C. The MIICE outcomes related to the abilities and attitudes of learners
6. Shared learning
This relates to learners' ability to work as part of a team, in a flexible and constructive way
Here is a number of illustrations from a lot of different Scottish schools and education authorities of both of the components. In each case there is one or more related capacities associated with A Curriculum for Excellence
6. Shared learning: communicating and collaborating
Children from Glaitness Primary School in Kirkwall have been using video technology to help them to prepare a presentation on myths of the Amazon rainforest (513 seconds on video)
A digital video of the finished show (national priorities website)
"We the Arromali people of the Amazon rainforest tell this story about how the world was created. Long long ago there were 2 brothers who were the children of Abili the frog"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: learning with technology
- Effective contributors: working in partnerships and teams
Jim Henderson of Gairloch High School uses the First Class package of communication tools (messages, conferences) to assist modern studies pupils to share what they are discovering - and everybody knows that kids pay far more attention to kids than they do to teachers! (106 seconds on video)
"if they are carrying out an investigation they can publish the results of that investigation within FirstClass, they can share that information within FirstClass"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: independent and collaborative learning
- Effective contributors: communicating in a variety of situations
Tracey Morrison teaches special educational needs pupils at Kersland School in Paisley. In today's class she uses an interactive whiteboard with a class of 18-19 year olds. Tracey has created flipcharts using graphics and photos around the theme of planning a journey. The pupils come to the whiteboard to identify people and places from yesterday's birthday trip to a Chinese restaurant
Planning a school outing on an interactive whiteboard
"the pupils responded positively to the exercise and that they practised their oral and social communication skills. She thinks that they managed to recall the activities from the previous day and focused well on the task" (Tracey Morrison, Kersland School)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Confident individuals: live as independently as they can
Anne Noble is the librarian at Marr College in Troon. She has set up a lunchtime reading club with a group of S1 to S4 pupils. The pupils are reading books listed on the Carnegie Medal website. During the club meetings, pupils read passages from books, read reviews they have written themselves, which can be posted on the Carnegie website, and interview one another about books they have read. These activities are filmed using a digital video camera for use in later feedback sessions
"pleased with the level of discussion that went on among the pupils. She believes that the pupils like exchanging ideas with their peers about the books they have read and their level of literacy is improving" (Anne Noble, Librarian at Marr College)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: use literacy, communication and numeracy skills
John McPhee of Argyll and Bute Council speaks about some of the innovative ways in which they have explored the use of this technology to get round the considerable distances within Argyll and Bute (72 seconds on audio)
Video conference applications (national priorities website)
"Previous experience of video conferencing showed us that really there were no limitations in the way video conferencing can be used. You could use it almost in all aspects of the curriculum. The main focus in the past was on the primary curriculum - the 5-14 Initiatives. We had very good examples of pupils working with other pupils and shared activities on-line. We had good examples of staff who had a particular expertise within a primary co-operative of cluster working with other pupils and other members of staff within other schools"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: independent and collaborative learning
- Effective contributors: resilient
Lesley Allan, also of Argyll and Bute Council, moved from being the head teacher of a small island primary school to being a QIO with responsibilities for fostering video conference use (164 seconds on audio)
"In the very small and remote primary schools very often we're maybe only sending 1 or 2 pupils from P7 to high school in Oban. Obviously that means they have to board through the week in the hostel and sometimes for the children in the more remote islands they have to stay at weekends as well. So, they are away from home 5 or 6 weeks at a time. (And) we felt it was very important for these children and their parents that they should feel they had built up a relationship with the other children they were going to be staying in the hostel with, as much as possible"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: independent and collaborative learning
- Effective contributors: working in partnerships and teams
6. Shared learning: working in groups
P6 pupils at Duns Primary School have been 'buddying' with children from the P3 class to develop aspects of language. Watch a report on their collaboration on the book 'Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers' (195 seconds on video)
"Debbie Higson's Primary 6 class have been using the Digital Blue camera for some time: to write book reports and to make films about primary science and about poems. They have now started to teach children in the Primary 3 class how to use the camera"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Confident individuals: relating to others and self-organised
- Effective contributors: taking initiatives and leading
Nicola McCorkindale is new to digital video technology but is running an after school video club for eight of her primary 3 children in Gardenrose Primary School in Maybole. Together they are learning to use a digital video camera and Pinnacle, an editing software package. The club is meeting for the fourth time and the children in the club are acting as mentors to other primary 3 children, passing on their filming and editing skills. She aims to use digital video to support story making
"The mentoring is working well and the children seem very motivated to learn" (Nicola McCorkindale, Gardenrose Primary)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Effective contributors: work in partnership and in teams
A teacher in Lismore School conducts a recorder lesson with children all over Argyll and Bute using a video link (196 seconds on video)
"OK. Now, are you ready to start? It starts on the fourth beat of the bar; so I'm going to count 1, 2, 3 and then you're going to come in; left hand at the top of your recorder; you're starting on G, there's your note. There's G - everybody got that. Just make sure you see your fingering. That's it. Well done. Absolutely smashing"
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: learning with technology
- Effective contributors: communicating in a variety of situations
Lee Carson uses software called Interactive Maths ToolKit to teach fractions, percentages and decimals to his class of P7 pupils at Queensferry Primary School in Edinburgh. The pupils challenge each other to represent a fraction, percentage or decimal on a pie chart on the SMART Board. They then work on similar exercises on their laptops
"the pupils were asking each other challenging questions and those working at the SMART Board managed to solve the problems successfully" (Lee Carson, Queensferry Primary)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: use literacy, communication and numeracy skills
Dawn Davidson is a teacher at Tullos Primary School in Aberdeen and uses an interactive whiteboard with eight of her P7 pupils who are working towards Level D in writing. She is keen to develop resources for literacy and has created her own punctuation exercise using the Easiteach Literacy software. Her pupils take it in turns to come up to the board and use the software tools to add punctuation marks and capital letters and to correct misspelled words
"pupils particularly like using the interactive whiteboard: they enjoy working as a group or as a whole class, rather than doing exercises on their own in their jotters" (Dawn Davidson, Tullos School)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: use literacy, communication and numeracy skills
Andrina Inglis teaches maths at Bathgate Academy. She has had a SMART Board in her classroom for a year as part of a West Lothian pilot scheme. After a very positive response from Andrina and from her pupils, the school now has seven SMART Boards, which are used by different departments in the school. Today Andrina is revising statistics with a fourth-year credit class; the revision is based around questions on the SMART Board
"all the pupils were focused on the SMART Board and because they could all see clearly what she was discussing, there was no nudging of neighbours to ask for help" (Andrina Inglis of Bathgate Academy)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Successful learners: use technology for learning
A group of 17 pupils at Scalloway Junior High School in Shetland has been working on a series of short animations, loosely based on the theme of marine life around the Shetland Islands. With the help of two members of staff and a visiting artist, they have spent afternoons after school and Saturday mornings learning how to use Macromedia Flash
"particularly pleased to see pupils asking each other for advice" (Brian Henderson of Scalloway School)
A Curriculum for Excellence
- Effective contributors: work in partnership and in teams