Resources

Tony Fisher, University of Nottingham
Chris Higgins, Oxford Brookes University
Avril Loveless, University of Brighton

The full version of this review is available to download in pdf format - see box below. On this page you'll find the executive summary.

Executive summary

Introduction

Our purpose in this review is to examine how teachers learn, and what part digital technologies may have to play in that process. We have consulted the literature in order to examine the research base. We have found that, though there is research-based literature that deals with teacher learning, and a literature base for thinking about learning with digital technologies, there is little that deals directly with our specific focus of 'teachers as learners with digital technologies'. There is very little fundamental research that investigates how teachers might learn with digital technologies. Rather, there seems to be a pervasive assumption that teachers will learn with digital technologies. Hence, we take the approach of reviewing what is known about teacher learning, before introducing digital technologies into the equation.

The nature of teachers' knowledge and learning

Conventional conceptions of knowledge are that it resides 'in the head' of individuals and that it can be transferred (unproblematically) between the heads of individuals by processes of teaching and learning, and training and development.

More recently, the theory and research associated with the 'socio-cultural' school of psychology have suggested that the nature and locus of knowledge are considerably less clear-cut and significantly more 'social'. This view draws on ideas of distributed cognition, situated cognition, and communities of practice, in which 'knowing' and 'thinking' may not be separated from the social context in which those mental functions occur. These sociocultural aspects of knowledge have led to the view that knowledge is not simply to be reduced to specific items or facts. With the socio-cultural perspective our view shifts, from 'knowledge' as a state of individual mind to that of 'knowing' as a social process. These views of teacher knowledge have strong implications for our view of how teachers learn.

Teacher learning is an active, experiential process, through which knowledge is enacted, constructed and revised. There is also a role for 'conceptual inputs' which may provide stimulus for different actions, including different pedagogical thinking and different professional discussions. Teacher learning is subject to many influences. It is best seen as complex and resistant to standardisation. This complexity reflects the interplay between the professional and the personal, the individual and the social, the objective and the subjective, the formal and the informal, the situated and the generalised.

Teacher learning and the affordances of digital technologies

Digital technologies can play a role as tools which afford learners the potential to engage with activities. The use of such tools may extend or enhance their users' abilities, or even allow users to create new ways of dealing with tasks which might also change the very nature of the activity. The technologies can also provide limitations and structure to activities, influencing the nature and boundaries of the activity. These 'affordances' and 'constraints' can be enabling and complementary as learners use them purposefully, but they do not exist as absolutes, or entities with power of their own. We propose to describe the affordances of digital technologies as 'clusters' of purposeful activity in teacher learning (see table below).

Table 1: Clusters of purposeful activity with digital technologies

Shulman and Shulman describe features of accomplished teacher development and teacher learning - vision, motivation, capability (sub-divided into understanding and practice), reflection, and community - and summarise them more colloquially as being 'ready, willing and able'. They hoped that their model would be used to "design, diagnose or explain efforts at teacher learning in a more self-conscious and effective manner" (2004, p269). In considering the contribution of digital technologies to teacher learning, the affordances of the technologies can be viewed as tools in expressing and developing the dimensions of being 'ready, willing and able'. These affordances can be articulated with the Shulman model's features of vision, motivation, understanding and practice, and can support reflection and community at a range of levels.

Case studies

Five case studies are presented which illustrate both facets of the discussion: each case exemplifies both the principles of teacher knowledge and learning, and the learning affordances of digital technologies. The cases are not intended to present a comprehensive overview of all that is happening in this fast changing field, rather they have been chosen because they take full advantage of and exploit one or more of the 'affordance clusters' that we have identified.

Each case study has a different combination of the affordance clusters and influences a selection of the elements of the model of teacher learning and development. There is usually some external 'conceptual input', often a structured dialogue and reflection with a human presence, eg an online tutor, mentor, facilitator or peer, and an action research orientation to the activities. In each case, teacher learning is seen as inherently complex - a situated process that is ongoing, social and dynamic. What links the case studies is the use of specific digital technologies in ways which enable the users, via the affordance clusters, to overcome some of the constraints of time and location which may characterise other contexts for teacher learning.

Discussion: retooling or renaissance?

Teacher learning with digital technologies is a complex but exciting area. Much of what we say in this review has implications for school leaders, researchers, software developers, teacher educators and trainers, CPD providers, policy makers - and, of course, for teachers themselves. We ask whether we want a mere 'retooling' of teacher competences for specific purposes, or an approach which supports a renaissance in teacher development for an uncertain future. This is not about making an industrial process more efficient; rather, it is about enabling cultural change in the profession. Schools of the future will need a clear sense of the kinds of teacher professionalism, and teacher learning, they wish to support, in order to make wise and informed decisions about the role of digital technologies in processes of supporting such learning.

We face a challenge. Processes of teacher learning are complex, even messy, and teachers' current working circumstances contain inherent constraints. Yet the possibilities for real change in the system do exist. If we can bring the technologies into situations that resonate strongly with teachers' sense of professional and moral purposes, we may yet see what might truly prove to be a renaissance, in which teachers would employ digital technologies for understanding, reflection, ingenuity and creativity, and, through these, support their own learning in new ways.

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