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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts report to the ministry of education sue mcdowall for core education and new zealand council for educational research

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isbn 978-0-478-34274-1 isbn web 978-0-478-34275-8 rmr-950 © ministry of education new zealand 2010 research reports are available on the ministry of education s website education counts www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the ministry of education

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts a report to the ministry of education sue mcdowall for core education and new zealand council for educational research 2010

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ii literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts iii acknowledgements the researchers from core education vince ham michael winter and gina revill and from nzcer sally boyd and sue mcdowall thank all those involved in this project first and most importantly we thank the 2009 e-fellows for welcoming us into their classrooms and sharing their expertise ideas and experiences with us we thank the efellows schools for allowing us to visit and for supporting the e-fellow projects and we thank the students for their interest enthusiasm and forthright contributions to focus group discussions our thanks go to the members of our advisory panel ronnie davey jo fletcher faithe hanrahan roka teepa and noeline wright and to the nzcer project sponsor rosemary hipkins for their feedback on the research design instruments and report we acknowledge the other core education and nzcer staff involved in this project information services support was provided by beverley thompson and susan tompkinson who conducted searches for reference material our thanks go to rochelle mcallister who coordinated flights accommodation meeting venues and catering for the researchers and e-fellows to christine williams who formatted this report and to natasha edwards for proofreading.

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iv literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts v table of contents executive summary 1 background to the research 1 main findings 1 student learning and engagement 1 conditions of learning 2 conditions of teaching 2 where to next 3 chapter 1 background to the research 5 introduction 5 research aims and questions 5 theoretical frame 6 how the researchers and e-fellows worked together 8 data sources and analysis 8 data analysis 9 profile of the e-fellows 9 the projects 10 connecting to picture books through student video dramatisations new entrant teacher 10 sharing multi-media student stories via blogging year 2 teacher 10 writing narratives and sharing stories as movies year 3 teacher 10 retelling and sharing stories using web 2.0 tools year 3/4 teacher 11 collaborative storytelling using blogs year 4 teacher 11 producing content for a regional tv station year 4­6 teacher 11 reading logs as reading blogs year 7/8 teacher 11 dispositions of literacy learners engaged in e-learning year 7/8 teacher 11 use of blogs and online communities in english year 11 teacher 11 overview of the report structure 11 chapter 2 literacy learning 13 introduction 13 breaking the code 13 making meaning 15 knowledge of the text 15 drawing on out-of-text knowledge 17 generating and evaluating alternative meanings 19 using texts 20 learning words acts values beliefs and attitudes 20 building social identities 22 engaging with members of out-of-school discourse communities 24 analysing text 24 summary 26 chapter 3 student engagement 27 higher levels of student engagement 27 increased on task behaviour and sustained attention 27 use of free time for e-fellow-related work 28 fewer behaviour management problems 29

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vi literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts cross-mode transfer of engagement 30 what about the students who were not so engaged 30 summary 31 chapter 4 conditions of learning 33 opportunities to work with both freedom and constraint 33 opportunities to work with diverse others 35 opportunities to specialise 37 opportunities to share ideas 40 establishing decentralised systems 40 teaching the skills of sharing ideas 42 decentralised systems and student learning and engagement 44 opportunities to revisit texts and ideas 45 time for revisiting texts and ideas 45 processes for revisiting texts and ideas 45 opportunities to revisit texts and student learning and engagement 47 opportunities to lead the direction of learning 48 opportunities to work with experts 49 summary 50 chapter 5 conditions of teaching 53 teaching enablers 53 enablers related to the e-fellowships 53 other enablers 54 teaching barriers 54 availability of icts 54 reliability of icts 55 school ict policies 55 school timetable 56 students without internet access at home 56 reflections on literacy teaching in e-learning contexts 56 summary 59 chapter 6 discussion 61 building capacity with multi-modal texts 61 engagement and achievement when working in different modes 61 how do we maximise the benefits 63 deep subject knowledge 64 opportunities to disseminate findings 64 where to next 64 references 65

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts vii tables table 1 characteristics of the e-fellows schools 10 appendices appendix a 67 teacher interview first visit 67 teacher interview second visit 68 appendix b 69 student focus group questions first visit 69 student focus group questions second visit 70

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viii literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts 1 executive summary background to the research this report presents the findings of a research project on literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts carried out by core education and the new zealand council for educational research nzcer for the ministry of education in 2009 the project had two parts one involved supporting the recipients of the 2009 e-fellowships1 to design and implement classroom-based inquiries into literacy teaching and learning the e-fellows presented their findings as e-portfolios.2 the other aspect of the project involved a meta-analysis using data collected from across the e-fellows classrooms to see how e-learning contexts can be used effectively to support literacy teaching and learning the findings of this analysis are presented here our data sources included interviews with e-fellows focus groups with students classroom observations documents including teacher planning and student work samples records of reflective conversations held during project hui or on-line and the e-fellow portfolios the overarching research question for this project was how are e-learning contexts used effectively to support the literacy learning needed for the 21st century the sub questions were what can literacy learning look like in effective e-learning contexts what conditions support literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts how does exploring literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts impact on teachers thinking and practice main findings student learning and engagement we saw evidence of students literacy learning as they built their capacity to learn the code make meaning use texts and analyse texts in a range of modes and with multimodal texts learning the code involves practices required to crack the codes and systems of language making meaning involves the practices required to construct cultural meanings of text using texts involves the practices required to use texts effectively in everyday face-to-face situations analysing texts involves the practices required to analyse critique and second-guess texts the e-fellows reported higher levels of student engagement during their e-fellow projects than in more traditional literacy activities this was especially evident for students with a history of underachievement and lack of engagement many of the e-fellows found that for some students in their classes increased engagement or achievement in one mode seemed to be associated with increased engagement or achievement in another for example some students involved in 1 for more information on the e-fellowship programme see http www.minedu.govt.nz/educationsectors/schools/initiatives/ictinschools/ictstrategy/latestictnewsandreleases elearningteacherfellowships.aspx the e-fellows e-portfolios can be found at http efellows2009.wikispaces.com 2

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2 literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts filming selecting music designing costumes or creating sound effects showed increased interest and ability when reading and writing print texts even though this was not the primary mode in which they had chosen to work these tended to be students who teachers described as reluctant or less engaged readers and writers working with multimodal texts in e-learning environments provided opportunities for these students to work from their strengths experience literacy success build their interpretive capacities and build meta-knowledge.3 conditions of learning we found seven conditions of learning common to the e-fellows classrooms the e-fellow projects provided students with opportunities to work with a judicious mix of freedom and constraint work with diverse others specialise according to their strengths and interests share ideas revisit ideas lead the direction of their learning and work with experts these are all conditions that researchers working in the area of complexity thinking have found to be present as complex systems evolve and develop the findings presented in this report highlight the ways in which icts contributed to the presence of these conditions and offered affordances for literacy learning which may not be readily available without them we found that icts enabled students to have greater choice about how to make meaning of and with texts than afforded in a print text environment to work with diverse others by providing access to people and texts in a time and place that would otherwise be unavailable to them to specialise according to individual strengths and interests by providing opportunities to make meaning in modes other than as well as including print text to share ideas by providing a neutral communal space accessible to all for the storage retrieval discussion and adaptation of texts and to reflect on revisit add to and adapt ideas over time by making it easy to keep a record of every iteration of texts and discussions and by removing the laboriousness of editing that comes with the need to re-write when using pencil and paper conditions of teaching overall the e-fellows came from schools with focused leadership committed to e-learning the schools ranged from those with fully equipped computer suites ict support staff and class sets of equipment such as digital cameras to schools with just one computer per classroom the e-learning fellowship provided teachers with release time from the classroom to be used for activities such as planning observing reflecting working with small groups of students reading and researching conversing with and observing other teachers and developing e-portfolios on their inquiries the e-fellows considered that while they would have been able to achieve their results without this time it enabled them to do so more easily and to reflect more deeply on the process the e-learning fellowship also provided e-fellows time and space to meet together as a professional learning community and the e-fellows considered this to be important some felt that the e-fellowship also gave them licence to take risks and try new things however the most important factor in enabling the teaching and learning shifts discussed in this report were the efellows themselves the e-fellows were experienced teachers with expertise in e-learning and literacy teaching and 3 meta-knowledge is use of the generalised knowledge of one area to understand the specifics of another.

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts 3 learning prior to receiving an e-learning fellowship all had already conducted informal inquiries into their project question some had been investigating their question for many years the main barriers experienced by some of the e-fellows related to the availability and reliability of icts and for one of the secondary teachers constraining school ict policies where to next the findings presented in this report pertain primarily to literacy learning in english and the arts and to a lesser degree the social sciences however we also need examples of literacy learning in e-learning contexts within other disciplinary areas such as science and mathematics further research might also investigate teaching and learning about the ways in which literacy learning in one discipline may be similar to and different from that in another.

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4 literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts

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literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts 5 chapter 1 background to the research introduction this report presents the findings of a research project on literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts carried out by core education and the new zealand council for educational research nzcer for the ministry of education in 2009 the research project had two parts one involved supporting the ten4 recipients of the 2009 e-fellowships5 to design and implement classroom-based inquiries into literacy teaching and learning the e-fellows presented their findings as eportfolios and these can be found at http efellows2009.wikispaces.com they also presented their findings at the ulearn 2009 conference the other aspect of the project involved a meta-analysis using data collected from across the e-fellows classrooms to see how e-learning contexts can be used effectively to support literacy teaching and learning the findings of this analysis are presented here research aims and questions the aim of the e-learning fellowships programme was to generate and increase the use of practical and quality evidence for the teaching community on how effective use of e-learning can help teachers overcome specific challenges in their classroom practice and improve the learning experiences and outcomes for diverse students request for proposals ministry of education june 2009 p 3 the meta-analysis research questions were informed by this aim the nature of the e-fellows inquiries themes from the research literature and conversations between nzcer core and the ministry of education the overarching research question for this project is how are e-learning contexts used effectively to support the literacy learning needed for the 21st century the sub questions are what can literacy learning look like in effective e-learning contexts what conditions support literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts how does exploring literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts impact on teachers thinking and practice 4 5 due to a car accident one of the e-fellowship winners was unable to participate in the research for more information on the e-fellowship programme see www.minedu.govt.nz/educationsectors/schools/initiatives/ictinschools/ictstrategy/latestictnewsandreleases/elearningte acherfellowships.aspx

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