Reconceptualising teaching and learning

Having deployed their Art gallery to the school Intranet two students undertook teaching a topic in Art history to an Art class. To do this they setup the technology – computer, data projector, intranet access – in the Art room. They prepared a class on Renaissance Art and taught it to a senior Art class. They supported other students in their learning by providing them with information on how to access the web site that they had created. This is a step in making their work public. The students were seen by their peers in a position of authority not usually seen within school. The teachers involved were using their power in an attempt to help others exercise power (Ellsworth 1992: 107). Students and teachers were in the ‘being’ mode of relatedness to the world. Instead of being passive receptacles of words and ideas they listen, they hear, and most important they respond in an active and productive way (Fromm 1979: 38).

While developing the Art History web site students worked closely with their Art teacher, and their computer teacher. The nature of the working relationship was collaborative. Each member made their own contribution to the group. Sonya, the Art teacher, offered her knowledge of art history, Ray his knowledge of web development. The students, Niall, David, Stephen John and Aiser brought their personal creativity and enthusiasm to the work. Weekly meetings took place between the members of the group. Within these meetings the key decisions were made on the design and content of the web site. In traditional schools teachers tends to work alone (Lortie, 1975). In learning enriched schools (Rosenholtz 1989) teachers work more together and by having colleagues who show support and communicate more, teachers gain confidence around what they are trying to achieve. ‘Joint work’ – which includes activities like team-teaching, planning and action research – creates stronger interdependence, shared responsibility, collective commitment and improvement (Little 1990: 22).

The shared learning gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991).ng for practice

There is persuasive evidence that cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than learners who work quietly as individuals (Johnson and Johnson 1986: 31-2). The collaborative nature of the work promotes meaningful engaged learning (Jones et al. 1994). Conversely engaged learning involves being collaborative – that is, valuing and having the skills to work with others. Successful, engaged learners are responsible for their own learning – they select the content and skills that they wish to learn. Such learners are self-organising and self-regulated and are able to define their own learning goals and evaluate their own achievement.

Within the Setanta project, the University students selected the development of the Virtual Art Museum (VAM) from a list of projects. The choice of project was their own and they selected the underlying technologies they wished to learn and use for the project. The university students undertook to develop the virtual art museum using Java (JDK 1.2) and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) (Farren, 2001). They worked collaboratively with the Art teacher to choose the Art History content for their VAM. This was the teacher and students working together to envision their desirable future (Schön 1991: 16) and they found ways of bringing it about. They choose tasks which were challenging, authentic, and multidisciplinary. These type of task supports engaged learning (Jones et al. 1994). Such tasks are typically complex and involve sustained efforts by learners over large amounts of time.

The same is true for St Aidan’s students. Within this project the participants built knowledge of technical matters, of curricular matters and interpersonal matters. As engaged and collaborative learners they were constructing a knowledge-building learning community which develops shared understandings collaboratively. Within the Setanta project the learners produced an Intranet to support the teaching and learning of Art History. But the outcome of the project was not the Intranet. The Intranet was an artifact that was produced. The outcome was the collaborative learning that took place through the educative relationships of the participants. In many respects this was education through relationship.

Innovative clusters

Research elsewhere indicates that a key characteristic of innovation is its tendency to cluster (Brown and Duguid 2002: 430). It is argued that innovation clusters because innovative people tend to cluster, staying close to close to those who share their vision, understand their insights and advance their ideas. The innovative collaboration between school and university was part of a process of supporting innovation by surrounding oneself by innovative people Within the Setanta project support for innovative practice was found locally, with innovative colleagues in school, in the university and in NCTE.

By clicking on the link below you will be taken to a page given detailed evidence of learners - students and teachers - engaging with leaders in the community and presenting their work publicly to that community.

Evidence from the Launch of the Setanta Project

Evidence from the SIP Symposium