The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance ...

Figure 18 investigates training in pedagogy and planning in more detail. Many
teachers do report that they are ‘self taught’ in the more pedagogical aspects of the
IWB. This could imply that many teachers do not feel they need specific training in
these areas. However, this leaves open how many of these teachers may have
actually adapted their pedagogical teaching style since the introduction of IWBs. By
contrast, around a third of teachers are reporting that they have had no training in
pedagogical aspects of the IWB. It is these teachers who may need additional
support in learning how to use the IWB to enhance their teaching.
Figure 18: IWB training for pedagogy and planning
Supporting a mixed learning style with IWBs
Reinforcing learning with IWBs
Formally trained
Informally trained
Self taught
None
Enhancing pupil motivation with IWBs
Encouraging an interactive teaching style
Re-cap on previous lessons by saving and archiving notes
Creating lesson sequences and diagrams
Making a school-based resource bank
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Figure 19 emphasises the extent to which most teachers prefer informal training in
IWBs. This includes self-teaching methods such as trial and error and asking
colleagues for help with specific tasks. Three-quarter of teachers also report that
they find departmental training in IWBs to be useful. This departmental training can
be directed to very specific goals or areas of the curriculum with a body of teachers
agreeing where an IWB resource should be integrated into specific areas of the
department scheme of work. It is also possible that departmental training may be
more likely to demonstrate uses of the IWB that do not disrupt existing schemes of
work and the pedagogical approaches that are implicit in them.
These responses do reveal some of the inherent tensions involved in using formal
training as the main means of disseminating good practice with IWBs. Teachers’
clear preference is for training on a ‘need to know’ basis which can accommodate to
their existing working patterns. Whilst formal training has the potential to
demonstrate uses for the IWB that require a more radical departure from existing
teaching, teachers may see it as disruptive, less useful and requiring a significant
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