand, University of Barcelona, Chydenius Institute
A background statement: why the subject of this group is of interest to multigrade education?
NEMED project is focalized in multigrade schools and the development of a multigrade schools’ network which will allow partner schools to communicate, get training and upload material from NEMED platform. Since NEMED was divided into six separate working groups of research and training material development, ICT group is this group that aims to research all current possible ways of ICT enrollment in education and especially multigrade education. ICT group also aims to tabulate and classify ICT multiple role in education, to develop suggested guidelines, best practices and best case scenario for ICT exploitation in multigrade teaching and learning.
ICT can be the answer in many multigrade schooling problems.
One of the most important obstacles a multigrade teacher faces is the pressure and lack of teaching time: while he/she addresses his/her teaching to a specific students’ age group. The rest present age groups remain unaddressed and involved in silent tasks. This time can be deteriorated into “dead” time for the students, unless teacher has achieved a high pre-organization of these silent tasks. ICT can respond to that problem with a very sufficient way. ICT can provide all the necessary means and tools to the teacher so that dead time is shrunk and learning time is increased for all students. Self learning educational e-material can be adequately developed to support multigrade learning. E- Educational material can be in many different forms: can be a CDrom, an educational website, original e-material developed by teacher him/herself and uploaded on a server so that it will be accessed vie internet, original e material developed by teacher him/herself and uploaded on a local PC so that it will be accessed via intranet, original educational material developed by students themselves.
Also, a multigrade teacher is also often charged with the burden of administrative work. Especially for those types of multigrade schools that there is one teacher for all six grades, teacher is the headmaster of school having to deal with all consequent paperwork. Official correspondence consumes extra time from the already compressed time table. ICT can simplify administrative tasks and automatize routines so that time will be saved and added into teaching time.
In multigrade schools there are regularly (in most countries) no special multigrade-centered books. Multigrade students have to be taught with the conventional books of a monograde school, which were designed for different class type. ICT can provide tools for developing especially multigrade-centered designed educational material. ICT can provide web access to that uploaded material and permit exchange between people who are interested.
Multigrade schools are regularly in isolated areas, which outcomes that teachers can not easily move to get professional training. ICT can permit in situ training using ODL techniques and permitting to teachers having access to training procedures without leaving their school.
Multigrade schools, due to geographical and social isolation, offer small access to cultural events, to information and to lifelong learning conditions. ICT can alter this situation offering digital access to information, communication and lifelong learning, not only for the teachers but the total of local –and isolated- community. Due to this element of isolation, multigrade school’s communication with the rest educational community is hindered. ICT can facilitate communication providing a wide range of communicational tools: videoconference software, websites containing a forum, web sites providing a virtual library with exchangeable material can all facilitate dramatically the communication with other schools, nationally and internationally, with universities and other official institutions. That offers the chance to multigrade students and teachers to exchange brainstorming, ideas, suggested solutions, material and experiences.
Before the ICT era in education, multigrade schools’ cooperation with national or international projects was critically encumbered, due to distance and communicational problems. Now, ICT has simplified the pre-requirements. All willing schools can participate in projects having partners in all parts of the planet, exchanging material and information and ideas daily via internet, with no extra charge or delays.
ICT NEMED group will develop a report recording and comparing the tendencies in ICT exploitation of multigrade schooling internationally. But apart from it, ICT NEMED group will develop and suggest best case scenario for ICT exploitation in multigrade school environment. NEMED School net will have access in that produced material via the NEMED platform. In that way school partners, and all interested parties, will be entitled to read, be informed and implement ICT techniques for multigrade school.
Theoretical study of the subject of each group
Could be the major part of the basic theoretical text for the specific training material
Enrollment of ICT in education constitutes a greatly wide issue, which is supported by an increasingly expanding theory. The basic lines of this theory are:
- Pedagogical negative concerns (the new role of the teacher, ICT is a new demanding reality for the teacher requiring further skills. ICT creates a new, more competitive professional environment for the teacher since it increases the parameters of professional skis). It is important to mention here that an important majority of teachers suffers from technophobia and what is really vital for the designers of policies concerning education and technology is the change of mentality, the persuasion of teachers that ICT is an ally.
- Pedagogical positive concerns (ICT is a reliable ally. Teaching can be transformed into multimedia teaching, educational material can be transformed into interactive educational software, traditional equipment can be ICT equipment, educational resources from encyclopedia can be internet resources, and traditional training can be On Distance training and so on.) What is now the aim of current research and theory makers is the definition of best practices and best case scenario.
- Pre-requirements: equipment’s cost, equipment’s maintenance and updates, existence of help desk service for the schools, ICT training, the problem of locating time for training, trainers, trainers’ fees, trainees’ compensation…
- Definition of terms, a glossary of ICT essentials
- Notes about most commonly used WINDOWS software.
- Theory on best scenarios of ICT implementation in education in general and multigrade schools
Practical classrooms activities, based on the theory and teachers’ experience
These are the “classroom resources” (4 activities/best practices such as classroom resources, projects, actions, suggested scenarios….
ICT group aims to develop training material teaching teachers:
How to built ICT skills useful in teaching (email, internet, excel, word, windows office), how to develop original educational material (PowerPoint, front page, web design, JAVA programming, development of e-questionnaires, uploading of forms and questionnaires on a server…), and how to locate educational resources in internet. ICT group also aims to develop training material teaching students how to use simple, essential ICT skills according their age, so that they will be in position to develop some original material of their own, to communicate digitally, to locate and use internet information.
BEST CASE SCENARIOS: ICT group will develop guidelines about classroom P/C structure, P/C activities integrated in the curriculum, multimedia teaching for multigrade school, development, uploading and sharing original educational digital material
CLASSROOM RESOURCES: ICT group will develop guidelines about best internet use for locating educational material and it will provide a data basis of suggested web educational platforms
PROJECTS: an interactive environment might be developed teaching pupils to use ICT essentials. An interactive environment might be developed teaching teachers how to develop original material of their own.
ACTIONS: NEMED teachers’ can be encouraged to develop and share their own educational original material.
Group work methodology
Ways of interaction with school net
Each school partner of the NEMED School net will have an access code to NEMED platform. In that way teachers will be entitled to both upload and download: downloading refers to material developed from ICT NEMED group and uploading refers to teachers’ possibility to upload in an ad hoc designed area of the platform for teachers’ input.
Each NEMED institution partner will be responsible for guiding and supporting schools of NEMED net on a national basis.
Before the development of ICT group’s material a teachers’ need analysis was conducted from the coordinator (using questionnaires sent to the total of 1teacher and 2 teacher multigrade schools of Greece). In that way the essential parameters of teachers’ needs were recorded and used as measures for the initial designing of ICT group’s material, so that needs and solution will be in immediate correlation.
During the kick off meeting the criteria for partner schools selection were set and agreed. Number of teachers per school (so that multigrade term will be justified), ICT equipment, ICT use knowledge, internet connection and sufficient band width, knowledge of an international language were some of the pre-requirements.
An e- questionnaire was developed from all NEMED partners and will get its final digital form by university of Aegean to keep recording and shaping multigrade teacher’s profile on a constant, dynamic and internet-centered way.
ICT NEMED group’s reports and materials will be mainly accessed without authentication procedures from all interested parties and not only NEMED partners. Restricted areas accessed only with codes will be mainly referring to internal procedural discussions and instructions. Educational platforms aiming in ICT training are so many, that in order to make NEMED’s platform competitive, free access is of decisive importance.
EDITOR: UNIVERSITY OF AEGEAN, Page 16 of 52
PEDAGOGICAL JUSTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF GROUPS – NEMED
GROUP 2,Techn. University of Bucharest, MULTIGRADE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Technical UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST Group 2: Multigrade Classroom Management
Group 2: Multigrade Classroom Management, Technical University of BUCHAREST LEADING THE GROUP
Participating: University of Aegean, University of Cyprus, Ellinogermaniki Agogi
GROUP 2: Multigrade classroom management
2.1 Theoretical background
2.1.1 Introduction
The multigrade classroom is labor intensive and requires more planning, collaboration, and professional development than the conventional graded classroom (Cushman, 1993; Gaustad, 1992; Miller, 1996). Sufficient planning time must be available to meet the needs of both teacher and students. Insufficient planning, staff development, materials, support, and assessment procedures will have an impact on the success of the multigrade program.
Despite these constraints, there are special advantages to multigrade classrooms. Flexible schedules can be implemented and unique programs developed to meet students’ individual and group interests and needs. Combined classrooms also offer ample opportunity for students to become resourceful and independent learners. The multigrade rural classroom is usually less formal than the single-grade urban or suburban classroom.
Because of the small class size, friendly relationships based on understanding and respect develop naturally between the students and the teacher. In this setting, students become well-known by their teacher and a family atmosphere often develops. However, many teachers, administrators, and parents continue to wonder whether multigrade organization has negative effects on student performance. For most rural educators, multigrade instruction is not an experiment or a new educational trend, but a forceful reality based on economic and geographic necessity.
2.1.2 Classroom management strategies
Managing the multigrade classroom is an essential element in successful instruction and requires good organizational ability and consistency. Students come into the classroom expecting the teacher to give them guidance and direction about rules and procedures and how the classroom is organized for instructional use. Having a uniform and predictable set of rules and procedures simplifies the task of being successful. Having clear and efficient routines makes classroom life run smoothly. Because there could be many different levels in a multigrade classroom, the need for clear, consistent rules and procedures is even more critical than in traditional, single-grade classrooms.
A literature review conducted by Wang, Haertel, and Walberg (1993) found that classroom management had the largest effect on student achievement (Marzano, 2003). There seem to be a few sound classroom management strategies that can be followed to help create an effectively managed classroom, with the aim of successful pupils’ instruction:
Be Prepared
· If you are getting a new class of students, try to learn their names and a little bit about them before school starts.
· Establish three or four classroom rules with the students. They are more apt to follow them if they have helped develop them.
· Establish procedures
· Be consistent when enforcing rules and procedures.
· Explain to the students what is expected of them.
Be Planned
· When planning your day, provide as much detail as possible.
· Ensure that you have enough work and activities planned for the day. Begin teaching at the beginning of the class and stop when the class is finished. Down time at the beginning and end of class often adds to discipline problems.
· Vary the activities throughout the lesson. Allow some time for teacher instruction followed by activity time.
Be Organized
· Assign each student a number at the beginning of the year to help keep track of books and assignments.
· Have a large envelope on the bulletin board to place extra copies of assignments. If any students are absent, missed assignments can be easily accessed.
· Have a specific spot for students to hand in and get back assignments. Paper trays or decorated paper box lids work well. Labeling them as “In Box” and “Out Box” often works well.
· Keep important information and papers in a binder that can be easily accessed.
· Mark and return student work promptly.
Effective teachers have been consistently observed by researchers to engage in three distinct phases of classroom management and discipline: