05 May 2009
Practical advice for colleagues who use, teach, lead or manage information and communication technology (ICT) in schools.
This newsletter is © 2009 Terry Freedman. Contributors own the copyright of their own articles.
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Rather than respond immediately to the publication of the Rose Review of the Primary Curriculum, I have looked at the report and some additional documentation, and produced this document as a result.
In this briefing, I have summarised the main points of the documentation in terms of information and communications technology (ICT), and added my own comments. I hope that this will prove to be useful for colleagues as a basis for discussion and as a handy summary of the proposed changes.
The briefing also includes a comparison of the current Level Descriptors for ICT and the proposed changes to them. I find it inconvenient to keep flipping from one document to another in order to compare the two versions of each statement, and if you have a similar opinion then you should find this combination of the two sets quite useful – I know I do!
At the time of writing, there is a consultation in place to enable us to give feedback on the report, and I would urge you to do so. From what I’ve seen, response rates seem quite low to me, and happen to think that if we’re given the opportunity to have our say then we should take it. And if we’re not given the opportunity to have our say then we should make it!
Finally, colleagues working in countries other than England and Wales will not find this briefing directly useful, but I hope that it will provide food for thought nonetheless.
Table of contents
APP – Assessing Pupils’ Progress.
Becta – Nobody uses the full name any more (and I’m not 100% sure of what it is!). According to its website, Becta is the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.
DCSF – Department of Children, Schools and Families. In other words, our education ministry.
Recommendation 8
(i) Literacy, numeracy and ICT should form the new core of the primary curriculum.
(ii) Schools should continue to prioritise literacy, numeracy, ICT and personal development as the foundational knowledge, skills and understanding of the primary curriculum; the content of which should be clearly defined, taught discretely, and used and applied extensively in each area of learning.
(iii) The DCSF Expert Group on Assessment should give consideration to how the new core of literacy, numeracy and ICT should be assessed and these aspects of children’s performance reported to parents.
DCSF Response
Recommendation 8(i): Accept in principle, subject to public consultation.
Recommendations 8(ii) and 8(iii): Accept.
My comment
I think it’s good that the primary curriculum is to be clearly defined and taught discretely, and then applied in each area of learning. However, the report does sometimes seem to favour an embedded approach to the teaching of ICT, or at least that’s my impression. In paragraphs 25 and 26 of the report, however, it does indicate a preference for some discrete teaching of ICT supported by its application elsewhere:
25 There are times when it is right to marshal content from different subjects into well-planned, cross-curricular studies. This is not only because it helps children to better understand ideas about such important matters as citizenship, sustainable development, financial capability and health and wellbeing, but also because it provides opportunities across the curriculum for them to use and apply what they have learned from the discrete teaching of subjects.
26 While it is usual for primary schools to think of mathematics, English and ICT in this way, virtually all subjects serve more than one purpose: they are valuable as disciplines in their own right and add value to cross-curricular studies.
My comment
I think it’s going to be a challenge to teach ICT discretely and apply it in lessons, in primary schools, but there are schools that have been doing this for some time. It’s certainly good to see that ICT is one of the things that schools should prioritise.
Recommendation 12
The DCSF, working with QCA and BECTA, should consider what additional support teachers will need to meet the raised expectations of children’s ICT capabilities and use of technology to enrich learning across the curriculum and set in train adequate support.
DCSF Response
Accept.
My comment
I’m pleased that teachers’ professional development is recognised as an explicit need. However, although the suggestions on page 135 of the report are sensible and necessary (for example, the provision of case studies), I hope that the agencies concerned will also consider facilitating a grass roots approach.
What do I mean by this? Well, there are lots of teachers these days who learn what they need to learn in discussion lists and other online spaces such as Twitter. There is already an excellent discussion list called Safetynet, which is run by Becta. It is a free discussion area, but being run by Becta means that if there are any misconceptions they get sorted out pretty rapidly. It also means that Becta has an instant user group to use to test out ideas and responses to new documentation, and in which to send out invitations to new conferences.
Why not have a similar list for the curriculum? Why not make some money available to other organisations and people to run conferences or unconferences? Some of the finest professional development I’ve received has been at Teachmeets.
At the very least, why not have an area on the QCA or Becta websites (or both) in which colleagues can exchange ideas and upload materials. The Teacher Resource Exchange could be ‘hijacked’ for this purpose by the addition of a wiki-type area.
I understand that there is a need to ensure that there is a robust and ‘correct’ set of resources and training opportunities to ensure that the standards encapsulated in the curriculum are interpreted and taught correctly. But I think there is also room for a bottom-up approach in which teachers contribute their own examples of good practice. That will happen anyway, but if it takes place on an official site or discussion list, at least someone will be on hand to correct anything that is wildly wrong – and to put into motion the steps required to disseminate the excellent stuff to a wider audience.
Recommendation 13
(ii) Personal Development should be given core status along with literacy, numeracy and ICT. The QCA should work with schools to explore and develop innovative ways of assessing pupil progress in this area.
DCSF Response
Accept in principle, subject to public consultation.
My comment
Whilst it’s good to see that innovative approaches to assessment are encouraged, I’m slightly worried that any guidance produced about assessing pupils’ progress in ICT will be based on the secondary ICT guidance (look for the link to APP) which, on a quick reading of a sample of materials, does not seem to me to be that innovative at all, at least in terms of the type of evidence suggested. Although the handbook states that:
The assessment criteria are sufficiently broad to allow a wide range of evidence to be taken into account. Much of this derives from classroom teaching of the subject but evidence can be drawn from other subjects and from pupils’ learning beyond the school
the examples given seem to pretty standard (eg PowerPoint). I haven’t seen any reference to using digital cameras or video recorders for example, but then perhaps I chose the wrong materials in my sample. When I get some time I’ll look at the ICT assessment materials in more detail.
There is always a tension between having assessment that is innovative, and having assessment that is both valid (ie measures what it purports to measure) and reliable (ie gives consistent results). So although this recommendation is welcome in principle, as always the devil will be in the detail and the implementation.
Proposed revisions to information and communication technology (ICT) reflect the raised expectations of pupil achievement in the new primary curriculum.
Summary statement
Used well, technology strongly develops the study and learning skills children need now and in the future, including the fundamentals of ‘e-safety’. Embedding ICT throughout the primary curriculum and giving it greater prominence within the core of ‘Essentials for Learning and Life’ will provide children with more opportunities to harness the potential of technology to enhance learning. Specific requirements for ICT are set out in each area of learning where it directly contributes to the essential knowledge, key skills and understanding within that area.
My comment
Although the cross-curricular importance of ICT is emphasised, the Report states:
Primary schools will have the opportunity to organise the curricular content for the middle phase more as subject disciplines if they judge this appropriate.
See also recommendation 8 and my comments on that (above).
The report also reports that:
Respondents to the review recognise that ICT can make the unique contribution of strengthening each of the areas of learning, and literacy and numeracy. Along with literacy, numeracy and personal development, ICT should therefore be at the core of the primary curriculum and be taught both discretely to capture its essential knowledge and skills and through its application across the whole curriculum.
This ties in with most of the responses made to a question I raised in various discussion lists about the nature of digital literacy. Most people who responded thought that digital literacy should be taught as a subject in its own right. (Indeed, there was a strong current of opinion that computing skills should be reinstated, and that ‘digital literacy’ did not go far enough in preparing youngsters for their future.
However, embedding the teaching of ICT within the curriculum does seem to be very much the favoured approach:
The approach advocated in this report of embedding ICT throughout the primary curriculum will yield a number of benefits, such as the use of technology to develop deeper cognitive skills; the education of young people so that all can use technology, with none excluded; and an informed understanding that ensures full ‘digital literacy’. Given these benefits, by the end of Year 6 primary children would be well on the way to harnessing technology for lifelong learning.
In the section on personal development, there is a rather puzzling statement:
Despite major advances in the technologies for learning and ICT, primary education is, and will remain, a person-to-person service, with enormous potential for fostering children’s personal development.
I should have thought that the report might have drawn attention to the fact that the advances in ICT can actually facilitate a more personalised approach to education.
It’s worth looking at the section on “Essentials for Learning and Life”. Although I could pull out just the ICT section, the other sections contain statements which are completely relevant to the ICT curriculum, such as children should learn to broadcast their ideas (Literacy), and learning to ask relevant questions (Learning and Thinking Skills). In other words, some of the skills (which are the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills and Functional Skills by any other name) would not be achievable without a deep understanding of ICT.
I think this approach is very much to be welcomed. It makes it quite clear (to me, at any rate) that some teaching of ICT must take place, by teachers who understand the subject, but that it is not to be studied merely for its own sake as an intellectual exercise.
The report states that:
There will be more significant changes to the ICT levels to reflect the raised expectations set out in this report and the draft programmes of learning. The level descriptors will be part of the consultation that follows this report.
Note that the key characteristics of each Level have not changed, yet. The proposed revised Level Descriptors attempt to make the requirements at each Level more explicit, and also acknowledge that many pupils will probably be able to to achieve particular aspects of it sooner than originally envisaged. In the table below I have compared the current Level Descriptors with the proposed ones, and made a few comments.
Current Level Descriptors
Revised Level Descriptions
http://www.qca.org.uk/libraryAssets/media/095654_QCA_S_Levels_Info_Comms_final.pdf
You will notice that I’ve included the Key Characteristics of the Level Descriptors in the table. Perhaps my web searching skills are not what they used to be, but why has it been left to an ordinary person like me to put a table like this together?
|
Level |
Current Descriptor |
Proposed Descriptor |
Comments |
Key Characteristics |
| 1 | Pupils explore information from various sources, showing they know that information exists in different forms. They use ICT to work with text, images and sound to help them share their ideas. They recognise that many everyday devices respond to signals and instructions. They make choices when using such devices to produce different outcomes. They talk about their use of ICT. |
Pupils navigate onscreen resources to explore and locate information. They investigate imaginary and virtual worlds and explore options. They capture information and share their work with others (such as using digital cameras) with others. They work with text, images and sound to explore and share their ideas. They explore how devices respond to commands. They use ICT safely by following instructions. They understand that work can be saved and retrieved for later use. They describe their use of ICT. |
I like the way the reference to ‘imaginary and virtual worlds’ opens up the possibilities that schools can explore. I like also the reference to capturing information, although I think it would more correctly be referred to as ‘data’, despite that term’s more specific connotations. I’m not sure about the reference to ‘digital cameras’. In my opinion, the weakest part of the current LDs are the examples, such as email, because they cause the information to look dated when something new comes along (eg SMS). It’s good to introduce the idea of saving work at this stage, and the emphasis on safety. | This is characterised by the use of ICT to explore options and make choices to communicate meaning. Pupils develop familiarity with simple ICT tools. |
| 2 | Pupils use ICT to organise and classify information and to present their findings. They enter, save and retrieve work. They use ICT to help them generate, amend and record their work and share their ideas in different forms, including text, tables, images and sound. They plan and give instructions to make things happen and describe the effects. They use ICT to explore what happens in real and imaginary situations. They talk about their experiences of ICT both inside and outside school. |
Pupils find and use information to answer questions. They sort and organise information and present it in |
I really like “to answer questions”. It’s often forgotten that all of the curriculum starts, or should start, with questions: the curriculum is there to help pupils find or work out the answers.Once again, safe use is embedded in the statement. Note that controlling devices is now explicit. I like the use of the term “make informed choices”, and the fact that pupils are expected to describe how they use ICT, not just to use it. | This is characterised by purposeful use of ICT to achieve specific outcomes. |
| 3 | Pupils use ICT to save information and to find and use appropriate stored information, following straightforward lines of enquiry. They use ICT to generate, develop, organise and present their work. They share and exchange their ideas with others. They use sequences of instructions to control devices and achieve specific outcomes. They make appropriate choices when using ICT-based models or simulations to help them find things out and solve problems. They describe their use of ICT and its use outside school. |
Pupils search for and use information from a range of sources and make judgements about its usefulness |
Although this is wordier than the current Descriptor, I like it because its intent is clearer in my opinion. | This is characterised by the use of ICT to develop ideas and solve problems. |
| 4 | Pupils understand the need for care in framing questions when collecting, finding and interrogating information. They interpret their findings, question plausibility and recognise that poor-quality information leads to unreliable results. They add to, amend and combine different forms of information from a variety of sources. They use ICT to present information in different forms and show they are aware of the intended audience and the need for quality in their presentations. They exchange information and ideas with others in a variety of ways, including using email. They use ICT systems to control events in a predetermined manner and to sense physical data. They use ICT-based models and simulations to explore patterns and relationships, and make predictions about the consequences of their decisions. They compare their use of ICT with other methods and with its use outside school. |
Pupils refine searches to find, select and use information, questioning its reliability. Pupils understand the |
The sentence “
Pupils understand the I think an important change is her is from “ They use simple ICT-based models ” to “ They develop simple ICT-based models”. |
This is characterised by the ability to combine and refine information from various sources. Pupils interpret and question the plausibility of information. |
| 5 | Pupils select the information they need for different purposes, check its accuracy and organise it in a form suitable for processing. They use ICT to structure, refine and present information in different forms and styles for specific purposes and audiences. They exchange information and ideas with others in a variety of ways, including using email. They create sequences of instructions to control events, and understand the need to be precise when framing and sequencing instructions. They understand how ICT devices with sensors can be used to monitor and measure external events. They explore the effects of changing the variables in an ICT-based model. They discuss their knowledge and experience of using ICT and their observations of its use outside school. They assess the use of ICT in their work and are able to reflect critically in order to make improvements in subsequent work. |
Pupils combine ICT tools within the overall structure of an ICT solution. They select the information they need |
It’s good to include the first key characteristic as an explicit statement right at the start. Note that “They create sequences of instructions to control events” has become “They create sequences of instructions…”, which gives teachers a wider scope, not a narrower one. |
This is characterised by combining the use of ICT tools within the overall structure of an ICT solution. Pupils critically evaluate the fitness for purpose of work as it progresses. |
| 6 | Pupils develop and refine their work to enhance its quality, using information from a range of sources. Where necessary, they use complex lines of enquiry to test hypotheses. They present their ideas in a variety of ways and show a clear sense of audience. They develop, try out and refine sequences of instructions to monitor, measure and control events, and show efficiency in framing these instructions. They use ICT-based models to make predictions and vary the rules within the models. They assess the validity of these models by comparing their behaviour with information from other sources. They discuss the impact of ICT on society. |
Pupils plan and design ICT-based solutions to meet a specific purpose and audience, demonstrating |
Note that designing ICT-based solutions is currently regarded as a Level 7. However, the key characteristics of efficiency and integration remain unchanged. |
Level 6 is characterised by increased integration and efficiency in the use of ICT tools. A greater range and complexity of information is considered. |
| 7 | Pupils combine information from a variety of ICT-based and other sources for presentation to different audiences. They identify the advantages and limitations of different information-handling applications. They select and use information systems suited to their work in a variety of contexts, translating enquiries expressed in ordinary language into the form required by the system. They use ICT to measure, record and analyse physical variables and control events. They design ICT-based models and procedures with variables to meet particular needs. They consider the benefits and limitations of ICT tools and information sources and of the results they produce, and they use these results to inform future judgements about the quality of their work. They take part in informed discussions about the use of ICT and its impact on society. |
Pupils design and implement systems. They are able to scope the information flow required to develop an |
It’s good that the key characteristic about ‘scoping’ has been made explicit, but I think a better job could have been made of it. Why not use the Descriptor to actually describe what ‘scoping’ means? |
Level 7 is characterised by the ability to scope the information flow required to develop an ICT system. Pupils define, implement and refine ICT systems. They make use of audience and user feedback to enhance ICT solutions. |
| 8 | Pupils independently select appropriate information sources and ICT tools for specific tasks, taking into account ease of use and suitability. They design successful ways to collect and prepare information for processing. They design and implement systems for others to use. When developing systems that respond to events, they make appropriate use of feedback. They take part in informed discussions about the social, economic, ethical and moral issues raised by ICT. |
Pupils independently select appropriate information sources and ICT tools for specific tasks, taking into |
Note that the use of feedback has disappeared, because it has been included in the previous Descriptor, which is much more in keeping with that Descriptor's theme. However, it is still implied in this one. |
Level 8 is characterised by systems that are designed and implemented for others to use. The needs of users are considered and addressed. The wider issues raised by ICT are discussed. |
| EP | Pupils evaluate software packages and ICT-based models, analysing the situations for which they were developed and assessing their efficiency, ease of use and appropriateness. They suggest refinements to existing systems and design, implement and document systems for others to use, predicting some of the consequences that could arise from the use of such systems. When discussing their own and others' use of ICT, they use their knowledge and experience of information systems to inform their views on the social, economic, political, legal, ethical and moral issues raised by ICT. |
Pupils evaluate software packages and ICT-based models, analysing the situations for which they were developed and assessing their efficiency, ease of use and appropriateness. They suggest refinements to |
No change, apart from the dropping of ‘political’ from the list. Why?? And how come there is no change to this Descriptor despite changes to lower Level Descriptors? That seems to me to show a marked lack of both imagination and aspiration. Yes I know that this was a review of the primary curriculum, but given that changes have been suggested for the other Descriptors, why not this one? | Exceptional performance is characterised by the ability to design, implement, test, document and evaluate systems for others to use. |
The documents referred to are Crown copyright. Items reproduced with permission (PSI Licence C2008000032). For some inexplicable reason, the information containing the key characteristics of the ICT Level Descriptors above Level 6 seem to have been removed from the QCA website. At least, after nearly half an hour of looking, I couldn’t find it on any official website. In the end, I downloaded the ICT Progression Chart from Coventry LA’s website, so my thanks to them for publishing it.
I think on the whole the approach to ICT is about right. I like the fact that it is proposed to make it a core part of the curriculum explicitly rather than, as has been the case hitherto, implicitly. The suggested changes to the Level Descriptors are also on the right lines, subject to the caveats expressed in the table above.
The report is well-worth reading for the wider explanation of where its authors are ‘coming from’, and also a useful summary of how ICT is treated in the curricula of a number of other countries. (Incidentally, blogs and podcasts are mentioned in the context of a case study, and I was unable to find any reference to Twitter!) It also places itself and other developments, such as assessment changes, in an historical context. This makes the report an interesting educational document to read even apart from the references to ICT.
Consultation You can register to complete the consultations online. There are several questionnaires, the most relevant of which for ICT teachers are the one on the proposed changes to the primary curriculum, and the one on proposed changes to the Level Descriptors.
Go to the home of the primary review as a starting point for downloading or linking to the following documents:
Did you find this report useful? All feedback is welcome.
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