The University of Nottingham's November 08 Trials at Hadden Park School
Figure 1: Hadden Park Students using the Inquiry toolkit
Bronya Norton, 10th February 2009
The goal of the November trial was to explore the use of the first version of the integrated Toolkit in supporting personal inquiry in both the school and home.
The topic of the November scenario was what it means to have a healthy diet – a topic jointly chosen by the teacher and researchers. The design of the technology and pedagogy was specified through a process of iterative co-design beginning with a scenario and ending with lessons plans and their instantiation within a Toolkit. During this process, the help of an expert dietician was sought, to help in the accuracy of the dietary information (e.g., recommended daily nutrients intake for the pupils’ age group) and she further agreed to be involved in the lessons themselves by answering students’ questions.
This resulted in seven stages of inquiry activity, structured through an Inquiry Guide implemented on the computer Toolkit: My Topic, My Inquiry Question, My Plans, My Data collection, Analyse My Data, My conclusions, My presentation, My Evaluation.
A number of sessions were held with the teacher, where the PI Toolkit was demonstrated and feedback given. The teacher was also provided with an Asus ultra-mobile computer incorporating the Toolkit which was used over the course of a week, and more feedback was given. Finally, usability testing took place on-site.
Science Attitudes were assessed by the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) , a validated attitude scale for science attitudes. Domain items were constructed to assess factual knowledge about nutrients and an inquiry knowledge test was constructed which took the form of a cartoon describing personal inquiry (on the topic of exercise at pre-test and the topic of teeth at post-test) which students analysed for mistakes.
The trials took place at Hadden Park School, Nottingham, over nine lessons. There were no major usability problems with the technology and all nine lessons were completed.
The set of data collected includes:
- 70 sets of pre and post-intervention questionnaires,
- 7 interviews with pupils during the intervention,
- 11 interviews with the teacher during and after the intervention,
- log files from 28 students arising from their use of the PI Toolkit in class and the home,
- video capture of the 9 lessons with three cameras (2 groups and 1 overall),
- researchers’ observation notes after each lesson.
Currently, these data are being analysed to explore identification of breakthroughs and breakdowns in classroom interactions, opportunities to improve scripting in the Toolkit and scenario, and exploration of the effectiveness of the PI approach.
A stakeholder panel has been held to reflect on the trials and to set the scene for the next trials to be held during late 2009.
