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valid support for teaching and from those who consider them ineffective or even harmful for
learning. scholastic learning.
Some argue that the rapid and unplanned shift to online learning will result in less useful
experiences for children; others instead believe that this phase will constitute an opportunity for
reflection to think about new hybrid models of education, with significant educational advantages.
The introduction of new technologies in schools can in fact offer the opportunity for change, not
only at the level of educational tools, but also of teaching approach, stimulating us to reflect on
these processes and innovate them in a conscious and critical way.
The guiding questions that should accompany those involved in education in this reflection are:
o Are ICTs useful for supporting student learning? If so, how can they be effectively
integrated into teaching strategies?
o Can the shift to online learning be the catalyst for creating a new and more effective
way to educate students?
o Can the introduction of new technologies in schools allow us to reflect critically on
the learning and teaching processes and to innovate them in a conscious way?
The results showed that, consistently with the hypothesis, the condition influenced the knowledge
performance of the participants: the children who used the IWB (experimental group) showed a
superior performance compared to the participants in the control condition (traditional teaching),
demonstrating how the use of the IWB in the classroom promotes the learning of knowledge. This 52
advantage may be due to the fact that, as stated in the literature, the IWB can improve student
motivation (Davidovitch, & Yavich, 2017; Higgins, Beauchamp, & Miller, 2007; Morgan, 2012; Smith
et al., 2005) and promote interest and concentration (Glover & Miller, 2007). Furthermore, it was
found a significant main effect of metacognition: higher levels of metacognitive competence were
associated with better learning. This result is consistent with the literature showing the powerful
predictive role of metacognition on learning.
Why is relevant for adult educators and adult education centers?
Why this case study is a success / best practice?
A strong relationship between ICT and transversal skills is therefore confirmed, as emerged from a
literature review (Cadamuro, Bisagno, Pecini, and Vezzali, 2019), which highlighted how technology-
mediated learning favours the development of metacognitive skills that, in turn, can lead to better
learning outcomes. Learning performance, therefore, may not be the only relevant indices to
consider when developing or evaluating innovative learning environments. The latter could in fact
act on motivation and/or transversal skills, such as metacognition, which in turn could produce
indirect effects on learning.
ICTs can support those who need it most, i.e. students with fewer transversal skills, to benefit from
a traditional lesson, thus helping to reduce the gap between students with different metacognitive