Discussion
This appendix contains a transcript of a discussion between the two assignment authors, Megan Dick and Alastair Reynolds. The purpose of the discussion was to jointly draw conclusions from the research results and to reflect on the usefulness of the questionnaire and the data provided.
NOTE: The discussion was carried out on ExcitePal, an Internet-based real-time communications program.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Discussion participants : Megan Dick and Al Reynolds ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Al Hi Megan Well hello! Al Is demon slow for you? Megan Not really.... Megan Did you get disconnected before...or just try again? Al are you still there? Megan Yeah... Al I tried again because no data was being sent or received Megan So, read your analysis and results seem similar to my departmental one... Al Indeed Al what email did you just send me? Megan The comments on your research design Al OK - it must be huge Al (the original file was quite big I’ll concede) Megan No, it is the same size as the one you sent me! Pretty much.... Megan So, what do we talk about? We need to work out our conclusion and reflection, right? Megan I thought your results for your whole school were very similar to mine for a department. Al yes I think so Megan Oh...that would be a good reason. Al what? Al we should sort out an agenda for this meeting before we talk aimlessly all night Al are you still there? Megan Hee. Megan OK....huh? Megan This doesn't seem to be going very well, does it? Megan Right...let's talk about whether we got meaningful results from our questionnaire... Al I thought they were quite useful Megan Yes....and your results were very similar to mine, I thought. Al on an individual level you could get quite a lot of information about the training someone would benefit from Al but on a larger group level it was useful for 'longer-term' planning Megan Yes, you find out what they say they need training on easily....I thought section 2 was very useful and clear for people to fill out. Megan I was impressed at the way McKenzie's stages worked out. It was very clear what people needed to be trained in ... pedagogically, I mean....in order to meet TTA requirements. Al How accurate / reliable do you think peoples' analysis of their own ability was? Megan Just got two mails from you. :-) Al I thought people moved towards the middle in many cases - not willing to commit themselves to either end of the spectrum... Al I just got one from you, am opening ... Megan From very good to a bit iffy sometimes. You could tell that some were iffy, as their answers were not consistent. Like they said they did not use ICT in Section 1 and then said aid they did in Section 3. but there were not too many people like that. Megan Confidence with ICT lends itself to that, I feel. Megan I was surprised at how much confidence and competence staff had with ICT. I thought their answers would be much lower. Don’t know why... Al I think maybe we just deal with the people who don't know how to do stuff a lot of the time, and it changes your perception Al So, would you say that we evaluated ICT training needs? (i.e. have we done what we set out to do?) Megan I think that we can say what training people need, in order to meet the TTA requirements. But in a general way...I'm not sure we have enough specific information about pedagogical needs. We can just say they need pedagogic training, but not what kind. Megan But the NoF money can't be spent on basic skills.....so what happens to them? Al Schools still need to do ICT training like before ... except some schools weren't. Megan Right...gotcha. So have we determined what kind of pedagogic training they need? Al no, but I think pedagogical training will always be quite general within a subject - our questionnaire shows how far teachers' pedagogy with ICT has developed so far. Al I don't think the information alone is enough, but coupled with knowledge of the individuals involved I think the results are very useful. Megan I'm not convinced section 4 works for a secondary school....as we might need more specific information for each subject. Megan Where you surprised that an analysis of a whole school and one of a specific department would be so similar? Al I suppose it just shows that the department you considered are not massively different from the norm. There are departments in both schools where the analysis would have been completely different to the whole school analysis. Megan Oooh....good point. We don’t have space to test that, though, do we? Megan It is also quite useful to know that many are at the mastery stage, I thought. They are therefore ready for pedagogic training....I was worried most teachers wouldn't be! Megan (Sorry about all the typos...the computer moves a lot propped up on the sofa) Al I think more subject-specific questions about pedagogy would be useful at a later stage in the needs assessment process. If everyone had ticked the first two boxes in section 4 there would be no point in asking them what software they used and how often. Megan Actually, a third in my department were at the impact stage, more than your whole school. Al mine was only just under a third. Megan Yes. So does this mean you need to further assess teachers in order to design a good training programme? Al I think so. Megan So you had a lot more in the mastery stage than in the survival stage.....and the same in the impact stage. Megan There was also resistance to the same methods of using ICT. But maybe it is not appropriate to use ICT in all lessons, so that is reasonable? Al I wasn’t sure about that. Megan So, do we have enough for the conclusion about whether the questionnaire did it's job? And have we answered the question we set ourselves? Al I think that there is a constant process of training and reviewing just like in teaching, but our questionnaire is a starting point because it encourages teachers to be reflective. Al lots of teachers commented to me how they had found it useful to think about their ICT ability. Megan Right! Like Passey said....this audit is part of a process! Megan Lots of teachers at my school saw this as a great opportunity and that the school would immediately start providing them with ICT training ... which they desperately want! Al We didn't really set a question - more a task. So in our reflection we can reflect on how well it went. Megan Our title is “Using ICT training needs analysis materials with staff in two secondary schools” ... so we have done that! And had some success too. Megan Should we move onto personal reflections? Al Yes. Al Do we want to divide this into any kind of sections? Megan OK then.... Megan How about 1. What we thought of the questionnaire and what we learned and 2. ummmmm Megan How this has helped OUR professional development? Al OK Al (1) Al There were obvious problems with section 3 even the second time round. Al Maybe we should have got them to write a Y or an N so that they had to fill in every box. Al People are happier if they have to put something in every box Megan Questionnaire design...i.e. how they were meant to answer....or was the question itself wrong? Al Mainly the design of the question. Al What did we think of the last part of section 3? Megan Was there some problem with them understanding what we were asking? Maybe we assumed to high an understanding of ICT pedagogy? We didn't make that mistake with basic skills. Al I guess we could do a whole project on whether pupils should have the option to use ICT in all lessons. Megan You mean the "Would you like to use it?" Megan I think (and Passey made the same mistake, I think) that it is unclear to ask them if they want to use something if they already are. Al we tried anyway - nobody's perfect Megan Oh right....Well, the TTA document just says teachers should know when and when not to use it. So I think teachers answers were justified...but then again we did just say the "option" to use ICT in all lessons. Megan Do you think Passey’s is also wrong to ask that? Al I think maybe the question should have been: Al [1] do use it - will carry on Al [2] don't use it - want to start Al [3] don't use it - and won't either Al [4] don't use it - and am not sure whether I would Al what do you reckon? Megan Ah! That would work! Al I thought the literature was much more relevant in terms of interpreting the results than I expected it to be Megan I agree! Megan I thought we did OK with section 4 too. As it was difficult to ask secondary school teachers general question about subject. Al I think McKenzie's ideas for the for stages were very helpful, although I didn't agree with all his criterion for each stage. Megan 2. What have we learned? Al And Marjorie Budd is right about needing to assess training needs on multiple levels rather than just as individuals or as whole organisations. Megan I also didn't realise the importance of Passey’s idea of support and bridges until I did the analysis. Megan True too! Wow! Al I wasn't happy with his move from teacher-directed to teacher-as- facilitator - I think that teacher-led ICT work still has a place Megan Hmm, I can see that. He doesn’t leave much scope for that. Megan It is interesting that I didn't really understand the literature review...even once I had written it, until we did the analysis and had this chat! Al It's often the way - you need something real to apply the theory to - I guess that's what action research is about Megan Cool! Al I think we got some good experience of questionnaire design while doing this, with trialling it and so on. Megan Which I didn't expect when we started. :-) Megan I was also surprised at the level of ICT skill in my school. :-) Al Do you think you have enough to write some conclusions and reflections? Megan Hmmm. Do I have enough for the reflection? Megan I think so actually. Megan We also are tying in the lit rev's quite well. Al Shall I go off-line and call you (I need to ask you something about the research design) Megan I need to fix my part three to incorporate McKenzie again. Megan That's it then? Al I think so - we're getting more efficient in our old age Megan Right...see you off-line! Al ;-) Megan Bye! Al Bye! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - End of transcript ---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------