TRIALLING the Le@Rning Federation's LEARNING OBJECTS in SCHOOLS

Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools Results of a field review Peter Freebody January 2006 Contents Contents 2 Acknowledgements 3 Executive summary 4 Summary results 4 Next steps 4 The study 6 Introduction 6 Methods 9 Findings 11 Conclusions and ways forward 21 References 23 Appendix 1: Survey of students 24 Appendix 2: Survey of teachers 26 Appendix 3: Reports of case studies 31 Atherton State Primary School 31 Beechworth Primary School 35 Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre 38 Brighton Primary School 41 Distance Education School, Tasmania 44 Eclipse Centre, Canberra College 46 Good News Lutheran Primary School 50 Jingili Primary School 53 Kormilda College 55 Lowanna College 58 Mona Vale Public School 62 Monte Sant’Angelo Mercy College 65 New Town High School 68 Opunake High School 72 Southern Cross Campus (Middle School) 75 St Joseph’s Primary School, Hectorville 78 St Joseph’s School, Wyndham 81 Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools 2 Acknowledgements Author Peter Freebody is Professor of Education at the University of Queensland, and Academic Advisor to the Queensland Department of Education and the Arts. Consultants Sandy Muspratt and David McRae undertook most of the data collection and analysis. Sandy Muspratt is a postdoctoral research fellow at Griffith University, Queensland. David McRae is a research consultant based in Melbourne, Victoria. Participants The participation of principals, teachers, parents and students from the schools involved in the research is appreciated. Thanks are also expressed to The Le@rning Federation’s contact liaison officers who supported the research team in accessing data and information essential to the analysis reported. Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools 3 Executive summary The main purposes of this report are: • to summarise the results of a field review (using survey and case-study data) of early-stage implementation of the online curriculum content developed to date by The Le@rning Federation (TLF); and • to outline conclusions and recommend ways forward for the program, focusing on the maintenance of the development and implementation processes, and the direction of resources to professional development and evaluation of efficacy. As reported in an earlier study (Freebody 2005), a review of available research literature indicates that: • there is now a reasonably well-established body of empirical work on the nature and efficacy of ICT use in school classrooms; • much of that data points to improved motivational and learning outcomes of ICT use generally; • there is relatively little reliable guidance or conclusions relating to medium- or long- term effects of ICT use, less on the motivational and learning outcomes of specific kinds of ICT use in classrooms, and even less on the consequences of the use of ICT-based online curriculum content; and • the research area is characterised by small-scale observation and interview studies. There are very few large- or medium-scale field experiments. Summary results 1. There continues to be strongly positive responses to use of TLF’s learning objects from teachers and students with respect to perceived benefits to both learning outcomes and engagement in learning. 2. This pattern of response applies across all teacher and student demographics; there are no correlations between ratings of the learning objects and any of the respondent variables in the surveys. 3. Multilevel modelling shows considerable variation in the pattern of responses by teachers and students within and between learning objects, and some variation related to curriculum areas. 4. There are major variations in awareness and usage of learning objects in schools, and also in the extent to which learning objects are integrated into learning programs. 5. There is evidence of potentially new learning environments being put to ‘old’ pedagogical work. Next steps The best prospects for enhancing implementation lie in further research and in the professional development of classroom teachers. Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools 4 The results of this study, together with those of the earlier (2005) study, show that teachers and students who have used the learning objects regard them in generally positive ways, and that their views discriminate among different features of the learning objects and their potentially distinctive benefits. The next tasks are to document, over a period of time that allows a reasonable establishment phase for the learning objects, how some sustained use of the learning objects influences the nature and extent of changes in pedagogy and in students’ learning. Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools 5 The study Introduction The purposes of this report are to provide background material related to the use of online curriculum content and, in that context, to report the outcomes of a field review of early-stage implementation of The Le@rning Federation’s (TLF) newly developed learning objects. Presented in the following sections of this report are: • a brief outline of the history of The Le@rning Federation’s ‘Learning objects’ initiative; • a summary of the available research literature on the efficacy of use of ICT and online curriculum content generally; • a summary of the results of a field review, conducted through surveys and case studies, of the implementation of TLF online curriculum content developed to date; and • conclusions, drawn from the review, concerning the maintenance of this implementation, including the direction of resources to enhance professional development and to ongoing evaluations. The initiative In 2001 the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) established The Le@rning Federation to produce online curriculum materials and make them available to education systems in the States and Territories of Australia and New Zealand. More specifically, TLF was charged with: 1. producing a repository of online materials in the following priority curriculum areas: • Innovation, Enterprise and Creativity (Years P–10) • Languages other than English (specifically Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian across all school year levels) • Literacy for students at risk of not achieving National Literacy Benchmarks (Years P–10) • Numeracy and Mathematics (Years P–10) • Science (Years P–6 and 9–10) • Studies in Australia (Years P–10); 2. developing online materials that: • represent cutting-edge best educational theory and practice; • engage teachers and students in active learning and in creative and critical thinking; 3. supporting and reinforcing the increasing priority given to innovation, enterprise and knowledge by governments in Australia and New Zealand; 4. supporting teachers in developing enterprising education; 5. engaging students in innovative learning environments; Early-stage use of The Le@rning Federation’s learning objects in schools 6 6. equipping students to live competently and proactively in an environment increasingly characterised by online communication, learning and work; and 7. stimulating the growth of a marketplace for high-quality public and private online curriculum content. The term ‘online curriculum content’, as it is used here, refers to interactive learning activities (that may include texts, and/or graphic, audio or animated materials) that improve students’ motivation and learning outcomes, and that capitalise in innovative ways on the particular potential of information and communications technologies to enhance young people’s learning. In this project, the online curriculum content takes the form of ‘learning objects’. These learning objects are: • one or more files or modules of learning material; • reusable in multiple settings and for multiple purposes; • potentially usable in classrooms as components of units of work accompanied by digital and non-digital materials; and • accessible from digital repositories, as referenced, located and accessed by metadata descriptors. TLF has undertaken cycles of evaluation designed to monitor and enhance the quality of its educational products and to fulfil its goal of disseminating knowledge about use of information communication technologies (ICT) in educational contexts to inform research and development in this area. This report, representing the second phase of evaluation of early-stage implementation of the learning objects in school, needs to be read in concert with: • the overall evaluation of the TLF operation by TGF International, the report of which is in preparation and due to be submitted in February 2006; and • the planned ‘best practice’ field study to be conducted in early 2006, the report of which is due in late 2006. The research setting: summary of key studies The report of the earlier field review of TLF’s learning objects program (Freebody, 2005) concluded that the introduction of new digital technologies into classrooms has not, of itself, brought about changes in the nature or extent of learning that some commentators have described as necessary for participation in new economies and forms of citizenship. In that (2005) report it was argued that use of information technologies in education over the last 10 years indicates a need for consideration of the nature of the curricular content and settings in which ICT use occurs within everyday classroom work. The review presented in Freebody (2005) will not be restated here. However, it

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