Robert Mccormick

The Open University · Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology

Reflecting on the literature of Learning Objects (LOs) reveals a number of issues in developing and using LOs that stem from the different views and agendas of those who have a role in these processes. Building on this literature and the initial experience of the CELEBRATE project, this paper argues that efforts to build into Learning Objects (LOs)...

This book offers a thorough and comprehensive review of the lessons learnt from the award-winning ‘English in Action’ English language teacher development programme, which ran in government primary and secondary schools across Bangladesh from 2008 to 2017. Over the course of nine years the programme involved 51,000 teachers and 20 million school st...

Traducción de: Curriculum Evaluation in Schools Obra en que se revisan los principales aspectos profesionales, éticos, políticos, teóricos y prácticos de la evaluación educativa, vistos como parte importante del proceso de mejora del sistema educativo y como puente para encontrar fórmulas eficaces para estimular el desarrollo profesional del profes...

This study reports on the third cohort of teachers and students to participate in EIA (2013–14). While the students and teachers in Cohort 3 underwent an essentially similar programme to those in Cohorts 1 and 2, they are much greater in number (there are over 8,000 teachers and 1.7 million students in Cohort 3, compared to 751 teachers and 118,000...

The purpose of the study was to assess the student learning outcomes of English in Action’s (EIA’s) school-based teacher development programme, in terms of improved English language competence (ELC),1 against recognised international frameworks (specifically, the Graded Examinations in Spoken English2 [GESE)]; Trinity College London 2013), which ma...

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there had been changes in the classroom practice of teachers and students participating in English in Action (EIA) over the period of the 2012–13 intervention (Cohort 2). Classroom Practice 2013 is a repeat of the studies on the pilot EIA programme (Cohort 1) (EIA 2011a & 2012a). This study address...

This paper examines a sample of online discussion data from the course forum for the large-scale beginners' Chinese course offered by the UK Open University. This forum is open to all registered students, their participation is completely voluntary and they (rather than tutors) initiate communications. The aim of this study is (i) to seek to establ...

In the twenty-first century, what could be more important than networks? Our society is awash with technology that enables us to communicate, to join all kinds of networks and, in the contemporary phrase, to engage in ‘social networking’. Such is the power of this technological influence that it is unsurprising that our thinking about networks is p...

This article introduces the Schools and Continuing Professional Development State of the Nation study (SoNS). Discussion of English policy together with an account of the study's aims and research design provide a context for the other articles included in this special issue. A key assumption behind the research, and the prevailing CPD policy conte...

A recent literature review in support of the ‘State of the Nation’ (SoN) investigation into CPD in England indicated a number of limitations both in how researchers see CPD and how schools themselves participate and register this participation in such activities. The SoN review was conducted in the period from late 2007 to early 2008, but was subse...

The idea of networks is ubiquitous. The images and metaphors of electronic networks in particular permeate our thinking, including that in education. Researching and Understanding Educational Networks extends the discussion of education networks in a unique and novel way by relating it to teacher learning. Following an investigation of teacher and...

School pupils learning how to learn (LHTL), aimed at helping them develop learning autonomy, requires teachers to develop new classroom practices. Hence teachers LHTL is equally important. The TLRP ‘Learning How to Learn in Classrooms, Schools and Networks’ project researched how practices were developed by teachers in 40 primary and secondary scho...

Purpose By trailing data collection and analytical methods this study aims to address the dearth of research into the use of attending off‐site events for professional learning. Design/methodology/approach Three events, for academics and school leaders, were studied. A range of methods was trailed during 2006‐2007, with the aim of collecting real‐...

Most studies on reusable digital learning materials, Learning Objects (LOs), relate to their use in universities. Few empirical studies exist to explore the impact of LOs on pedagogy, especially in schools. This chapter provides evidence from an evaluation of the use of LOs in schools. The evidence is from an EU-funded project Context E-Learning wi...

The paper by Meyer & Land (2003) represents an interesting and unusual analysis of knowledge across disciplines, which raises profound questions about the nature of knowledge and learning. The fact that different disciplines have different views of knowledge (something I will examine later), may or may not be related to their different views of lea...

A case study of an online discussion forum for school leadership development was the subject of research into contexts, communities and networks. The case was analysed using discourse analysis and social network analysis. The school-based communities of practice of participants played a strong role in the content and narratives of contributors. How...

As part of the Learning How to Learn in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, a mapping tool and associated interviews were devised to capture practitioners’ views of the networks associated with their schools and local authorities (LAs). This article discusses the development and use of the mapping tool, including its trialing, and the first s...

This book makes a major contribution to the creation of a professional knowledge base for teachers by building on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’ which has a strong evidence base, and is now being promoted nationally and internationally. However, it adds an important new dimension by reporting the c...

About the book: Inspired by a similar book in science education, the editors of this volume have put together a book with a practice-oriented approach towards technology education research. Teachers’ accounts of successful classroom activities are used as the basis for reflection on what determines ‘good’ technology education practice. Part I has e...

About the book: Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. Whilst this is widely acknowledged by teachers, they have lacked a rich professional knowledge base from which they can teach their pupils how to learn. This book makes a major contribution to the creation of such a professional knowledge base for teachers by b...

Learning to learn by students, aimed at giving them autonomy, requires teachers to develop new classroom practices. Hence teachers’ learning to learn is as important as their students’. In 2001-2004, our project examined how learning how to learn (LHTL) practices were developed by teachers in 40 English schools, based on a model of change that link...

This article reports the views of students in a local centre of the Radio and Television University in China (RTVU). As part of a trial of new distance‐learning material students in the local centre were interviewed in groups and some answered a questionnaire. They gave their views on studying, including the role of media, how each medium should be...

Learning how to learn is an essential preparation for lifelong learning. This book offers a set of in-service resources to help teachers develop new classroom practices informed by sound research. It builds on previous work associated with ‘formative assessment’ or ‘assessment for learning’. However, it adds an important new dimension by taking acc...

Most studies on reusable digital learning materials, learning objects (LOs), relate to their use in universities. Few empirical studies exist to explore the impact of LOs on pedagogy, especially in schools. This paper provides evidence from an evaluation of the use of LOs in schools. The evidence is from a European Union-funded project, Context eLe...

This article provides an introduction to the TLRP Learning How to Learn Project and a context for the articles that follow in this special issue. The origins of the research, in a concern to investigate the organizational and network conditions that support innovation in teaching and learning, and in a perceived need to align research on pedagogy a...

This paper stems from the ESRC TLRP Learning How to Learn—in Classrooms, Schools and Networks Project, and explores how Assessment for Learning (AfL) relates, conceptually, to learning how to learn (LHTL). The term LHTL was intended to draw attention to a primary focus on learning practices, and we have related the processes of AfL to LHTL. A third...

A 'mapping task' was used to explore the networks available to head teachers, school coordinators and local authority staff. Beginning from an ego-centred perspective on networks, we illustrate a number of key analytic categories, including brokerage, formality, and strength and weakness of links with reference to a single UK primary school. We des...

There is a tendency to see learning as a process that operates on the “content” of what is to be learned and that content is seen to be independent of how it is learned. Thus discussions of the nature of technological knowledge centre around philosophical arguments such as how science and technology might differ, or cultural analyses that try to re...

This first volume in the International Technology Education Series offers a unique, worldwide collection of national surveys into the developments of Technology Education in the past two decades. For twenty-two countries from five continents the major changes of this school subject are described by experts that have been involved in these changes f...

‘Learning how to learn in classrooms, schools and networks’ brought together experts from three different fields – assessment for learning, school improvement and network learning – in order to find out how elements from each field might be integrated to develop pupils as independent learners. In particular we were interested in whether assessment...

Most studies on reusable digital learning materials, Learning Objects (LOs), relate to their use in universities. Few empirical studies exist to explore the impact of LOs on pedagogy, especially in schools. This paper provides evidence from an evaluation of the use of LOs in schools. The evidence is from an EU-funded project Context e-Learning with...

This paper and that which follows it are linked. They report two significant and generic contributions to the work of better understanding the pedagogic quality of e-learning. The work has been developed for Becta, the strategic education and communications technology agency for the UK. This first paper summarises a common framework for e-learning...

This paper follows from the preceding paper on the common quality framework for e-learning. It focuses upon the pedagogic aspects of the framework and articulates a set of ten core principles which express, in an economic and elegant fashion, the underpinning values that can apply to a range of expressions of e-learning (whether in the face-to-face...

The role of pupil assessment in ICT is often seen by teachers as problematic. This article will explore the relationship of the two and will argue that research in assessment has not kept up with the opportunities offered by ICT. Conversely, some of the new developments in 'assessment for learning' have not yet found their way into ICT. The article...

Information and communications technology (ICT) brings many potential benefits to technology education, though the evidence of improved performance on traditional tasks is not yet proven. Areas such as computer-aided design and manufacture are now becoming standard elements of any student's technology education. These applications of ICT require ch...

This article examines issues that arise from learning and knowledge in technology education. The issues examined are, first, the definition of technological knowledge and what the nature of that knowledge should be, where the concern is with how we define and think about that knowledge, especially in the context of how students learn and use knowle...

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. This paper describes the design of a major development and research project within the Teaching and Learning Research Programme in the United Kingdom. It outlines the project's aims to enhance teaching and learning in schools through innovative practice at classroom and sc...

Traditional approaches to the use of computers in education have given insufficient attention to the impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on the classroom. Any implementation of ICT in schools requires a level of change in practice. This article examines three such levels, namely where existing practice is made more efficient o...

This paper examines the context for the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom, through the development of the technology itself, the government's policy of funding hardware and the Lottery New Opportunities Fund ICT training of all teachers in the UK. The paper suggests that ICT has the potential to open up new opp...

The UK government has initiated a massive information communication technology (ICT) staff development programme: LoFTTI (Lottery funded Teacher Training Initiative). The aim of this programme is to train all practicing teachers in state schools within the UK so that they can make effective use of ICT as a tool to support their children’s learning....

Without Abstract

The National Curriculum for Design and Technology (D&T) assumes that technological conceptual knowledge and knowledge learned in subjects such as science can be used in D&T tasks. There exists little help to teachers from the National Curriculum or other sources about how such knowledge should be developed or used. This pilot study of a project, in...

Both science and technology education have a commitment to teaching process; investigations or scientific method in science, design in technology, and problem solving in both areas. The separate debates in science and technology education reveal different curricular emphases in processes and content, reflecting different goals, and pedagogic and ed...

The ideas that underlie the title of this chapter have been part of a familiar debate in education, namely that of the contrast of content and process. In both science and mathematics similar arguments have taken place, and these debates represent a healthy examination of, not only the aims of science and mathematics education, but the teaching and...

This paper reports the preliminary results of a pilot study investigating the nature of problem-solving activity in technology classrooms. The research focuses on the relationship and potential mismatch between teachers' and children's agendas, aims, perceptions and beliefs concerning design and technology activities. A case study of an 11-week pro...

It is argued that cognitive apprenticeship is a powerful theoretical base to consider the teaching and learning of technology. This paper outlines this from the perspective of situated cognition, and considers its two important concepts of ‘guided participation’ and ‘community of practice’. It goes on to examine what the technological community of...

The link between educational technology education is examined through a discussion important issues in each area. These issues include the balance between doing and knowing about technology, views on problem solving and systems, the developments in the use of computer technology in schools, and curriculum change. However, it is modelling that draws...

When students perform design activities a teacher is faced with a dilemma about how scientific knowledge should be provided and used. When should the students be provided with the necessary science to enable them to carry out the design task? This dilemma, not restricted to scientific knowledge, comes about because the knowledge required in design...

Many reports of achievements in developments in new information technology in schools lament the, as yet, unfulfilled hopes that they will radically change education. Those involved in new information technology sometimes seem to imagine that the problems of change that they face are somehow unique and have not been faced by others who have set out...

The reasons for teaching technology have provided support for traditions and given rationale and agendas that have been used in practice. Traditions encapsulate views and experience that will remain after an area of technology education has been established. (JOW)

The Radio and Television Universities of China, better known there as dianda , are now well established and growing rapidly. Dianda have been the subject of a number of articles, but, although the amount of comment on their operation has grown over the years, the focus has been on describing this operation. No attempt has been made to relate in det...

(written in 1883) Curriculum evaluation is a rapidly developing area within educational theory and practice. Interest in it has increased as a result of a number of needs and pressures: the move to make schools more accountable to the public they serve; the need to find effective ways of encouraging the professional development of teachers and of e...

Traducción de: Curriculum Evaluation in Schools Obra en que se revisan los principales aspectos profesionales, éticos, políticos, teóricos y prácticos de la evaluación educativa, vistos como parte importante del proceso de mejora del sistema educativo y como puente para encontrar fórmulas eficaces para estimular el desarrollo profesional del profes...

Education in Tanzania is seen as a tool for social change to a society which exhibits African soci- j alist values. Political education, as part of general education, focuses on the issues of citizenship, socialism and development, and because this implies a definite stance towards man and society, can be viewed as moral education in the Tanzanian...

In May 1979, while on a private visit to China, I was fortunate to be able to meet staff of the Television University ( Zhongyang guangbodianshi daxue ). A visit to the Open University in Britain of a delegation from China's Preparatory Committee for a National Audio-Visual Centre made us aware of the establishment of the Television University. Its...

Evaluation theory has an extensive literature, but it has offered little in the way of prescriptions for use by those who want to evaluate their teaching. This paper considers evaluation at the Open University and relates this to the issues found in the literature. A case study of an ad hoc evaluation, done by teachers with no claim to being profes...

During March 1973, I was part of a study tour visiting, as is common with such groups, a variety of units in China. My own particular subject is education and I was therefore particularly interested in the various educational institutions we visited as a group: such as the Canton Medical College, Peking University, Nanking University, Futan Univers...

The project aimed to link research conducted across organisational levels – in classrooms, in schools and across networks. This paper provides an overview of the project at the end of the funding period. Although analysis had focused particularly on the separate levels, and some across level analysis remains to be done, several cross-cutting themes...

This is a conference paper. National Curriculum documents note the importance of using science and mathematics in design and technology activity. However, the nature of the links between the subjects remains unclear in classroom practice. We will argue that rather than links between the subjects being obvious and exploited we can identify gaps betw...

This is a conference paper. The requirements of the National Curriculum note the importance of using science (and mathematics) in design and technology activity. Although it is difficult to disagree with this requirement, the nature of the links are not clear. In particular there is little evidence from classroom research that indicates how student...

This is a conference paper. This paper reports one of several case studies of Key Stage 3 pupils involved in designing and making. It explores how a teacher structures tasks, and the impact that has on the pupils' experience of the design process. Although the teacher uses the usual steps in the design process (defining a context, and creating a de...

This is a conference paper. This paper reports the preliminary results of an investigation into the nature of 'problem-solving' activity in technology education. The research focuses on the relationship and potential mismatch between teachers' and children's agendas, aims, and perceptions concerning design and technology activities in the context o...

Table of contents for the book: Book Foreword Chris Dede, Harvard Graduate School of Education Teacher professional development: Issues and trends Charalambos Vrasidas and Gene V Glass Online conferences for professional development Terry Anderson and Jo-An Christiansen Developing Teacher Knowledge and Pedagogy in a large scale, electronic conferen...

Publisher's description: Teaching Design and Technology in Secondary Schools begins by providing information on the nature, purpose and development of design and technology in schools. An aptitude for design and technology combines practical skills and theoretical knowledge, and the book addresses what this means in practice. Design and technology...

Networks provide ways of thinking about how teachers create and share knowledge about practice, at the core of experienced professionals’ learning. They have increasing importance as an element in public policy for improvement of education in schools, particularly in the UK. Using a variety of theories this paper presents concepts that provide insi...

This paper takes the case of England over the twenty years 1984 to 2004 and explores the relationships between the two linked, but separate, school subjects of science and technology. Using a framework of analysis, we consider three inter-related strands: the curriculum rationale (focusing on the specified curriculum); teacher knowledge (focusing o...