‘I like it live’
Multimedia environments in teacher education
First draft
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research,Edinburgh, 20-23 September 2000
Berber M. Tolsma, Cees A. Klaassen & J. Hoffs
Department of Educational Sciences
University of Nijmegen
P.O.Box 9104
6500 HE Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31-24-3612346 or +31-24-3237555
E-mail:
Fax: +31-24-3615978
‘I like it live’
Multimedia environments in teacher education
B.M. Tolsma, C.A.C. Klaassen and J.Hoffs
Abstract
Recently, the moral character of teaching and the moral tasks of education have gained increasing attention. In the discussion of the pedagogical task of the school, considerable importance is attached to the specific role of the teacher. The teacher is expected to fulfill an exemplary function and represent numerous virtues. Pedagogical thoughtfulness is an important characteristic of teacher professionalism and expected to play a crucial role in daily practice. These developments concerning the task and professionalism of teachers have consequences for teacher training.
In this article we will present the findings of a remarkable educational development program in teacher education in the Netherlands. In this special development program the new curriculum contents of a moral education course is combined with a new interactive multimedia learning environment. Our research project explored the process and effectivity of this combined enterprise, aimed at the stimulation of the pedagogical and moral professionality of teachers by way of an interactive multimedia approach. The research was explored in both a quantitative and qualitative sense in different settings. About three hundred students participated in the research and five teacher education institutes across the country.
This article concerns specifically the use of multimedia learning environments in teacher education. The results of observation studies, concerning activities, task-oriented behaviour and interaction, will be discussed.
The results showed that the multimedia were used as a kind of replacement for the teacher. There was little variation in lesson activities. It might be good to offer more diversity. Multimedia should only be used when they’re useful.
Students worked, mostly concentrated, on their assignments and little (virtual) communication took place. Students prefer to discuss the content ‘live’, especially when norms and values are involved. Teacher education instutes should consider these findings and use the multimedia in a different way, so that reflection and discussion are stimulated.
First we will pay attention to the background of the research project. Then some theoretic aspects will be discussed. After that the methodology of the project will be presented, followed by the results of our observations and finally the possible implications of these results.
Introduction
There’s been a time that little attention in (particularly) Dutch education was paid to the social-pedagogical element in school. People thought that so-called ‘instrumental rationality’ had to have the primary focus of attention.
Only in the last decade, under the influence of the social and political debate on citizenship and the moral fundament of society, the pedagogical mission of the school has come to the fore again (Klaassen, 1996b). Also the Dutch government thinks it’s an important issue in education.
An other important issue is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education (Kumar, 1996; Riel, 1996; Smeets et al., 1999; Smeets, 2000).
A Dutch secretary of Education (Ritzen) asked if it was possible and effective to combine the two issues of norms and values and multimedia in education. On his request a selected number of schools for teacher education for primary education in the east of the Netherlands started with the project ‘norms and values’. They developed a remarkable educational development program in teacher education in the Netherlands. In this special development program the new curriculum contents of a moral education course was combined with a new interactive multimedia learning environment. The University of Nijmegen (Cees Klaassen) was asked to do an evaluation study of this program, with attention for the process and effects of this combined enterprise. Before the results of our investigation will be discussed, we will pay attention to norms and values and the pedagogical mission of the school and the use of multimedia in education.
Conceptual framework
Norms and values and the pedagogical mission of the school
The motivation for moral education concerns actually two sides: an ‘internal’ (coming from pedagogics) and an ‘external’ aspect (Korthagen, Klaassen & Russell, 1999).
What is the ‘internal’ aspect? In this (late)post-modern society with a lot of different cultures, religions, frames of reference, freedom and pluralism, young people need to learn to develop themselves to find a way in this pluralistic society and to develop an identity. Teachers can be coaches in this process.
But the call for moral education is not only motivated by the wellbeing of the students themselves. There is also an external component: the need for society. Students need to be prepared to fulfill their tasks in society. Society will need them when they are ready and it’s the duty of education to prepare the students to become good and grounded civilians.
The last decade the importance of moral education is also discussed in the debate between communitarians and neoliberalists. Communitarians emphasize shared norms and values and the role of the community, while neoliberalists stress that critical reflection on existing norms and values is necessary.
Although there also rise questions about the pedagogical function of education (some people even argue that schools only have a cognitive task), most people think that education has a responsibility in socializing children and adolescents (Klaassen, 1996b). For their own sake, but also to ‘cram’ them for their future task in society.
We want to point at the importance of realizing that ‘moral education’ is more than education in norms and values. It’s a broader vision: supporting students on their way to adultery.
How does moral education take place?
First of all it’s necessary to realize that education cannot compensate for society (Bernstein, 1971) and that universal moral values and norms barely exist anymore (Leeferink, 1996). Students can’t be reached from a universalistic principle, because in real life they get confronted with contradictory ideas and expectations. But just relativism isn’t appropriate also. That can provoke indifference and a lack of responsibility.
Many writers mean that pluralism is what society nowadays asks for: the idea of interactive diversity, based on human dignity and equivalence (Klaassen, 1996a). According to Klaassen it’s a condition for democracy because without pluralism freedom of choice is impossible.
What’s the consequence of pluralism for moral education? The educational model of values transmission doesn’t fit with the pluralistic society. The model of values clarification does fit, but is conceived to be provoking indifference with the students. Instead of these approaches the various methods of value communication are appropriate (Oser, 1986). This model has been criticized also. For example by postmodern thinking (‘the concept of truth doesn’t exist anymore’). However, this educational model can be conceived as an appropriate method for moral education in a pluralistic society.
The role of the teacher in this is very important. Maybe the most important role is the model. The teacher is expected to fulfill an exemplary function and represent numerous virtues. Beginning and experienced teachers have to be aware of this and reflect on their professionality. Pedagogical thoughtfulness is an important characteristic of teacher professionalism and plays a crucial role in daily practice (Van Veen et al., in press; van Veen & Sleegers, submitted).
That’s why it’s also important to pay attention on this professionality and reflection in teacher education.
Reflection is the key word of all these processes. Reflection on other opinions, but also on their own opinions and (socialization) process.
Multimedia learning environments
The most important issue of this article concerns the multimedia aspect of the program.
Literature offers a lot of reasons to use multimedia in education.
- Multimedia could promote active learning, like in powerful learning environments: they offer opportunities to create complex, realistic situations and that promotes active learning (Kumar, 1996; Smeets, 2000).
- Reflection is stimulated, because it is possible to use a lot of sources of information, which causes a multi-perspective view and thereby reflection (Smeets, 2000).
- Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) stimulates the learning process, because students have to collaborate. Then the learning situation is much more realistic, because they work in a social context (Kumar, 1996).
- Transfer between theory and practice is eager to occur. Knowledge is really constructed and at school acknowledged know-how and skills are much more applied in practice (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1989; Brown et al., 1993).
- Further computers can be used to increase efficiency and flexibility, to fit with the method of education or with the goals of education (De Wolf, 1998a).
In education there are many opportunities for using multimedia. Especially the Internet seems to be very useful.
With regard to the use of multimedia in education, in literature we find certain very important considerations concerning the role of teachers, the ideology of computers and the implementation. The results of our investigation showed how important these considerations are.
- Never should be forgotten that the use of multimedia (as the term says) is a medium to improve situations (Neuwirth & Wojahn, 1996; Salomon, 1993; Smeets, 2000). It’s no goal in itself!
- It’s naive to think that working with network-environments implies automatically a positive effect on intrinsic motivation (Riel, 1996). Just offering possibilities to communicate with other students, classes or schools doesn’t automatically imply great projects. A good planning, implementation and support is necessary in this.
- The role of students changes (Brown et al., 1993): they’re the teacher, editor, advisor and mentor. They have to learn to criticize others etcetera. They are supposed to be ‘junior scientists’ and cope with a lot of information and sources of information.
- Teachers have to learn to work from an other paradigm (Brown et al., 1993). Working with multimedia is a new way of dealing with the subject matters of teaching. Their role is a different one: co-ordinator, monitoring the learning processes, keeping an eye on possible misconceptions. Teachers become coaches.
- Regarding the curriculum we can say that students have to learn to search and select relevant subject matters (Brown et al., 1993). The curriculum in a sense becomes more flexible. The school is responsible for offering support and supervision by teachers, books and other information-sources.
- As we look at the implementation of ICT in education, we can mention the importance of a common shared vision on the changes (Crandall, Eiseman & Louis, 1986; Van den Berg & Vandenberghe, 1995). The schoolstructure must be supportive.
- Further (also concerning the implementation) schools have to wonder if the aimed application of ICT is useful (effective), efficient and liveable (De Wolf, 1998b). Does it solve a problem, is it helpful in reaching an aim and possible in the particular (social) situation of the school? Like we mentioned before, the use of computers shouldn’t be a goal in itself!
- Three factors are important for a successful implementation of educational change (Fullan, 1991): relevance (is it useful?), readiness (are the school and the teachers ready for it, rightly stimulated and prepared?) and resources (is there enough money, time and equipment?). These factors are also very important when the change is ‘the use of multimedia’.
Mentioning these considerations, we can conclude that dealing with ICT in education many assumptions and factors count.
Methodology
In this article some results will be discussed of the exploratory evaluation study which shows how teacher education students make use of the products developed in this multimedia project such as the internet environment, the CD-ROM, and the various curriculum materials about norms and values and the moral role of the teacher in primary education. In this research project the above mentioned research themes were explored in both a quantitative and in a qualitative way in different settings.
About three hundred students participated in the research and five teacher trainers at four different teacher-education institutes across the country. The Dutch educational system is based on denominational segregation. Each of the four institutes has a different denomination : there’s a public school, a Protestant school, a Calvinistic (orthodox) school and a multi-religious school.
The two central questions of the research are:
1. What’s the role of teacher education concerning norms and values and the moral / pedagogical role of the teacher in education?
2. How do the multimedia function in the education in norms and values in the context of teacher education?
These two questions have been split up into three more specific questions:
1. What knowledge and opinions do the students have about norms and values and the moral (pedagogical) function of the school?
2. How do students and teachers function in the multimedia learning environment? To what degree and in what way do students communicate with each other and with the teachers in that environment?
3. What opinions do the students have about the developed media and the consequences of these for the practical organisation of teacher education?
To answer these questions, different instruments have been used and developed. Knowledge and opinions about norms and values and moral education (the first question) have been measured by questionnaires used in earlier investigations of Klaassen & Leeferink (1998). The functionning of and communication in the multimedia learning environment have been measured by observations. And the opinions of students concerning the learning environment, the use of multimedia in general and the working conditions in this program have been measured by an evaluation questionnaire.
In this article we will concentrate on the second specific question. Sometimes these results will be brought in relation with the results of the third research question (the opinions of students).
Observation of the multimedia environment in teacher education
During the course we observed situations in the classroom. We decided to combine two different observation systems. The first one (see table 1) was used before in an investigation in primary education and is called ‘What do I see?’ (Smeets, 1996). This observation system concerns specifically the ICT-context of the investigation: what activities took place, how did the students behave, etcetera. The first observation period every thirty seconds we looked at two things: which lesson activity took place (with subdivisions in ‘class’, ‘group’, ‘couple’ or ‘individual’) and how did the student behave (was he or she task-oriented or not, did the student have to wait a lot of time, etcetera).