Case Study 4: Year 9 Geography Kemnal Technology College, UK
Prepared by Russell Francis, Oxford University
Mr. Markham is a geography teacher and the head of key stage 4 at Kemnal Technology College, a secondary comprehensive in south London. Despite a past history of low attainment, the school has made dramatic improvements in recent years facilitated, in part, by the innovative use of new technologies. Mr. Markham was among the first teachers in the UK secondary sector to use LAMS to support teaching and learning in a synchronous classroom context.
On one occasion, Mr. Markham used a LAMS sequence to allow a low ability geography group to conduct a web based investigation into the 'causes of bad weather'. The night before had seen heavy rain in south London and all the students were drenched going home from school. Mr. Markham saw this as an opportunity to hook the pupils' interest. He made a few minor adaptations to a LAMS sequence he had prepared on a previous occasion for a higher ability group. This was up and running as the pupils trekked into the room at the start of the first period.
Within minutes students had logged on and began the lesson with online chat room discussion about the causes of bad weather. LAMS then guided the group towards pages on the BBC weather and Met. Office website. They then cut and paste their findings to an electronic board that became instantaneously available for all to see. Finally, each pupil produced their own weather report, using PowerPoint that was subsequently uploaded and posted to Mr. Markham using the LAMS submission tool. No books, handouts, printers, pens or paper were required for this lesson.
The additional layer of structure provided by LAMS offered an individuated layer of support. Pupils tended to remain on task and progress through an activity at their own pace in LAMS. Mr. Markham stressed that transitions between activities in other contexts could be difficult to manage and stressed how pupils were prone to stray off task. In contrast LAMS allowed multiple inter-related activities to be designed and managed within a single lesson with minimal disruption between transitions.
For Mr. Markham, LAMS was 'no substitute for a good teacher'. However, it did provide him with a powerful tool that allowed him to design and deliver a tightly structured and well managed web based learning experience. He argued that the use of LAMS 'allows the kids to have access to a range of resources in an hour session, in a computer room, which is well managed' and stressed 'My kids today will be able to have an online chat, they'll be able to answer questions which I've been looking at, they'll use the internet and web pages, then they'll upload a weather report to me ... all within the space of an hour.' He added, 'how could you do that in any other environment?'
During the lesson pupils could call upon the teacher for additional help. Having delegated responsibility for leading the lesson to the pre-designed LAMS sequence, Mr. Markham was often available to respond to individual requests for help within seconds. This seemed to fundamentally change the nature of the teacher/pupil relationship. Mr. Markham described this process in terms of giving a student more ownership over their own learning:
If you make someone feel like its their own idea, its their lesson, even when you're speaking to adults, if you make people feel like its their idea to maybe put a new strategy in place then they are going to take it up much more whole heartedly and actually run with it. Whereas, if you actually tell someone and stand there and say,' this is what I want you do to - this is what you should do' ... they are going to be a little bit more stand offish ... this way it's their lesson. They're taking ownership of what's going on. Therefore, they are more enthused by it, they feel like it's actually their lesson.
There were no confrontations or discipline problems during the course of the lesson. One pupil, lets call him Sam, described as 'one of the most difficult in the year group' sat contentedly, tapping away at his computer throughout, whilst the pre-designed LAMS activity sequence guided the pupils, like an invisible guiding hand, through a series of tightly structured activities. As oppose to an authority figure, the pupils appeared to see the teacher as a valuable additional resource, often recruiting his assistance and discussing particular points arising from their growing understanding of low pressure systems.
The pupils described the activity as 'fun' emphasising that they liked the way they could share ideas, see what their friends had written and chat without getting told off. The atmosphere was calm and relaxed throughout. As the lesson drew to a close, Sam insisted on showing me his PowerPoint weather report. It incorporated information from the BBC weather site illustrated with an animated flashing lightening bolt and a graphic of a thundercloud.