Abstract
This project investigated
the question: Does using Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
as a teaching and learning tool in middle schools make a difference
to academic rigour, and if so how? The project on society and environment
was conducted at a Perth, Australia metropolitan middle school with
two classes each completing two open-ended tasks (in digital and print
mode) over two school terms, with the same teacher. Analysis of data
showed that students displayed high quality intellectual work using
both digital and print modes of learning. Overall the print mode provided
greater academic rigour for students than the digital mode. This finding
stands in contrast, if not contradiction, to another finding of the
study; namely, that students working in digital mode engaged in more
social and collaborative interaction and demonstrated more independent
problem-solving ability than students working in print mode.
Introduction
During the past 15 years, countries such as Australia (Chadbourne, 2001; Luke, 2003) and the US (McEwin, Dickinson, & Jenkins, 2003) have seen the growth of separate middle schools for young adolescents. While welcomed in some quarters, this development has raised concerns with some educators. Arguably the most damaging criticism is that middle schooling undermines academic rigour. Critics argue, for example:
Overemphasis on the social, emotional, and physical needs of the middle school student has led to neglect of academic competencies. (Bradley cited in Beane, 1999, p.4)
The most frequent criticism of middle schools is that their so-called “child-centred” pedagogy has failed miserably with regard to academic achievement, behaviour control, and every other imaginable measure of what some critics consider to be serious and rigorous education (Beane, 1999, p.3).
I think we should abandon the whole middle school concept. Middle schools are a disaster. They slow down the intellectual progress that kids make in elementary schools, and they effectively preclude readiness for college for many minority kids (Mitchell cited in Norton, 2003).
Support for these criticisms tends to take the form of impressionistic and circumstantial evidence. Direct, research-based data have not been collected or reported. Also, while these criticisms have been characterised by inadequate conceptualisation of what constitutes ‘academic rigour' (Chadbourne, 2003) they nevertheless have been influential in persuading some education officials in the US to call for the elimination of middle schools (Herszenhorn, 2004).
Given the seriousness of this issue, should ICT (Information and Communication Technology) be seen as part of the problem or part of the solution? Certainly ICT occupies an important place within middle schooling, largely on the assumption that, “New technologies enable us to make curricula more interdisciplinary and more engaging” (Raebeck, 1998, p.108). However, what impact do new technologies have upon the intellectual quality of students work in supporting academic rigour? In an effort to answer this question, we conducted a small scale research project during 2004-2005 aimed at investigating the question: Does using ICT as a teaching and learning tool in middle schools make a difference to academic rigour in the subject of Society and Environment (S&E), and if so, how? Apart from our discipline-based expertise, we chose S&E for this study because the inquiry focus of its pedagogy gives ICT particular significance as a research tool. Three of us teach in a middle school pre-service teacher education course and the fourth is a learning team teacher at the project school.
Research Plan, Method, and Conceptual Considerations
The design of our project fell largely within the qualitative research paradigm (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). This was appropriate given that it comprised the following: a small scale, single site; longitudinal investigation; fieldwork interviews with students and observations of their classroom activities; and an interpretative analysis of students' written work. At the same time, we anticipated being able to process and present some of the qualitative data in basic quantitative form.
We conducted the project at the middle school campus of a Perth metropolitan school, which was recently physically and philosophically restructured into a purpose-built middle school and a separate senior school campus. The middle school comprised four Year 8-9 learning communities which had state-of-the-art technology and catered to 512 students. It was staffed mostly with merit-selected teachers (new appointments are merit-selected) and its practices were informed by middle schooling principles. The existing senior high school (Years 8-12) recognised early adolescence as a distinct phase and restructured the existing senior high school into two new, purpose-built campuses on the existing senior high school grounds. The middle school catered to students in Years 8-9 and the senior school catered to students in Years 10-12.
Within the middle school, at our project site, each of the four Year 8-9 learning communities consisted of about 125 students and a small interdisciplinary team of teachers. Each of the communities had its own rooms, resources, timetable, name, and identity. Each was expected to develop the climate, culture, and structure of a small community and operate as a small adolescent-centered sub-school, not a traditional junior high school (Pendergast & Bahr, 2005).
The organization and operation of small learning communities in middle schools throughout Australia have much in common with American schools for young adolescents based on the philosophy of middle schooling. This philosophy is presented in a range of publications, most noticeably those produced by the National Middle School Association (NMSA). Overall the growth of middle schools in Australia has more parallels with a similar development in the US than with middle years reforms in Britain (McEwin, Dickinson, & Jenkins, 1996; Doda & Thompson, 2002).
The project took place in three phases over two school terms. As indicated in Table 1, the research plan involved: (1) two classes (Class A & Class B) from the project middle school completing two open-ended tasks over two school terms; (2) each task being completed by one class using digital text and the other class using print text; (3) each class during each school term completing one task using digital text and another task using print text; and (4) each task being completed over two one-hour consecutive sessions.
Table 1
Organization of the Project
The two classes had the same teacher for the two tasks (a total of eight one-hour sessions). Two researchers attended these sessions and acted as process observers, particularly with respect to interactions between teacher and students, between the students themselves, and between students and their learning technologies (digital and print). Except for different technologies (digital and print), arrangements for each class were similar: same teacher, same tasks at same time of year, same task instructions, same process observers, and same learning communities. The study proceeded in three phases.
Phase 1: Preparation
of the Conceptual and Methodological Ground
Phase 1 involved developing academically-challenging tasks as well as a lesson format to introduce the tasks and process observation schedules. It also involved selecting standards for ‘levelling' the work completed by students as part of the two tasks set for them (see Appendix 1). In more detail:
(1) The academically-challenging tasks involved a question that arose from the S&E learning area and to which virtually all students could construct an answer within two consecutive one-hour sessions.
(2) The lesson format used to introduce students to academically-challenging tasks was consistent with the principles of middle schooling pedagogy (Jackson & Davis, 2000; Zemelman et al., 1998).
(3) Standards used to determine the academic rigour of each student's work were selected from the current S&E Progress Maps (2005) developed by the Education Department of Western Australia (see Appendix 1).
(4) The conceptualisation of the project was informed largely from three sources, namely: the principles of middle schooling curriculum and pedagogy (e.g., Jackson & Davis, 2000); research on elements of intellectual quality, authentic academic achievement, and productive pedagogies (e.g.,Lingard, Ladwig, Mills, Bahr, & Chant, 2001; Newmann and Associates, 1966; and Pohl, 2002); and studies on the relationship between constructivism and academic rigour (e.g., Krause, Bochner & Duchesne, 2003).
Phase 2: Student Completion
of the Two Tasks
The students completed each of the two tasks during two separate but consecutive one hour sessions conducted by the ‘project teacher'. For each task, students were given the same written resource material (in either digital PDF or printed text form) and asked to develop answers to the following briefs.
Task 1: You have been appointed as a consultant for the Western Australian Government Minister for Water Resources. The Minister has asked you to prepare a press release where you suggest three solutions to Perth 's water supply problem. One of the solutions should be presented as your preferred option and justified using data.
Task 2: You have been appointed as a consultant for the Australian National Indigenous Council. The Prime Minister has asked you to prepare a press release where you suggest a strategy to promote greater understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.
Phase 3: Collecting and
Analysing Data
Data for the study came from four sources: students' written work completed as part of the two tasks; process observations made by the researchers during the eight one-hour sessions; discussion at the end of each task between the project teacher and the three university researchers; and 60 minute interviews at the end of Task 2 with four students from each class, coded S1-S8 in this article. The interviews focussed on the students' perceptions of what difference ICT made to the academic rigour, intellectual quality, and standards of their work in S&E.
Findings
The central research question required answers to sub questions, namely: Does using ICT in middle schools make a difference to academic rigour? If so, why or how? With respect to the first of these sub questions, Table 2 shows the academic levels achieved by Class A and Class B in Tasks 1 and 2 in the digital and print modes. Determining the academic level of each student's work was undertaken by the S&E teacher who had taken all the classes for the two tasks. The data in Table 2 show that print mode sessions produced higher levels of academic rigour than the digital mode sessions, and that students achieved higher standards of academic rigour in Task 2 than in Task 1.
Table 2
Academic Levels
