The influence of IT: perspectives from five Australian schools

Abstract Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are now widespread in Australian schools but with variation in how, where, when and how much they are used. Computers may be located in a computer laboratory, distributed throughout the school, or students may use their own laptop computers. IT may be a subject in its own right or ICT may be used across all areas of the curriculum. It is how ICT is used in the school setting that is important in providing students with the skills to be participate in a 'knowledge society'. This paper examines the ways in which information and communication technologies influence teaching and learning in five Australian schools. Data were gathered through observation, interviews and document analysis in schools operating at the elementary and secondary grades in relatively technology rich environments. Each of the schools participated in the Australian component of the Second Information Technology in Education Study – Module 2 (SITES-M2) of innovative pedagogical practices. Several of the studies were of specific projects where ICT was the key enabler of the learning programme. Others focused on an entire school's approach to ICT as an agent for changed approaches to learning.     

Styles of engagement with learning: Multidimensional assessment of their relationship with strategy use and school achievement.

Examined ways in which student beliefs and goals distinguish different styles of engagement with learning and how such styles are associated with both the strategies students report using when preparing for exams and school achievement. Cluster analysis was used to identify groups of students with similar patterns of beliefs about their own learning. Within a cohort of 137 female 11th-grade students, 6 styles of engagement were identified. Analysis of the influence of these styles on strategies adopted for exam preparation indicated differences in the strategies reported. Styles of engagement were also significantly related to school achievement. Findings are discussed in terms of insights achieved through adopting methods of analysis that preserve the multidimensional character of student engagement with learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of model warmth on imitation learning in adult chronic psychotics.

Tested predictions derived from social learning research with children, employing experimental dyads. In a factorial design, 18 male and 18 female adult chronic psychotic inpatients either (a) interacted with an adult model who was noncontingently warm and rewarding, (b) interacted with a neutral and nonrewarding model, or (c) were not exposed to a model. In a 2nd phase, the model displayed task responses and novel behaviors incidental to the task, and the S's subsequent imitation of the model was recorded. Findings support the hypotheses that adult chronic psychotics can acquire new behaviors through observation of a model without contingent reward to either party, and that a previously positive relationship with a model facilitates such learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship.

Although influences of interest on learning are well documented, mediating processes have not been clarified. The authors investigated how individual and situational interest factors contribute to topic interest and text learning. Traditional self-report measures were combined with novel interactive computerized methods of recording cognitive and affective reactions to science and popular culture texts, monitoring their development in real time. Australian and Canadian students read 4 expository texts. Both individual interest variables and specific text titles influenced topic interest. Examination of processes predictive of text learning indicated that topic interest was related to affective response, affect to persistence, and persistence to learning. Combining self-rating scales with dynamic measures of student activities provided new insight into how interest influences learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)