Foster Educational Innovation In VET Centers? A Comparative Case - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

How Can The Technology Introduction Foster Educational Innovation In VET Centers? A Comparative Case Study

Marco Perini & Arianna Costantini

University of Verona

END International conference on EDUCATION AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Technology innovation and Italian education system (brief history)

 1985 - National Plan of Information Technology  1995 - Development Plan of Educational Technologies  2002 - National Plan for Teachers Education on Information and

Communication Technologies (ForTic)

 2007 - National Plan for Digital School  Project “Cl@ssi 2.0”  Project “Scuol@ 2.0”  Project “Editoria digitale”

 La Buona Scuola

2

The highlighted issues

The “Review of the Italian digital strategy for digital schools” (OCED, 2013) highlighted the following issues:

Teachers’ occasional engagement in the projects Insufficient use of funds that prevented a systematic change Missed prevision of an adequate teacher education plan Missed economic recognition of teachers involved in the

projects

3

Other critical issues

 The lack of an adequate instructional design  The inefficiency of schools’ technical infrastructures (e.g. an

efficient internet connection)

 The obsolescence of devices  The teachers’ resistance to change  The overestimation of ICT educational potentiality

Thus, technologies are still promoted without a real change of educational approaches and teaching practices and without any discussion of didactics and educational objectives already considered

4

The federation

 The federation counts 60 VET centers in 16 Italian regions  Courses (mainly) provided: 3 years initial Vocational

Education Training courses

 Professional sectors promoted: mechanical, electronic,

graphic, tertiary, and tourist

 It coordinates the promotion and the vocational training

activities of its centers through regional delegations

5

The iCnos project (1)

 Is an experimental project which started in 2012  promoted and led by the central coordination of the CNOS-

FAP federation through the organization of pedagogical and technological teacher training courses

 The students families were asked to buy an iPad device

instead of textbooks

 A teacher was in charge of coordinating independently the

innovation process in each center

6

The iCnos project (2)

 At the beginning of the experimentation (2012)

 7 centers  744 students  210 teachers

 In 4 years (2016)

 26 centers  3100 students  350 teachers

7

Research questions

 How can an institutional innovation process foster pedagogical and

• rganizational changes in VET centers?

 Which are the shortcomings?  How do the shortcomings have been managed by the VET centers?

8

Research methodology

Comparative case study

For comparing different contexts regarding organizations, programs or policies by examining specific cases (Campbell, 2010; Yin, 2009)

Grounded theory approach

To compare different situations maintaining the emerging theory grounded in data (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser et al., 1968)

9

MIX

Data collection

 Four VET centers were randomly selected  The teachers in charge of the coordination of the project of

each selected center were interviewed

 Semi-structured questionnaire  All interviews were recorded and transcribed  Project documentation and teaching materials were

gathered

10

Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(1)

1)

Open coding - to identify and conceptualize the main actions undertaken on behalf of the project in the corpus of data

 The answer were labelled  The narratives were coded, compared, merged, and modified

without distinction between the different cases

 The encoding of information was conducted with NVivo 11

(qualitative data analysis software) 35 main actions were identified

11

Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(2)

12

Main actions Narratives Focusing the teachers’ training both on the use of iPad and on pedagogical aspects We’ve learned to use different things, understanding how the device works and understanding how to involve students [*INT3/34] There were both technical training and pedagogical training [*INT1/36] The course was not just on apps, but also on instructional aspects [*INT2/29] We made this choice because we had a transversal training for all the teachers [*INT4/3]

… … Open coding example

Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(3)

2.

Axial coding - to review all the main actions identified during the open coding procedure and to group them into subcategories and categories 4 core categories were identified

13

Launching the innovation process Carrying on the innovation process Focusing on instructional practices innovation Facing problems

Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(4)

14

Core categories Main actions Launching the innovation process Favoring the sharing of teachers’ experiences during institutional meetings; organizing iPad trainings for the students’ parents. Organizing teachers’ training prior to the use of the device in the classroom. Focusing the teachers’ training both on the use of iPad and on pedagogical aspects. Keep on boosting internet connectivity. Continuing to try new apps and electronic teaching materials. …

… … Axial coding example

Emerging categories scheme

_______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ Narratives from interviews MA1 MA5 MA6 MA … MA4 MA3 MA35 MA2 Open Coding Main actions Core categories

Launching the innovation process Carrying on the innovation process Focusing on instructional practices innovation Facing problems

Axial Coding

Step 2 – Case comparison (1)

 Each case was compared on the basis of the core categories

emerged in the first step of analysis

 The use of Nvivo 11 software allowed researchers to cross

and compare the respondents’ experiences with the core categories detected

 For each case the data were integrated with the gathered

information about the VET centers involved in the study

 This procedure has allowed us to identify common actions

and different actions in their respective studied cases

16

17 Cas e 1 (Verona) Cas e 2 (Udine) Cas e 3 (Mes tre) Cas e 4 (Este) Profes s ional s ectors promoted by the center Electronic, graphic, energy, marble and mechanical. Mechanical and Electronic Mechanical, graphic and Electronic Tourism, electronic, graphic and mechanical. Project start 2012/2013 2013/2014 2012/2013 2012/2013 Students involved 2nd and 3rd year students. 2nd and 3rd year students. 2nd and 3rd year students. All students. Technological as pects Mobile Device Management software not used. Mobile Device Management software not used. Only some functions

• f the MDM are used.

Mobile Device Management software is not used. All student bought an iPad (minimum features have been indicated) . Boosting internet connectivity. Several classrooms have been upgraded introducing Apple TV and projectors. Getting support from students’ families. Launching the innovation proces s Gradually involve the professional sectors. Gradually involve the classes. Involving all sectors and classes. Involving all sectors and classes. Favoring the sharing of teachers’ experiences during institutional meetings; organizing iPad trainings for the students’ parents. Identifying reference teachers. Organizing reciprocal

• bservation of

teachers’ classroom activities; mutually identifying teachers’ good practices. Organizing teachers’ training prior to the use of the device in the classroom. Focusing the teachers’ training both on the use of iPad and on pedagogical aspects. Keep on boosting internet connectivity. Continuing to try new apps and electronic teaching materials. Carrying on the innovation proces s Keeping in touch with the others CNOS-FAP centers involved in the project. Sharing good practices with other VET centers. Organizing teachers’ Favoring the sharing ’ Keeping in touch with ’ ’

CASES

Informations Core categories

Singular action Common action

The main results of this study (reported in the matrix Table) represent a set of suggestions that could be taken into account by the CNOS-FAP federation when the iCnos project will be extended to all the federation centers.

18

Discussion (1)

 The comparison of interviews and the other gathered data shown

that the innovation process has been taking different forms in every VET center context

 There are several factors that seems to be crucial in the

innovation process investigated:

1.

The IT infrastructure efficiency (internet connection investment)

2.

The pedagogical orientation of teachers’ training (human resource investment)

3.

The constant linkage and comparison between federation’s centers

4.

The decision freedom left to the coordinators which allowed the adaptation of experimentation to the different VET contexts

19

Discussion (2)

These factors were compared with similar cases that have been identified through a brief literature review (Franchini, 2015; Giuseppina, 2014) This comparison seems to confirm the central role of pedagogical orientation and instructional practices.

20

Discussion (3)

Moreover, the efficiency of IT infrastructure is important (i.e. devices, internet connectivity etc.), but it should be an indispensable prerequisite without which the process of innovation cannot take place Furthermore, the infrastructure seems to include not only the IT elements, but also the supporting actions and the updating actions offered to the teachers

21

Limits

This work represents the exploratory part of a wider research In the next phase:

More data need to be gathered A comparison with other European countries is needed Instructional good practices need to be outlined

This will allow to complete the Grounded theory procedure (selective coding) and outline a theoretical framework about “innovation processes management in wide education contexts”.

22

Literatur

Biondi, G. (2007). La scuola dopo le nuove tecnologie. Milano: Apogeo. Campbell, S. (2010). Comparative Case Study. In A. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Case Study Research (pp. 174–176). California: SAGE Publications, Inc. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory. A Pratical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. CNOSFAP (2017). Retrieved February 10, 2017 from http://www.cnos-fap.it/en/home Franchini, R. (2012). Pad-agogia tablet e didattica nei Centri di Formazione Professionale (CFP) del CNOS-FAP. Rassegna CNOS, 3, 77–87. Franchini, R. (2015). L’educativo digitale: esperienze internazionali a confronto. Rassegna CNOS, 2, 53–65. Giuseppina, C. (2014). Progetto Cl@ssi 2.0. Percorso, coinvolgimento delle scuole e ricadute. RicercAzione, 6, 99–109. Glaser, B., Strauss, A., & Strutzel, E. (1968). The discovery of grounded theory; strategies for qualitative research. Nursing Research, 17(4), 364. iCnos (2016). Retrieved March 9, 2016 from http://www.cnos-fap.it/page/icnos Luo, H. (2015). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. In J. M. Spector (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (pp. 85–88). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. Moricca, C. (2016). L’innovazione tecnologica nella scuola italiana. Per un’analisi critica e storica. Form@ Re-Open Journal per La Formazione in Rete, 16, 177–187. Mortari, L. (2007). Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Roma: Carocci editore. Pellerey, M. (2015). La valorizzazione delle tecnologie mobili nella pratica gestionale e didattica dell’istruzione e formazione a livello di secondo ciclo. Coordinamento scientifico. Roma: Centro nazionale opere salesiane. Ranieri, M. (2011). Le insidie dell’ovvio. Tecnologie educative e critica della retorica tecno centrica. Pisa: ETS. Sità, C. (2012). Indagare l’esperienza. L’intervista fenomenologica nella ricerca educativa. Roma: Carocci editore. Tacconi, G. (2011). La didattica al lavoro. Analisi delle pratiche educative nell’istruzione e formazione professionale. Milano: Franco Angeli. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research. Design and methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.

23

Thank you for your attention!

24

25

www.carvet.org marco.perini@univr.it