Effective ICT teaching in the classroom
by Naimish Gohil

Through the ICT lessons I observed I found several points that I felt were at times good and at some other times less successful practices within the classroom. I'll begin by commenting on some effective classroom management practices I observed. For one year seven class I observed the teacher ensured that even before the class entered the room they were focused settled down and ready to work by queuing them up outside. This worked really well because when the students entered, they were ready and on target as when the teacher preceded with the lesson objectives. In addition the class had a seating plan and one of the students handed out the folders. This seemed like a routine process the class does each lesson.

In contrast, a year nine class I observed students were allowed to walk in with their bags and jackets, some even strolled in late. For those that came in late the teacher did not follow up on why they came late after the lesson as was stated. Some students just logged on and started surfing the internet. From observing this lesson I felt the students were not focused and had room to mess about and discuss other things which were not ICT related at a very important part of the lesson. It took the teacher several attempts to get the full attention.

Following on from this, I identified important how important if was for the teacher to obtain the attention of the class in order to teach effectively. I found that for one teacher a countdown method to three was really useful to get their attention. Again this was for a year seven class and I feel with older year groups this may not work as well and a more subtle approach may be needed. For example I found that where class rooms had rules in place and students understood these and were aware of the consequences then this tended to help keep students in line to a certain degree. I believe it helps create a boundary or terms that everyone within class are in check with and as a result know the consequences of their actions if these rules are broke.

Following on from rules in the classroom, I found that it was important students are praised and rewarded appropriately. Rewarding and praising is very important and keeps students motivated. It also gives them something to be proud off. For many it also brings a smile and I found that a happy, bubbly class room where the students are learning with an element of fun helps greatly in students wanting to get involved take an interest and use their own initiatives to support their learning. By being in the classroom first hand I noticed on several occasions that the rapport between teachers and students plays an important part within the classroom learning environment. Teachers do not need to shout or repeat themselves several times to get their attention.

From my limited experience I found that students like to be talked to on the same level and not talked down to them. If they can feel they are on a level playing field where there is mutual respect then it definitely helps within the classroom. However I do feel this can only be achieved through thought out lesson planning, interactive lessons and using content for projects that students can relate to. I would argue these elements are important because I observed the flip side of what an ICT lesson can be like without these aspects. You end up in a learning environment where students go off tangent and are using applications such as Publisher, PowerPoint without objectives and reasoning as to why such tools would be useful in a real world context.

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