TEACH

Project website

http://www.crecim.cat/projectes/roadmapTEACH/

What research questions the project addresses, aims & themes

The Technology Enhanced Activities for Learning Science for Children in Hospital (TEACH) project aims to analyse current educational developments and needs for chronically ill children who are often hospitalised and then see how to apply technology effectively to give these children an alternate education experience, appropriate to their circumstances.

The project is focused around providing a Roadmap for technology enhanced activities, accessible and useful to educators whose role is to support these learners together with a set of evidence-based Design criteria for developing science teaching-learning sequences for hospital settings that include technology enhanced activities with an e-feedback component.

In general the aim of a technology roadmap is to provide a consensus view or vision of the future landscape available to decision makers to get then from A to B. In this case A is where chronically ill children cannot keep up with the school curriculum and spend long periods at home and in hospital without attending school. B is where a science curriculum is developed with input from doctors, nurses and teachers for these children and delivered via laptops/mobile devices to children in their own homes or in hospital and they no longer feel isolated from the normal study process.

How the research questions are addressed by the project (methodology and activity/environment)

The TeaCH project has been divided in the following five stages:

1. Compilation of key documents & current practices for developing the framework of the TeaCH roadmap. The research team has identified and classified existing documents and current practices or resources dealing with ICT and learning in hospital (particularly in science) published in official policy documents, academic papers or legacy websites by National educational government departments, the European Commission, Patient civil society organisations, Health promotion organisations, Hospital school teachers associations, Hospital school teachers and Healthcare staff. The themes for building the framework document for the Roadmap have been identified via analysis and synthesis of these materials
2. Iterative consultation as Delphi method about supporting technology enhanced science learning for hospitalized children.  The development and implementation of on-line questionnaires, using an adaption of the Delphi method has been used to inform a first draft of the Roadmap. The on-line questionnaires have been sent to a group of experts with different expertise in several rounds. After each round, the research team have provided an anonymous summary of the expert's forecasts from the previous round as well as the reasons they provided for their judgments. Experts have been encouraged to revise their previous answers in light of the replies of other members of the group to arrive at a consensus about visions and barriers to support children's technology-enhanced science learning in hospital.
3. Elaboration of the Roadmap and generation of the visualisation model for the Roadmap for TeaCH. The iterative consultation data collected has been analysed and compared with the literature in the field. Facilitators and possible strategies for introducing technology-enhanced science learning have been visualised and proposed. This has all contributed to the Roadmap for TeaCH, which includes a set of recommendations on research, development and actions affecting the widespread adoption of technology enhanced activities for learning science in hospital context, that should be adopted by the super organisations, the organisational, and the individual key players involved in providing education for hospitalised children. A two dimensional graphical representation (visual model) of the Roadmap has been developed to map the factors affecting the development and uptake of TeaCH in Spanish organisations involved in supporting children's learning in hospital.
4. Establishment of design criteria for teaching-learning with technology-enhanced activities with e-feedback.  Design criteria have been established for learning and teaching science materials that include technology-enhanced activities to be used in the hospital context. Both sources of criteria have been used to refine the previous sequence and to establish an evidence-based design-criteria for developing science technology enhanced activities with e-feedback for children in hospital with a proposal. A compilation, analysis and synthesis of documents on e-feedback has been done and compiled in an on-line database.
5. Dissemination and transfer of knowledge of the Roadmap for TeaCH and the Design criteria for developing TeaCH. This last stage is to set up a structured programme to disseminate the pedagogical advances (final report of the project) and dissemination products (the project website, the key documents & current practices database; Roadmap for TeaCH e-edition; publications for science and/or technology education journalsand a set of presentations for national and international conferences).

Findings and outputs

The development of the stages of the TeaCH project has produced the following outcomes:

1. The legacy Teach Project website
2. An on-line database of key documents & current practice and resources dealing with ICT, science and learning in hospital
3. An on-line database of key documents on e-feedback for learning (particularly in science)
4. Several briefings of pedagogical advances
5. A descriptive document of the process of iteration and preliminary results from the consultation
6. The yearly progress reports and the final report of the project
7. The Roadmap for TeaCH (e-book)
8. The visualisation model for the Roadmap
9. A set of evidence-based design-criteria for developing science technology enhanced activities with e-feedback for children in hospital
10. Learning-Teaching sequence on nutrition-kidney function with technology enhanced activities and e-feedback
11. A set of presentations to national and international conferences
12. Academic papers submitted to science education and technology journals

Project impact

The cost of providing home schooling will be reduced using this method together with cost savings in delivering the curriculum. It will also promoted a better quality of life for the children. Additionally the roadmap will inform the Spanish Government and can affect policy.

Chronically ill children who receive science enriched information from medical staff throughout the course of their illness will no longer have lower science literacy. A lack of scientific knowledge often means that children may not be able to fully comprehend the full extent of their illness which, in turn, can impede compliance with their treatment and recommendations for their future lifestyle and diet. Spinoffs include for the team to provide roadmaps for other EU countries and other hospitals in the UK to use the Nefreduca programme after it is translated. We would like to see the plan implemented to support chronically ill children as described in the roadmap.

Publications

http://crecim.uab.cat/projectes/roadmapTEACH/index.php

http://oro.open.ac.uk/24521/

Journal article from Phase 1 of project http://oro.open.ac.uk/22926/

Journal article from Phase 1 of project http://oro.open.ac.uk/23856/

Conference presentation on ORO http://caa.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Papers/Whitelock-CAA2010.pdf

Keywords

roadmap; chronic illness; science teaching; technology; mobile phone; hospitalised children

People involved

The CRECIM (Centre de Recerca per a l'Educació Científica i Matemàtica) at the UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

• Dr. Rufina Gutiérrez (Project coordinator. Senior researcher in Science Education)
• Professor Roser Pintó (Senior researcher in Science Education. Director of the Crecim)
• Marcel·la Saez (Ph.D student in Science education)

The CREET (Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology) at the OU (The Open University)

• Dr. Denise Whitelock (Senior researcher in the Educational Dialogue arena mediated by computers)

Project partners and links

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Centre de Recerca per a l'Educació Científica i Matemàtica

The Open University

Funder(s)

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICCIN) of Spain (Ref:EDU2009-13704-subprograma EDUC)

Start Date and duration

1 January 2010 - 31 December 2012