Student teachers learning to learn through information technology

Summary

Information Technology (IT) is currently included in all aspects of the National Curriculum for England and Wales. At the same time, the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (CATE) has endorsed the recommendation of the Trotter Report (HMSO, 1989), that it should be a condition of approval for all initial teacher training (ITT) courses that they provide students with at least a minimum training in IT capability. Students are also required by other CATE criteria to acquire an understanding of the different ways in which pupils develop and learn. This paper therefore reports on an experiment in which an essential requirement of an assignment on ‘Learning’ in the Education Studies component of a Postgraduate Certificate in Secondary Education (PGCE) course was that it be word processed or desk top published. One hundred and fourteen secondary students following one of seven main methods courses took part in the experiment. It was found that despite initial misgivings on the part of most of the students, they all learned to word process to an acceptable standard and all gained some insight thereby into the learning process.