What is Four in Balance? - PDST

4 - VisionKnowledge transfer is the most common teaching method in primary andsecondary education (Figure 4.1). For example, almost all primary schoolteachers assign pupils exercises to help them absorb what they havebeen taught. Three quarters of secondary school teachers introduce newmaterial by outlining it and explaining tricky points in advance. More thantwo thirds of primary and secondary school teachers ask questions aboutthe material they have assigned. Teachers also anticipate that they will beusing these techniques just as often in three years’ time, if not more.Teachers are also expected to make more use of ICT in the years ahead.In the case of knowledge transfer, for example, we see that they areincreasingly borrowing images and video clips from the Internet to livenup their lessons. At the moment, 44% of teachers make frequent or veryfrequent use of such images or clips, and 66% of teachers expect to doso in three years’ time. They also anticipate making greater use of theinteractive whiteboard. Now, half of the teachers do so frequently or veryfrequently; in three years, teachers say, that number will have risen tothree quarters.With respect to knowledge construction, ICT is increasingly being usedto support collaboration between pupils. At the moment, an average of13% of teachers use ICT frequently or very frequently to support suchcollaboration. Teachers expect that figure to rise to 35% in three years’time. They also assume that they will be giving pupils more assignmentsrequiring them to search for answers on the Internet. Right now, 9% ofteachers give pupils such assignments frequently or very frequently; inthree years’ time, 28% of teachers expect that they will do so. In addition,teachers believe that lessons that do not make use of ICT will remainimportant.45