A case-study of one teacher's use of an interactive whiteboard system to support knowledge co-construction in the history classroom

Abstract

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have rapidly become an integral feature of many classrooms across the UK and elsewhere, but debate continues regarding the pedagogical implications of their use. This article reports on an in-depth case-study from the wider T-MEDIA project (Teacher Mediation of Subject Learning with ICT: a Multimedia Approach). A key aim of the study was to draw upon sociocultural perspectives to develop a shared, grounded theoretical account of the processes through which teachers mediate subject learning incorporating use of the IWB and other resources. A series of six history lessons with a class of pupils aged 12–13 was videoed and analysed collaboratively by a university research team, the teacher, one of his colleagues and an academic subject specialist. We identify an emerging emphasis upon interdependent learning relationships in the classroom and illustrate how this particular teacher harnessed IWB technology to support a dialogic approach to knowledge construction in history. Strategies included communicating and developing complex ideas and modelling historical thinking processes through use of multiple digital resources; collaborative annotation of images and texts; spotlighting and reveal tools for focusing; and ‘drag and drop’ for classification activities. Revisiting annotated slides served to draw on shared experience.

Keywords:

• dialogue
• history
• information and communication technology
• interactive whiteboads
• pedagogy
• secondary education

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Lloyd and his colleague Rolf for so willingly sharing their time and expertise, and to the class of students who participated in this study. Our thanks also to Christine Counsell for contributing insightful perspectives on the project data and to Ben Walsh and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this article. The research was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, RES-000-23-0825.

Notes

1. The T-MEDIA project was directed by S. Hennessy and funded by ESRC (RES-000-23-0825) from January 2004–June 2007. Final report available at: http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/istl/

2. T-MEDIA project outcomes include a series of illustrative CD-ROMs: one for each subject case-study (English, history, mathematics and science) and one overarching. Note that the video clips and other materials are intended not as models of best practice, but rather to stimulate debate about practice incorporating use of the IWB. The discs are available to educators at cost price via an order form, available online at: http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/istl/

3. Scaffolding involves providing assistance in varying forms that enable learners to engage in activity at the expanding limits of their competence, i.e. Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky 1978). Scaffolding may involve both preparing/structuring appropriate tasks and materials and interacting responsively with learners during the lesson.

4. Fading involves withdrawing support or handing over responsibility as learners gain confidence.

5. The IWB can function as a notepad on which a class can co-construct hypotheses about such things as the meanings of texts or the priority of causes, in an ongoing and tentative way, and thus dramatise the provisional, debatable and revisable nature of historical knowledge claims.

6. Some IWB software includes an audiovisual recording tool that captures both the activity on the display surface and the talk around it.

7. Some IWB software now includes a dual screen functionality supporting two concurrent digital screen displays. This offers an advantage over the parallel use of an OWB as all materials produced can be archived.

8. ‘Interpretations’ has a specific meaning in the secondary history curriculum (QCA 2007) and refers to the ways in which subsequent periods have constructed representations and accounts of the past. As will be apparent from the discussion, we do not intend this meaning here but use ‘interpretation’ and ‘interpret’ in a hermeneutic sense to refer to pupils' construction of the meanings of historical documents.