END International conference on EDUCATION AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS How Can The Technology Introduction Foster Educational Innovation In VET Centers? A Comparative Case Study Marco Perini & Arianna Costantini University of Verona
Technology innovation and Italian education system (brief history) 1985 - National Plan of Information Technology 1995 - Development Plan of Educational Technologies 2002 - National Plan for Teachers Education on Information and Communication Technologies (ForTic) 2007 - National Plan for Digital School Project “ Cl@ssi 2.0 ” Project “ Scuol@ 2.0 ” Project “ Editoria digitale ” La Buona Scuola 2
The highlighted issues The “ Review of the Italian digital strategy for digital schools ” (OCED, 2013) highlighted the following issues: Teachers ’ occasional engagement in the projects Insufficient use of funds that prevented a systematic change Missed prevision of an adequate teacher education plan Missed economic recognition of teachers involved in the projects 3
Other critical issues The lack of an adequate instructional design The inefficiency of schools ’ technical infrastructures (e.g. an efficient internet connection) The obsolescence of devices The teachers ’ resistance to change The overestimation of ICT educational potentiality Thus, technologies are still promoted without a real change of educational approaches and teaching practices and without any discussion of didactics and educational objectives already considered 4
The federation The federation counts 60 VET centers in 16 Italian regions Courses (mainly) provided: 3 years initial Vocational Education Training courses Professional sectors promoted: mechanical, electronic, graphic, tertiary, and tourist It coordinates the promotion and the vocational training activities of its centers through regional delegations 5
The iCnos project (1) Is an experimental project which started in 2012 promoted and led by the central coordination of the CNOS- FAP federation through the organization of pedagogical and technological teacher training courses The students families were asked to buy an iPad device instead of textbooks A teacher was in charge of coordinating independently the innovation process in each center 6
The iCnos project (2) At the beginning of the experimentation (2012) 7 centers 744 students 210 teachers In 4 years (2016) 26 centers 3100 students 350 teachers 7
Research questions How can an institutional innovation process foster pedagogical and organizational changes in VET centers? Which are the shortcomings? How do the shortcomings have been managed by the VET centers? 8
Research methodology Grounded theory Comparative case study approach MIX For comparing different contexts To compare different situations regarding organizations, maintaining the emerging theory programs or policies by grounded in data examining specific cases (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser et al., (Campbell, 2010; Yin, 2009) 1968) 9
Data collection Four VET centers were randomly selected The teachers in charge of the coordination of the project of each selected center were interviewed Semi-structured questionnaire All interviews were recorded and transcribed Project documentation and teaching materials were gathered 10
Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(1) Open coding - to identify and conceptualize the main 1) actions undertaken on behalf of the project in the corpus of data The answer were labelled The narratives were coded, compared, merged, and modified without distinction between the different cases The encoding of information was conducted with NVivo 11 (qualitative data analysis software) 35 main actions were identified 11
Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(2) Open coding example Main actions Narratives Focusing the We ’ ve learned to use different things, understanding how the teachers ’ training device works and understanding how to involve students both on the use of [*INT3/34] iPad and on There were both technical training and pedagogical training pedagogical aspects [*INT1/36] The course was not just on apps, but also on instructional aspects [*INT2/29] We made this choice because we had a transversal training for all the teachers [*INT4/3] … … 12
Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(3) Axial coding - to review all the main actions identified 2. during the open coding procedure and to group them into subcategories and categories 4 core categories were identified Focusing on Launching the Carrying on the instructional Facing problems innovation process innovation process practices innovation 13
Step 1 – Grounded theory approach(4) Axial coding example Core categories Main actions Launching the Favoring the sharing of teachers ’ experiences during institutional innovation meetings; organizing iPad trainings for the students ’ parents. Organizing teachers ’ training prior to the use of the device in the process classroom. Focusing the teachers ’ training both on the use of iPad and on pedagogical aspects. Keep on boosting internet connectivity. Continuing to try new apps and electronic teaching materials. … … … 14
Emerging categories scheme Launching the Carrying on the Focusing on innovation innovation Facing problems instructional Axial Coding process process practices Core categories innovation MA1 MA2 MA3 MA4 Open Coding MA5 MA6 MA … Main actions MA35 _______ _______ _______ _______ Narratives from _______ _______ _______ _______ interviews _______ _______ _______ _______
Step 2 – Case comparison (1) Each case was compared on the basis of the core categories emerged in the first step of analysis The use of Nvivo 11 software allowed researchers to cross and compare the respondents ’ experiences with the core categories detected For each case the data were integrated with the gathered information about the VET centers involved in the study This procedure has allowed us to identify common actions and different actions in their respective studied cases 16
CASES Cas e 1 (Verona) Cas e 2 (Udine) Cas e 3 (Mes tre) Cas e 4 (Este) Profes s ional Electronic, graphic, Mechanical and Mechanical, graphic Tourism, s ectors energy, marble and Electronic and Electronic electronic, Informations promoted by mechanical. graphic and the center mechanical. Project start 2012/2013 2013/2014 2012/2013 2012/2013 2 nd and 3 rd year students. 2 nd and 3 rd year 2 nd and 3 rd year Students All students. involved students. students. Technological Mobile Device Mobile Device Only some functions Mobile Device as pects Management software not Management of the MDM are used. Management used. software not used. software is not used. All student bought an iPad (minimum features have been indicated) . Boosting internet connectivity. Several classrooms have been upgraded introducing Apple TV and projectors. Getting support from students ’ families. Core categories Launching the Gradually involve the Gradually involve Involving all sectors Involving all Singular action innovation professional sectors. the classes. and classes. sectors and proces s classes. Favoring the sharing of Identifying reference Organizing reciprocal teachers ’ experiences teachers. observation of teachers ’ classroom during institutional meetings; organizing iPad activities; mutually Common action trainings for the students ’ identifying teachers ’ parents. good practices. Organizing teachers ’ training prior to the use of the device in the classroom. Focusing the teachers ’ training both on the use of iPad and on pedagogical aspects. Keep on boosting internet connectivity. Continuing to try new apps and electronic teaching materials. 17 Carrying on the Keeping in touch with the others CNOS-FAP centers involved in the project. innovation Sharing good practices with other VET centers. proces s Organizing teachers ’ Favoring the sharing Keeping in touch with ’ ’ ’
The main results of this study (reported in the matrix Table) represent a set of suggestions that could be taken into account by the CNOS-FAP federation when the iCnos project will be extended to all the federation centers. 18
Discussion (1) The comparison of interviews and the other gathered data shown that the innovation process has been taking different forms in every VET center context There are several factors that seems to be crucial in the innovation process investigated: The IT infrastructure efficiency (internet connection investment) 1. The pedagogical orientation of teachers ’ training (human resource 2. investment) The constant linkage and comparison between federation ’ s centers 3. The decision freedom left to the coordinators which allowed the 4. adaptation of experimentation to the different VET contexts 19
Discussion (2) These factors were compared with similar cases that have been identified through a brief literature review (Franchini, 2015; Giuseppina, 2014) This comparison seems to confirm the central role of pedagogical orientation and instructional practices . 20
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