ELABORATION OF A METHODOLOGICAL GUIDE FOR TEACHING OF ICT IN FORM ONE

‘Tell me, and I will forget, show me, and I may remember, involve me, and I will understand’

 “Teaching without learning is just talking” Angelo and Cross.

This chapter deals with the elaboration of a methodological guide use for the teaching of information and communication technology in form one using the objectivist and constructivist approaches. This teaching guide is meant for teachers and its describes pedagogic and didactic methods for the preparation and teaching of lessons.

3.1 Motivation and Objectives for the production of the guide. 28

3.2 Approaches applied in the Elaboration of the Guide. 29

3.2.1 Objectivist Approach. 29

3.2.2 Constructivist Approach. 29

3.3   Requirements for the Elaboration of the Guide. 31

3.4 Individual Learners differences. 32

3.5 Procedure for the Realisation of the Guide. 32

3.5.1  Learning Objectives. 32

3.5.2 Teaching strategy used in the Guide. 37

3.5.3 Evaluation. 42

3.6 Conclusion. 43

3.1 Motivation and Objectives for the production of the guide

The production of this guide came up when it was realised that the teaching of ICT is facing a problem of content and teaching strategies and the lack of didactic and pedagogic skills by teachers of ICT. Therefore the idea to produce this guide came up and it is going to help these teachers to prepare, teach and evaluate their lessons. This guide also presence some teaching strategies which can be followed by teachers to construct their lessons.

3.2 Approaches applied in the Elaboration of the Guide

After having discussed the various theories of learning, teaching methods and instructional designs in chapter one, these phenomena could be applied in the realization of a lesson plan, content and exercises on how to teach ICT in secondary schools.  The approaches used in the elaboration of this guide are the objectivist and constructivist.

3.2.1 Objectivist Approach  

This theory will help in the construction of the learning objectives, so that evaluation can be properly carryout. This theory is applied in the preparation of lesson plans, objectives of each  lesson to stimulate the students when presented with . On  the  part  of  the  teacher,  this will  permit  him/her  to  use  the  appropriate  pedagogic  style with content that can help him and the students to realize the objectives set out at the beginning  of each lesson. Before designing instruction for a given topic, the teacher will have to identify the knowledge he wants to transfer into the learner's mind. He then proceeds by stating that knowledge into specific behavioral objectives. Extra care is taken to ensure that objectives are framed using specific and objective language so that it is clear beforehand what the learner will be expected to do by the end of instruction. 

 For an objectivist instructional designer, learning can only be demonstrated in observable behavior. Therefore, objectives are phrased so that they indicate specific observable behavior under certain conditions. All learners are expected to achieve those objectives and behavior in the same manner. Objective evaluation procedures will be used to determine whether objectives are met and to what degree.

3.2.2 Constructivist Approach

Constructivist learning theory requires learners to demonstrate their skills by constructing their own knowledge when solving problems faced with. The constructivist approach does not only provide the environment and the tools for the active construction of knowledge but also the availability of appropriate feedback on the learner’s progress.

As far as instruction is concerned, the teacher has to try and encourage students to discover principles by themselves. The teacher and students engage in an active dialogue. The task of the teacher is to translate information to be learned into a format appropriate to the learner's current state of understanding.

The learning environment should be learner-centered rather than teacher-centered. In this environment both teacher and the students take part in the learning process. Learners develop knowledge internally rather than passively receiving information transmitted by an instructor.

The following principles can be used to develop a “constructivist learning environment”, Vrasidas, C. (2000).

• Create real world environments that employ the context in which learning is relevant;
• Focus on realistic approaches to solving real-world problems;
• The instructor is a coach and analyzer of the strategies used to solve these problems;
• Instructional goals and objectives should be negotiated and not imposed;
• Evaluation should serve as a self-analysis tool;
• Provide tools and environments that help learners interpret the multiple perspectives of the world, and
• Learning should be internally controlled and mediated by the learner.

Here the students construct their own knowledge through social interaction (group work) with the teacher acting as a guidance .Since the student are working in groups, it gives the constructivist approach the following advantages:

• More students participate in the lesson;
• Freedom of expression;
• Increase productivity;
• Brings different skills to the table;
• Enhancement of effective communication;
• The teacher is more relaxed in the classroom;
• Self-reliance and independence of the learner;

The learners develop the following skills

• Collaborative (team work);
• Imaginative;
• Creative;
• Reporting and above all
• Competence.

At the beginning of the term, diagnostic evaluation is done so as to form the various groups and these groups are given some group rules. These rules include;

ü  Each group will have a presenter, a coordinator, a secretary who are appointed by the teacher(Teacher should specify the role of each post holder in the group)

ü   The secretary writes only what has been agreed by the group.

ü  Do not say to mate that” you are wrong,” rather say “I disagree with you” and then you make your own point.

ü  Avoid talking when it is not your turn to talk.

ü  If the is any conflict in your group, try to resolve it. Call the teacher‘s attention only when you must have failed.

ü  Do not laugh at others

ü  Any material provided should be used with care.

3.3   Requirements for the Elaboration of the Guide

According to Hadjerrouit, S. (2008) the planning of instructions in ICT has six related factors which are suppose to be taken into account and they include the following;

• Learning outcomes are what the learners should possess after finishing learning activities in terms of concepts, theories, practices, ideas, and principles.
• Learners’ abilities are learners’ prerequisite knowledge and skills, educational background, as well as personal experiences.
• Structures and educational resources are factors that learners can draw upon to achieve meaningful learning under teacher guidance, such as technical and computer equipment, educational staff, library, books, time table, location, classroom settings, economical conditions, curriculum, syllabus, etc.
• Learning content is the learning material that is associated with the subject matter, its topics and subtopics, and how these are broken down into lessons.
• Teaching and learning methods are concerned with activities and ways of working, such as lecturing, scaffolding, reading textbooks, doing exercises, performing projects, discussing and collaborating, etc.
• Assessment methods are concerned with the process of assessing the students’ learning using assessment procedures, such as oral and written exams, writing a project report, etc.

3.4 Individual Learners differences

Every student has a ‘MASK’, which has to be removed by the teacher in order for him/her to understand a lesson. It is impossible to teach without taking into consideration the heterogeneous difference of the class since students come from different socio-cultural backgrounds and have different ways of learning. This demands a lot of psychological studies of the class to be able to identify students with their various difficulties. So before constructing the groups the teacher should take into account all these differences. These individual differences include:

• Academic background
• Health of a student
• age
• Cultural background
• Handicap or not
• Intelligence-They have different intelligence quotient ( I.Q)
• Understanding the teacher.
• Learning styles (visual , Auditory  and kinesthetic learners)

3.5 Procedure for the Realisation of the Guide

In constructing a lesson the following questions should be answered by the teacher;

• Where am I taking my students to? i.e. Learning objectives
• How do I want them to get there? i.e. Teaching strategy
• How will I know when they have arrived? i.e.  Evaluation

3.5.1  Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives are statements that describe what a learner will be able to do at the end of a lesson as a result of teaching. In other word say, it is a sort of contract that teachers make with learners that describes what they will be able to do after learning which they could not do before, the 'added value' of teaching. Just because knowledge or skills are taught does not mean that particular knowledge or skills are learned. Many factors can interfere with the achievement of objectives: the existing knowledge of the learner, the relevance or usefulness of the materials presented and the skills of the teacher.

• Kinds of learning Objectives (Learning Domains)

Objectives can be written for any type of learning. A common way to categorize learning is by the domain in which it occurs. The three domains and ensuing type of objectives include: cognitive, affective and psychomotor

Cognitive	Thought or knowledge Objectives describe: "what the student is able to do" (an observable)
Affective	Feelings or choices Objectives describe : "how the student chooses to act"
Psychomotor	Physical skills Objectives describe: "what the student can perform"

Table 2: Different learning domains

The cognitive domain (Bloom, 1956) is the objective type that will be use.It involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories, which are listed in order below, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first one must be mastered before the next one can take place. As concern the case of form one the teacher should use only the first category i.e. knowledge.

Category	Key Words
Knowledge: Recall data or information.	defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states.
Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.	comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives Examples, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates.
Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.	applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses.
Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.	analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates.
Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.	categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes.
Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.	appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports.

Table 3: Bloom`s Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives (Bloom et al 1956).

• Purpose of Learning Objectives

Teaching is an art and like all arts, it becomes interesting only when there is a reason for it. When a teacher has only vague ideas about what he/she is trying to teach, it becomes difficult to measure how well the teaching has succeeded thus the need for objectives in lessons. 

The goal of each teacher, consciously or otherwise, is to have a near to one hundred percent understanding of the material taught. Whatever the situation the teacher should develop a good learning objective.

Good learning objectives have the following advantages;

ü  Instruction(teaching) is better;

ü  Learning is more efficient;

ü  Evaluation is better;

ü  Students do self evaluation better.

• Writing a Learning Objective;

 When writing a learning objective, avoid terms that cannot be clearly understood by the reader. It is necessary to communicate an objective as clearly as possible to avoid misinterpretation. A well written learning objective should specify observable (overt) behavior and indicate WHAT THE LEARNERS WILL BE ABLE TO DO.

Also it should be noted that there is a difference between student’s activities and objectives. If the teacher is not conscious enough, the tendency would be to state student activity as a lesson objective.

Activities are the learning experiences in a lesson that students participate in to achieve objectives.

Objectives describe the knowledge; skills or attitudes students should be able to demonstrate as a result of participating in a lesson.

• Component of a Learning Objective

The three main components of a learning objective are:

ü  Performance-- What should the learner be able to do?

ü  Condition - Under what conditions do you want the learner to be able to do it? It always have expressions like, given…,after…,during…, when provided with…, etc  and

ü  Degree- How well must it be done?

When the learning objective has been written, we would need to observe that three fundamental aspects are covered such as the performance, the conditions of the performance, and the degree.

ü  The (overt) behavior that would be performed

ü  The condition under which the behavior will be performed.

ü  The degree of the performance.

When describing student`s performance in an objective only active verbs are used e.g list, name, select, write, draw etc.

NB: passive verbs should not be used e.g. understand, know, comprehend, learn, feel etc.

To write a good condition, the question the teacher should ask is “under what circumstances is the behavior to be performed?” e.g. Will the learners be given graphs, illustrations, reference material, or must they performs from memory? Generally to arrive at the condition, ‘given’ is used.

• Rules of writing learning objectives

Learning objectives need to be SMART

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Attainable or Achievable

R = Reliable

T = Time-bound

In summary a good learning objective should;

• Have the three main components, namely: Performance, Condition, Degree
• Be SMART, that is, Specific, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bound.

This can be used to judge the quality of a learning objective.

• The Three Main Characteristics of Good Objectives
• Objectives should identify a learning outcome - The objective needs to state what the learner is to perform, not how the learners learn. Evidence of whether the learners have learned the material lies not in watching them read about it but in listening to them explain the principles in their own words.
• Objectives should be consistent with lesson goals - Teachers sometimes try to teach what they think is important or like to instruct rather than what the learners need to know. When objectives and goals are not consistent, two avenues of approach are available: change (or eliminate) the objective, or change the lesson goal.
• Objectives should be precise - It's sometimes difficult to strike a balance between too much and too little precision in an objective. Remember, the purpose of an objective is to give different people the same understanding of the desired instructional outcome.

3.5.2 Teaching strategy used in the Guide

The strategy used is the active learning based teaching method. This method consists of four stages as seen in Figure 4 below and is described in what follows.

Figure4: Active-learning based teaching strategy

• First stage

Trigger: Following the constructivist perspective, the objective of this stage is to introduce a topic and arouse the interest of the students with a worthwhile assignment in a non-traditional fashion. For this purpose, the students are challenged by a trigger which is given by the teacher, an open-end activity of a kind which is new to the students. Specifically, a trigger should enhance and foster meaningful learning and should have the potential to raise a wide array of questions, dilemmas, attitudes and perceptions. Depending on the trigger's main objective (which has to be clearly stated inorder not to allow any doubt in the learners’ mind), the activity can be worked on individually, in pairs or in small groups. A trigger can be based on different kinds of activities, such as analyzing a class situation, debugging a given computer program, composing a test on a specific topic and so on.

• Second stage

 Activity: In this stage, the students work on the trigger presented to them. This stage may be short, or it may be longer and take up the majority of the lesson. The specific period of time dedicated to this stage naturally depends on the kind of trigger used and on the educational objectives of the trigger. The teacher circulates between the different groups working on the trigger, listens to their opinions, is sensitive to what they say and encourages them to deepen their thinking. When needed, the teacher directs the students in their discussion about the different issues raised by the trigger.

• Third stage

            Discussion: After the required period of time, during which the students work on the trigger either in pairs or in small groups, the entire class is gathered. At this stage, products, topics and thoughts that originated during the Activity stage are presented to the entire class and are discussed. The instructor highlights important ideas presented by the students and emphasizes principles derived from these ideas, however, classmates are encouraged to react and express their opinions with respect to the different ideas presented. After the different groups must have brainstormon the task, the presenters of each group will present their results. The teacher in collaboration with the students will now harmonise the results. The harmonised results are taken down by the students as notes.

After discussing as a class the teacher will then try to consolidate what has been discussed, that is students are given some exercises to do and the outcomes will determine the level of understanding of the lesson. If it is notice that the objectives has not been met, the may be taken all over again in the next period, or more practice should be done.

• Fourth stage

             Summary: This stage is managed differently from the three previous stages. First, it is significantly shorter. Second, while in the first three stages the students are the main actors; in the summary stage the teacher takes the front stage. The teacher wraps up the topic discussed by summarizing and highlighting central concepts, teaching ideas, conceptual frameworks and any other related topics that were raised and discussed during the previous three stages. This summary can take on different forms, such as the formulation of a framework, listing of connections between the said topic and other topics, and so on.

            To accurately carryout this strategy some particular teaching methods has to be applied. The teacher is supposed to choose the method which he/she feels will suit the transmission of knowledge. Some of the methods used include;

• Illustration: This method is used when using diagrams, pictures etc
• Demonstration: It is when the real material is available. Using a real keyboard to demonstrate typing as compared to illustrating typing with a picture of a keyboard.
• Oral explanation and questioning: An oral, explicit, clear, orderly way of representing information.
• Brainstorming: whole class or small group
• Practice and drill: Use to consolidate a concept where things are done over and over or many times to reinforce understanding
• Plenary discussion: whole class is involved in the discussion.

The teaching strategy can be fitted in a table representing the presentation phase of a lesson with the following correspondence; Trigger correspond to the introduction; Learning activity correspond to the elaboration,  Discussion correspond to the Consolidation, and Summary correspond to the Closure.

• Presentation phase

The lesson procedure takes a vertical orientation with horizontal association /relations. It is divided into four stages vertically these are; introduction, elaboration, consolidation and closure and on the horizontal axis there is content, intermediate pedagogic objectives(IPO),method, teacher activity, students’ activity formative evaluation and duration.

Stages	Content	IPO	Method	Teacher activity	Student activity	Formative evaluation	Duration
Introduction
Elaboration
Consolidation/Evaluation
Closure

Table 4: Sample of the presentation phase of a lesson

• Background or identification phase

This phase carries information which are relevant to the lesson such as, the subject, class, class size, Name of teacher, topic of the lesson, objective of lesson, date, duration of lesson, language, etc and some background information as to the relevance of this topic.

Subject: ……………………………			place: …………………………………..
Class : ……………	Number of student:………..		Name of teacher: ………………………………………
Topic of lesson : …………………………………………………………………				Duration: ………
Pedagogic Objectives		…………………………………………….
Previous knowledge		…………………………………………………………
Didactic materials		……………………………………………………
New Vocabulary		………………………………………………
References		………………………………………………dossiers de l

 Table 5: Sample of the Identification phase of a lesson

Description of the various elements contain in the identification phase relative to the lesson;

•  
  • Subject: The subject is computer science.
  • Place: It signifies the location where the lesson will take place. The lesson will take place both in classroom and computer laboratory.
  • Class: The class for which the lesson will be taught is form 1.
  • Number of students: The number student preview for the lesson is 60.
  • Topic of lesson: This indicates the lesson of the day which is utilisation of computer keyboard
  • Duration: The time taken by the lesson, which is 55minutes
  • Pedagogic objectives: This indicates the learning outcomes (behavior) that is expected to be seen from the learner.

For example of a pedagogical objective is seen below:

Given a computer with all its components, at the end of the lesson, all the students should be able to use correctly at least 90% of the keys on the computer keyboard.

From this pedagogic objective the following components can be deducted:

• Condition: Given a computer with all its components;
• Performance: able to use correctly;
• Degree: at least 90%

•  
  • Previous knowledge: It is the knowledge each student is suppose to have before a given lesson.

e.g a previous knowledge for the teaching of computer keyboard is that, student must have done computer input devices .

•  
  • Didactic Materials:

They are semi-concrete or abstract object which help to facilitate the teaching and learning process.  Before preparing a lesson, a teacher is suppose to choose a teaching material that will suit the lesson. The choice of the didactic material depends on the contents of the lesson and the learning environment.¶Thus there are three criteria for the choice of a didactic material:¶ This material must satisfy the following criteria;

• Acceptability: It should be suitable with the learning environment and the culture of the users.
•  Usefulness: :¶the material must be useful or employed in this environment
• Usability:¶ the selected tool must be advantageously to serve as to reach the objectives.¶

Example of didactic materials are keyboard pictures , projector , computer etc.

•  
  • New vocabulary: it comprises of words that appears in the lesson which learner should know so as to ease their understanding of the lesson. Considering a lesson on keyboard then new vocabulary for a lesson like this can include the following:

• Keyboard, AZERTY, QWERTY
• Alphanumeric keypad;
• Numeric keypad;
• Function keys;
• Modifier keys;
• Movement keys;
• Special keys
• References: It refers to the source from where the content is gotten, which may be textbooks or the internet.

3.5.3 Evaluation

At the end of each lesson, the teachers are supposed to evaluate their students to know whether they have attained the objectives set out at the beginning of the lesson. There are various forms of evaluations; formative evaluation which can be carried out during a lesson or at the end of the lesson to see whether the teaching process or methods used have helped students to assimilate what they have been taught as well as develop the competence awaited .This could be done by oral or written questions and answers sections in class or take home assignments to be handed later for corrections. Students and teachers are expected to use the formative assessment as feedback for improvement.

Meanwhile summative evaluation which is an end product evaluation can be oral or written to grade student at the end of a course. Its primary goal is to tell the student and teacher how well the students are learning. It is use by students and teachers as feedback for improvement. It is done in an oral questioning and answer format.

Good evaluations should have the following principles:

• They should be in line with your lesson objectives.
• They should test the students’ knowledge and skills about your topic.
• They should reward students who understand the material.
• They don’t reward students who have memorized information the night before the test hoping to pass.

There should be a logical link between the lesson content, the learning objectives, the didactic material, the learning activities and the evaluation of a lesson. This means that a teacher should not evaluate students on what he has not taught.

3.6 Conclusion

The main aim of constructing this guide is to help resolve the problem of content and the teaching approaches use in the teaching of ICT in form one.