Using ICT to Improve Engagement: A Case of Year 11 Students Learning Modern History

Muwanga-Zake, Johnnie Wycliffe Frank, University of New England; Dickins, Jessica, University of New England; and Lovelock, James, University of New England

Abstract The engagement of students in learning using ICT was determined during observations of Year 11 students. The observations occurred in four consecutive lessons about modern history over two weeks in year 2009, in Australia. Behavioural aspects of engagement were measured on a Likert scale of 5 ranging from never to always. While there is a need for further investigations, data reveals that ICT sustains engagement as students use ICT. The Internet provided resourceful information for students’ research and the Wiki provided a vehicle for creativity and application of their technical skills. The Wiki also provides opportunities for continuous assessment. The challenges include the development of reliable measurements of engagement and of methods of recording observations without affecting the lesson progression.

Using ICT to improve engagement

A major challenge is to define and measure an affective and qualitative attribute such as engagement, which does not seem to have an agreed-upon definition. In this paper, we adopt Frydenberg, Russell, & Ainley’s (2005) definition of engagement as it seems observable: Engagement are the attitudes to, and interest in a particular learning domain (e.g. reading) or self-efficacy in a domain (e.g. mathematics). The definition allows practical organisation of related engagement learning activities, which Kearsley & Schneiderman (1999) identify as: • Relating and interacting in a group context; • Creating through projects, and; • Donating from an outside (authentic) focus. These kinds of activities are also elements in active learning, social cognition, constructivism, and in problem-based learning (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Hence, engagement is consistent with Vygotsky’s social constructivism and Piaget’s cognitive constructivism, which are enhanced by peer-to-peer collaboration (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004: 4; Goslin, 2003). Thus engagement emphasises, meaningful, interactive and student-focused cognitive and behavioural activities

Engagement requires authentic cognitive processes (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1999; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Authentic activities are challenging (Frydenberg et al., 2005), and comprise (i) self-regulation (e.g., transition between activities); (ii) instructional discourse (e.g., asks authentic questions); and (iii) higher-order thinking (e.g., synthesis of ideas) (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Hence, Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) and Harrington et al. (2003) advise that creativity, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and evaluation represent cognitive activities that could be observed and assessed during engagement. Ultimately, authentic activities intrinsically motivate students to learn due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and lead to successful collaboration, and therefore to group activities.

Collaborative group activities comprise behaviours such as a show of interest, further motivation and enjoyment in a task (Frydenberg, et al., 2005). These can be emotional as students work through activities, especially if outcomes are rewarded; rewards enhance extrinsic motivation and interest. Furthermore, rewards tend to affect self-concept (Goslin (2003). Thus, engagement can be observed and measured in scales of interest and enjoyment, which comprise conduct (such as adhering to rules),

participation (such as fulfilling roles in group work), and work involvement (such as paying attention to learning).

Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) believe that technology can facilitate engagement in ways, which are difficult to achieve otherwise. In fact, the use of online authentic activities has been shown to be engaging (Herrington, Oliver & Reeves, 2003; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004; Marshall, 2007: 114). So the engagement theory can be a conceptual framework for technology-based pedagogy. Some of the key elements of engaged learning in an online environment include group work and exploration of resources to answer meaningful questions.

This paper reports on findings from a project on the engagement of students using ICT-based history lessons for year 11 students in an Australian school. The project appears at http://teams.as.edu.au/groups/engagement/wiki/388f7/Year_11_Modern_History.html.

The engagement project at The Armidale School (TAS)

This paper reports about a part of a larger project named Engagement, which was planned and executed by Mr Martin Levins of TAS and Dr Chris Reading of the University of New England (UNE). The details of the project appear at http://teams.as.edu.au/groups/engagement/. The project was in line with advice given in (Pegg, Reading & Williams, 2007) for collaboration between schools and tertiary institutions to improve the adoption of ICT in pedagogy. In this project, TAS gained from expertise in the field of ICT pedagogical use at the UNE, while the UNE gained from insight into hands-on school pedagogical use of ICT as well as from exposing pre service teachers first hand experiences of ICT pedagogical use.

The Armidale School (TAS) TAS is an Independent Anglican School whose junior school is co-educational, but from Year 6 onward is a single-sex boy’s school. TAS is a forerunner of ICT use in pedagogy since 1993. For example, each student has an Apple Macintosh laptop, which use associated software like Garageband and iMovie as well as more standard programs like Microsoft Office. These are complemented by wireless Internet accessible on the TAS campus. Therefore, lessons can be internet-based activities and self-driven.

The Project Aim The project aimed at forming a school-university partnership to facilitate the innovative use of ICT as a change agent to support learning, and to promote engagement of students, teachers, pre-service teachers and lecturers in learning.

Project Description Learning teams were formed between teachers and pre-service teachers to implement learning activities in ICT-rich environments. The learning teams formed a learning community facilitated by an online environment and face-to-face meetings. The learning activities were designed to foster creativity and individuality. Self-reporting by in-service and pre-service teachers provided insight into their changing perspectives of engagement.

The Learning Team Year 11 commenced its activities during School Term 2 in May 2009. The project was managed by an in-service teacher at TAS (Ms Cindy Barnsley) and lasted 4 weeks, although the data was collected over 2 weeks. The following were the duties of team members:

• In-service teacher; organise the history class lessons, facilitate engagement, and record data • Pre-service teacher(s) (from UNE); facilitate engagement, record data, and co-author this

paper • Lecturer (from UNE); critical friend, support role, co-author of this paper

The context of the study

Students investigated a Stage 6 Modern History topic (Year 11 Case Study: Causes of Terrorism) by use of the Internet, bearing in mind the desired outcomes for this stage and topic. The activities desired to develop key competencies further such as collecting, analysing and organising information and communicating ideas and information to reflect core processes of historical inquiry as stated in the objectives and outcomes of the syllabus. Note that the use of ICT is a key competency that students must develop. Furthermore, ICT is implicit in the Stage 6 outcomes (Board of Studies, NSW, 2004). ICT is a cross-curriculum requirement and is embedded as a Key Competency in a number of Syllabuses. ICT has the potential to contribute towards students’ development of the Key Competency of solving problems.

However, Year 11 history students during 2009 were voluntary and no student is required to be there by law; the legal requirement for the compulsory schooling age is 6-15 (Department of Education, 1990). Participants in Year 11 (with very few exceptions) are of age 16 or higher. The implication backed by some observation is that students were easily engaged due to possessing a greater interest in their work; they self-directed their work and enquiry. Furthermore, while Year 11 students were internally assessed, they were being trained for external assessment in Year 12, which required extensive practise in extended response and essay writing. The legal requirement for attendance will shift from age 15 to 17 in 2010 (Department of Education, 2009).

Research Questions

This paper attempts to answer one question: ‘What does student engagement look like when ICT is used to support learning?’, although there was a second researched question by the project.

Methodology and methods

(See http://teams.as.edu.au/groups/engagement/wiki/f863c/Research_Design.html )

The methodology and methods were developed out of a series of meetings, workshops and consultations involving TAS staff, as well as pre-service teachers and lecturers from the University of New England. Workshops include decisions about the time frames, and the aspects of engagement that were to be observed as well as how the aspects would be measured.

The decisions were in concert with Conrad & Donaldson (2004) ideas about guiding learners to engage online. For example, the Year 11-history students had been together for a whole first school term, and so had interacted through other class activities. TAS students were also well acquainted with computers; again, there was no need to introduce them to computers. Furthermore, the in-service teacher organised collaborative group inquiries, during which students solved problems, and reflected on questions (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). The history topic ‘causes of terrorism’ is contemporary and authentic as it relates to the students’ lives. Social peer-group support (Goslin, 2003: 24) was enhanced using the following guidelines:

1. Plan and conduct an historical investigation on an international terrorist group. Present your findings in a Wiki format using primary sources as evidence. You will need to analyse the background, activity, key personalities and events associated with your chosen subject of investigation. Present your findings as an oral PowerPoint presentation and a Wiki. The Wiki should: • Show a development of questions, which directed your research; • Show at least two different primary sources of information; • Report (with heading, subheadings and paragraphs), explaining the key issues;

• Organise your notes and visuals into a logical sequence to answer the question you have researched;

• Include at least one visual aid (maps, photographs, graphs, video clips, diagrams, and timelines) to help illustrate the issues;

• Include a bibliography of the references you have used; • Be limited to approximately 2000 words, and; • Include a 60-second video.

2. Analysis needs to be based on primary source material. 3. Produce a PowerPoint presentation of approximately 4-5 minutes. 4. Evaluate your work with your partner.

The following ICT application(s) are additionally available for you to use: blogs, podcasting (Garageband), and keynote.

Two pre- service teachers visited the class and actively took part in the lessons, by assisting the teacher. This provided the pre- service teacher a better insight into the classroom ICT-based environment as it related with the students’ level of engagement. The pre- service teachers completed an evaluation of engagement form (See Appendix I).

Appendix I shows that the students’ behavioural engagement was measured on a Likert Scale of 1-5 in terms of behavioural aspects comprising ‘Positive Conduct’ (e.g., adheres to rules); the ‘Affective Domain’ comprising (enthusiasm for, and excitement about ICT), and; ‘Self-regulation’ (undertaking activities without teacher intervention). The measurements were taken during four consecutive lessons.

Although students, teachers and pre-service teachers made observation, this paper reports on data collected by the pre-service teacher and on the podcast of student testimonials about their experiences of the Engagement lessons.

Data

Fourteen students participated. Students had to be re-focussed to the task as The Internet provided distractive resources. For example, some students wandered to Facebook when the teacher wasn’t looking during Lesson 1. However, when students were given an opportunity to either relate it to their research or get back on task, they more often than not got back on task. Furthermore, two students were observed copy/pasting directly into their assessment from sites on The Internet and had to be reprimanded before they then attempted to write their own work.

The podcast can be accessed at http://teams.as.edu.au/groups/engagement/wiki/3eb6c/Final_Observations_.html. The Podcast indicates that students confirmed common advantages with ICT such as accessing information easily through the Internet. They felt that the use of computers and the internet made it easier to research and find information on their chosen topic. The ease of access to information seems to agree with the comment that time was effectively used for study, while the freedom to self-drive themselves helped them to learn about time management. The freedom to self-drive seemed to motivate and to engage students to be more creative, thus students advised that more projects like this would further assist their learning. For example, they commented that creating a film improved makes a lesson “short, sweet and interesting” and therefore increased their engagement, while sitting in class can be “boring”. Students also appreciated the high productivity through group-work but were concerned about the uneven distribution of responsibilities when working to each partner’s strengths. They commended the project for being motivating and for focus; they felt appropriate accomplishment by the products such as the videos and Wikis, which they judged to be better than writing essays.

On the other hand, students complained about the Internet speed especially to load pictures and the time it takes to become well-acquainted with new ICT. Overall the students were satisfied with their accomplishment and one student stated it’s the most work that I have ever done. Raw data appears in Appendix II. The following Figure 1 indicates the pattern of ‘Positive Conduct’ for each of the 14 students (A to N).

Figure 1

Positive Conduct

Figure 2 below represents enthusiasm and excitement (Affective domain of engagement) among the 14 students across the 4 lessons.

Figure 2

The Affective Engagement Domain

Figure 3 below indicates self-regulation pattern in the course of 4 lessons.

Figure 3

Self-regulation

Data analysis

The analysis should be made bearing in mind the difficulties and errors in recording observations. The pre service teachers had to simultaneously observe 14 different students. Furthermore, some kind of control lessons without the use of ICT would improve the analysis of this data. However, data shows that Likert Scales for most students were the same such that lines in Figures 1, 2 and 3 overlap to the extent that it is the more prominent colours or the few variations of engagement that appear – not all the lines for the 14 students can be discerned.

Nonetheless, ‘Positive Conduct’ (Figure 1), which was about adhering to rules was less varied than the ‘Affective’ (Figure 2) and ‘Self regulation’ (Figure 3). This might be expected since there were rules governing the use of computers and The Internet. The Affective would likely vary according to the Internet sites a student was looking at, while Self-regulation was a function of access to other ICT tools and Internet sites.

Second, Figures 1 to 3 do not show dramatic changes in engagement except for Lesson 2, during which there was a drop in all behavioural aspects of engagement. It is interesting to note that the engagement of the class was particularly low during lesson 2 compared to the other three days indicating that an external factor was at play. Furthermore, , student 3 forgot his laptop, even though he knew it was a part of the everyday equipment needed for class during lesson two. Subsequently the student had to summarise information from his team mate. The student became disengaged and produced just about a paragraph of writing for the lesson.

It appears that some guidelines limited flexibility; for example, students were not allowed to make the movie before the essay was finished. To further assist the set up of the project the students had been shown how to look for reliable resources and how to research effectively on The Internet. This contributed towards effective research and better essays. However, it appears that the internet motivated students to research the topic, while the use of a Wiki provided the teacher with an ability to monitor the student’s progress outside lessons and during lessons. A Wiki tracks the history of changes made.

Notwithstanding Lesson 2, data shows that the use of ICT in teaching assisted in sustaining the overall engagement at a high level. However, it is important to remember that these students are reasonably motivated as a cohort. Nonetheless, more research is necessary to make reliable generalisations.

Implications for practice

This project demonstrated three distinct advantages of using ICT to improve engagement. Firstly, the use of ICT allows engagement based on skill relevance when it comes to employment. Some students may not necessarily see the point in studying the Indochina Conflict (unfortunately), but they can be engaged based on the skills they must use rather than the content itself. That is why it is a cross-curriculum requirement for the junior years and still maintains a strong presence in the majority of Syllabus documents for the senior school.

Secondly, it can be useful as a management tool. ICT-based methods of assessment could be used as an extrinsic motivator for students. For example, rewarding good behaviour in the classroom with ICT activities may work effectively with some student cohorts. Instead of an oral presentation, students could create a video that features both oral and visual components. ICT is not a silver bullet for engagement by any means, but is a powerful tool for a teacher to improve engagement in the classroom.

ICT on this scale poses management challenges for teachers. For example, two students were found using The Internet for purposes other than assessment during Lesson 1. The Internet is not only a

powerful tool for engagement, but also for distraction. Another concern is the potential of ICT to increase plagiarism.

While such experiences inform professional development for teachers, there are two challenges that arise from this. Firstly, a significant segment of the teaching population of NSW was initially trained pre-1995 with minimal or optional ICT components to their degrees. Secondly, the NSW Department of Education will suffer severe losses of teachers due to retirement over the next seven years and by 2016 over half of the current in-service teachers will have left the profession and their skills will go with them. In other words, it might be years before ICT will be consistently implemented across the state.

Conclusion

The Engagement project provides a worthwhile model of collaboration between a school and a tertiary institution as recommended in Pegg et al. (2007). The Engagement project has empowered lecturers who participated to improve their teacher-training units. For example, lecturers could emphasise how to improve engagement by the use of ICT and the practical issues involved. Additionally, pre service teachers have obtained first-hand experiences in incorporating ICT to enhance engagement during lessons and have achieved skills in writing academic papers. They will be involved in presenting the paper in a conference.

References

Auditor-General’s Report Performance Audit: Ageing Workforce – Teachers 2008. Retrieved on the 19th September, 2009 from http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/publications/reports/performance/2008/ageing_teachers/ageing_teachers.pdf Board of Studies, NSW (2004). Modern History Stage Six Syllabus 2009. Retrieved on the 16th September, 2009 from http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/mod_history_stg6_syl.pdf Conrad, M. & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the Online Learner. Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Department of Education, NSW (1990). The NSW Education Act 1990. Retrieved on the 11th September, 2009 from http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/fullhtml/inforce/act+8+1990+FIRST+0+N Department of Education, NSW (2009). The New South Wales School Leaving Age Initiative: Maximising the potential of our young people. Retrieved on the 11th September, 2009 from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/reviews/schleaveage/rsla09.pdf Frydenberg, E., Ainley, M. & Russell, J. (2005). Student motivation and Engagement. Schooling Issues Digest. 2005/2. Retrieved on the 29th September 2009 from http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/publications_resources/schooling_issues_digest/documents/schooling_issues_digest_motivation_engagement_pdf.htm Goslin, D. A. (2003). Engaging Minds. Lanham (Maryland): Scarecrow Press Inc. Herrington, J., Oliver, R. & Reeves, T. C. (2003). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments. Australian Journal of Educational Technology. 19(1), 59-71. Retrieved on the 11th August 2009 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet19/herrington.html

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved on the 6th August 2009 from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm Marshall, S. (2007). Engagement Theory, WebCT, and academic writing in Australia. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2007, Vol. 3, Issue 2, pp. 109-115.

Appendix I

Appendix II: Data

Student no.         

  Lesson 1  Lesson 2  Lesson 3  Lesson 4 1  5  4  5  3 2  5  4  5  3 3  5  3  4  4 4  5  4  4  4 5  4  3  4  5 6  5  A  5  5 7  4  3  4  5 8  5  5  5  5 9  5  5  5  5 10  4  5  5  4 11  5  5  5  5 12  4  5  5  4 13  5  5  5  5 14  A  2  4  5 Total  61/ 

65 51/ 65 

65/ 70 

62/ 70 

Table 1: Positive Conduct

Appendix II continued

Student no. 

       

  Lesson 1  Lesson 2  Lesson 3  Lesson4 1  5  3  5  3 2  5  3  5  3 3  4  2  4  3 4  4  3  4  3 5  3  3  4  4 6  5  A  4  4 7  3  3  4  4 8  5  5  4  2 9  5  4  4  5 10  3  4  4  4 11  5  4  4  5 12  3  4  4  4 13  5  4  4  5 14  A  2  4  2 Total  55/ 

65 44/ 65 

58/ 70 

51/ 70 

Table 2: The Affective Domain

Student no.  Entry 1  Entry 2  Entry 3  Entry 4   Lesson 1  Lesson 2  Lesson 3  Lesson 4 1  4  3  5  3 2  4  3  5  3 3  4  2  5  4 4  4  3  5  4 5  2  3  4  5 6  5  A  5  5 7  2  3  4  5 8  5  5  5  4 9  5  4  5  5 10  3  4  5  4 11  5  4  4  5 12  3  4  5  4 13  5  5  5  5 14  A  2  4  4 Total  51/ 

65 45/ 65 

66/ 70 

60/ 70 

Table 3: Self-regulation