Most teachers initially spoke clearly about
the relationship between their role in
generating interactivity and greater pupil
responsibility for managing activities,
generating ideas, reflecting on learning
and assessing what they had achieved.
This suggested that their thinking, at least,
was predominantly dialogic in nature.
The key factors in encouraging dialogic
interactivity were feedback on pupil
response and the sustaining of interaction
for as long as was necessary for learning.
Teachers felt that group work encouraged
pupils to initiate interactions, and tasks
were often structured to ensure that these
interactions took place. Several teachers
gave pupils explicit peer-teaching roles.
Many of the teachers highlighted the
value of making mistakes ‘public’ and
discussing what changes should be
made. ICT was seen by some as a means
of encouraging learners who would not
normally attempt an answer. Teachers
devoted considerable time to selecting
appropriate resources, because of the
difficulty of finding material with an
appropriate level of challenge. Welshmedium teachers identified a shortage
of published ICT resources.
It was clear that an interactive approach
involved changes in role from traditional
pedagogy. In a dialogic lesson, the
teacher becomes more of a manager
or facilitator of interactions designed to
bring about learning, while learners take
an active role and engaging in actions
traditionally associated with the teacher
such as questioning, evaluating and
explaining. Problem-solving was
encouraged in all subjects, including
language learning.
By the end of the project, some teachers
were conscious of a shift to more dialogic
pedagogy, and most teachers said that
ICT had become more integrated into
their work. Its main role was to provide
additional and replacement material such
as images, video clips and quizzes into
their practice. Some experienced users
recognised that they had become more
selective about their use of ICT. Some
had changed their ways of working, for
instance by letting pupils work on the
interactive whiteboard in small groups.
They were using the ICT room to enable
pupils to find things out for themselves as
well as presenting prepared material to
them on the board. But teachers felt that
ICT could not do everything, and needed
to be supplemented with practical work
in science and oral work in language
teaching.