Evaluation - Scottish Screen

In all, 11 interviews were undertaken, three observations and three focus group discussions.
Analysis of the staff interviews
Virtually all the respondents firmly located their understanding and purpose of MIE in the
field of pedagogy – in other words, MIE in the early years is about:
the idea of active learning; it’s a vehicle for learning; it’s to encourage
pupils to see the links between different areas of the curriculum and
to generate better understanding.
Interestingly it was a classroom assistant who identified the main purpose of MIE to develop
children’s language, though teachers at the upper end of the early years age-range, that is P3,
articulated the benefit of MIE to help children’s listening and talking skills.
The original purpose of MIE as it operates in the FlaT project in Angus was to promote
children’s literacy primarily in the traditional areas of literacy such as reading, writing,
talking and listening but also in widening children’s literacy skills in the more visual context
to analyse and understand more about the various forms of moving image – video, film,
television and computer images.
In the context of the Early-Years, this purpose was not spontaneously articulated by the
majority of those interviewed. Interpreting the responses of those interviewed, MIE was
regarded more as a means of enhancing active and collaborative learning in the early years of
the primary school whilst in nursery it offered young children new ideas to help motivate
learning.
With regard to respondents’ involvement in MIE activities, all respondents reacted warmly to
the activities but, as with teachers working with MIE in other schools in Angus, the technical
side of the work proved challenging: With technical things you need someone to have that
enthusiasm and show you where to go.
Reaction to the Lead Practitioner Input
The overwhelming response when asked about reactions to the Lead practitioner’s input was
very positive. Typical responses were:
She’s very good – she listens and comes across very well; she’s
knowledgeable and is always available when I need to ask for help; gives all
children a chance to be successful; very understanding of the needs of
teachers and how MIE fits in with what we are doing; inspirational and
supportive to me.
Interestingly the comments provided by the respondents focussed largely on the skills, style
and characteristics of the Lead practitioner herself rather than being focussed on the value of
the actual MIE activities per se. Only one teacher cited her reaction in terms of learning new
skills:
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