Journal of In-Service Education

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IT‐INSET in practice: some early impressions

Neil Straker

To cite this article: Neil Straker (1987) IT‐INSET in practice: some early impressions, Journal of
In-Service Education, 13:3, 138-141, DOI: 10.1080/0305763870130306

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IT-INSET in practice : some early impressions

Neil Straker
School of Education, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

IT-INSET represents a link between the initial
training (IT) of student teachers and the in-service
education (INSET) of experienced teachers. Dur-
ing the 1 986-87 academic year, mathematics edu-
cation tutors at the School of Education, Univer-
sity of Newcastle upon Tyne, have implemented
an IT-INSET programme, aimed at enhancing the
initial training of 26 PGCE mathematics students
and the in-service training of mathematics
teachers in one LEA in North East England. Stu-
dents and their tutors are working in mathema-
tics classrooms on activities (and using ap-
proaches) which the mathematics teachers in the
participating schools have not previously en-
countered. The structure and organisation of the
138
model was described in detail in an ea lier paper
(Straker, 1986). The present paper describes the
working of the model in practice in its early stages
and looks at the effects on student tegchers and
experienced classroom teachers.
The Newcastle model is:
'deliberately focused on one selected local
authority so as to include advisers and
teacher advisers as members of |the team.
Rather than be determined by the normal
class teacher, the programme of work which
the children will follow is negotiated between
advisers, teachers, tutors and students, and
is specifically aimed at introducing new
 teaching approaches to students and
teachers. In short it represents an IT-INSET
model which is designed to generate innova-
tion in a subject area, in this case mathema-
tics'.
(Straker, 1986, p.112)
It was the intention that the project should be
located in a limited number of schools, ideally
four. Because of the large number of mathema-
tics student recruits to the 1986-87 PGCE course,
five schools were eventually selected. Three of
the five schools agreed to accept four students
each while one school accepted six students and
the other school eight. The schools were chosen
initially on the recommendation of the advisory
teacher working most closely with the IT-INSET
project. She selected . schools where the
mathematics staff would welcome the opportun-
ity to work with the students and would be recep-
tive to the various approaches which the students
would present. The advisory teacher felt that the
five schools selected would benefit from the
programme. Predictably, there were a number of
timetabling difficulties as the University was re-
stricted to one particular day per week when stu-
dents could visit the project schools. It was also
intended that the students should work with first,
second or third year mathematics groups. Some
schools were able and prepared to revise timeta-
bles to accommodate the project, while others
found it impossible. The end result was a set of
five schools which varied somewhat in their wil-
lingness to become involved in IT-INSET.
The intention was that early in the course, after
the students had spent two weeks on participant
observation in other schools (one week in prim-
ary, one in secondary), they would spend one
morning per week in the project schools for a
three week period in October, leading up to their
first (three weeks) teaching practice. No student
would be required to become involved in whole
class teaching in the project schools. A maximum
group size of eight children per student was en-
visaged, with three or four students operating in
each classroom. For part of the final term of the
course (May and June), six school based sessions
were to be included.
During the first part of the IT-INSET prog-
ramme, it was considered essential that students
were involved in a range of activities which would
develop certain teaching skills : explaining
mathematical ideas, giving instructions, ques-
tioning, preparing lessons and support materials.
and learning to cope with pupils who had diffi-
culty in understanding mathematics. It was also
felt that involvement with a maximum of eight
pupils would helpthestudentteacherstoform re-
lationships with the children and to generally de-
velop a rapport with a group of pupils.
For the initial session, however, the two tutors
and advisory teacher agreed on a particular
mathematical activity which was felt to be rela-
tively trouble-free. It was felt essential that the ac-
tivity would require some, but nottoo much, exp-
lanation and exposition on the teacher's part, so
that the ordeal experienced by the students on
what might be their first encounter with pupils
was kept to an acceptable minimum. The activity
chosen was a number activity known as the '1,2,
3, 4 problem'. The learner is expected to create
sums, using any mathematical operation he or
she cares to employ, and including each of the di-
gits 1, 2, 3 and 4 only once, so as to produce
answers from 1 to 20. For example 14 could be
obtained by writing the sum (1 x 2) + (3 x 4) while
12 could be 3 2 + (4 - 1).
One value of this particular activity as a starting
point was that it involved an element of explana-
tion, questioning and discussion (both teacher-
pupil and pupil-pupil). There was scope for fol-
low-up work and refinement, ('Can you find
another way of making 147 'Does anyone have a
neater way of making 12?) and little difficulty in
extending the activity for those pupils who had
made rapid progress on the first task ('Can we
make numbers greater than 100 using the same
rules'?).
The students were presented with the activity
in their first week of lectures during a mathema-
tics workshop, being asked to find 'answers' bet-
ween 80 and 100. They were encouraged to work
in groups which was greatly appreciated. Even
graduate mathematicians can lack confidence
when confronted with a mathematical activity!
More importantly, however, the value of en-
couraging pupils to work in a collaborative and
co-operative manner was recognised by the
PGCE students. The IT-INSET lessons were also
prepared on a group basis, each group going to
some lengths to produce a more elaborate and
imaginative presentation than the others.
Prior to the start of the programme, tutors had
been involved in visiting the project schools to
discuss the aims of IT-INSET with mathematics
staff. The time commitment for the tutors was
considerable, and had been underestimated
when costing the perceived demands of the IT-
139
INSET programme. The financial cost to the de-
partment was also relatively heavy, approxi-
mately £500 p.a. for travelling expenses and the
extra materials needed.
The first session appeared to be successful
from the students' point of view. They admitted
to being exceptionally nervous, but in the first
feedback session it became clear that the stu-
dents had enjoyed the session and had benefitted
greatly from the experience. Several students re-
marked at a later stage that the experience of the
IT-INSET work helped enormously when it came
to theirfirstteaching practice. Standing infrontof
a full class of children became less of an ordeal as
a result of the experience gained in the project
schools, a point which was also noted by the
mathematics tutors. The range of ability of the
chilren in the project groups had surprised many
students. During the work on the " I , 2, 3,4 prob-
lem' some students were shocked to find children
who were unable to perform the simplest of
mathematical operations without a great deal of
difficulty. Students began to see the value of an
activity-led approach to mathematics:
They discovered brackets, I never men-
tioned brackets and they hadn't done brac-
kets before in maths, but they needed to use
them so they were forced into it'.
'It was amazing how quickly the time went.
The kids really got into the problem. We were
all disappointed when we had to stop. I can't
remember many maths lessons like that
when I was at school'.
From the students point of view the learning
experience was invaluable. Tutors had been pre-
sent, working alongside students without inter-
vening in any major way. Occasionally tutors in-
troduced the topic but in general they tended to
allow the students to teach and manage the les-
son. Tutors were able to make important points to
the students, however, and give appropriate ad-
vice. The feedback sessions had the effect of
bonding the whole group together. The students
had shared a common experience with varying
outcomes, and the evaluation of that experience
had resulted in a growing awareness of the task
facing them in their chosen career.
During these early weeks of the course, stu-
dents were being introduced to a variety of inves-
tigational activities and problems : 'FROGS',
'CHESSBOARD', 'PAINTED CUBE', 'PEN-
TOMINOES', 'BILLIARDS' and a range of others.
140
An element of choice was built into' the prog-
ramme for the next two sessions. Having experi-
enced these standard investigations, students
chose their programme for the following week
and planned accordingly. Again the competitive
element between the groups resulted in some
highly imaginative, and often ambiticus, lesson
planning. Various practical materials and visual
aids were produced, either for derronstration
purposes or for pupil use. Some g oups pro-
duced special work for individual pupils of par-
ticularly high or low ability. Within twa weeks of
the commencement of the PGCE cou se, lesson
planning of high quality was occurring. From the
students' point of view, the benefits cf IT-INSET
were enormous.
The second and third school-base i sessions
were also valuable. Not every lesson was a suc-
cess, but during the feedback sessio is the stu-
dents were able to report back to the rest of the
group and received suggestions or how im-
provements could be made. Tutors were impre-
ssed by the overall enthusiasm of the students,
their self criticality and capacity to earn from
their mistakes.
The benefits of the school-based work became
most evident when students began their first
teaching practice. There was a level of :onfidence
which had not been apparent in previous years.
Lesson planning was, in general, mora thorough
and more imaginative, and there was a recogni-
tion that a great effort had to be made at the plan-
ning level in order to present mathematics in an
interesting, thought-provoking manner. Simi-
larly, during campus-based worksho D sessions,
the 1986-87 students seemed much more ready
to accept new ideas and adopt them in their
teaching. In short, there was an unpecedented
level of maturity which appeared to st3m directly
from the participant observation ahd the IT-
INSET programme.
During the first term the IT-INSET programme
was seen as being much more heavily weighted
towards student needs than teac her needs.
Nevertheless there were some indicators as to
how the teachers would react. In some schools
the teachers felt that the exercise was solely for
the students' benefit and therefore regarded the
lesson as a 'free period' where they iould leave
the class in the students' charge. In otner schools,
teachers showed much more interest in the ac-
tivities, and either observed or worked alongside
the students. There was evidence that these
teachers developed and continued the
mathematical activities in follow-up lessons.
There was clearly a weakness in that the IT-
INSET programme was, on the whole, working in
only one direction with the students gaining
much but teachers benefitting in either a limited
way or not at all.
The pupils seemed to be genuinely apprecia-
tive of the opportunity. They welcomed the extra
individual attention and appeared to enjoy the ac-
tivities which were presented to them. Some
teachers mentioned that their classes had re-
quested further work of the type introduced by
the students.
At the time of writing the project has been in
operation for only three school-based sessions.
Nevertheless, a number of lessons have been
learned which have been incorporated into the
planning for the third term of the course. Discus-
sions have taken place with the advisory teacher
and the heads of mathematics in the five schools.
It has been decided that rather than plan a set of
six lessons, the students and their tutors will pre-
pare a set of activities which will require follow-
up work from the teachers. If, for example, a les-
son on tessellation is planned, the students will
leave the class teacher with a set of follow-up ac-
tivities and extensions of the work for use in non-
project lessons. At the request of the advisory
teacher, it has been decided to include a range of
practical activities on shape, aspects of problem
solving, and some individualised assessments
with GCSE in mind. Thus the programme will
comprise:
1. Multilink activities on surface area and vol-
ume.
2. Investigations with polyominoes,
polyiamonds and polycombs.
3. Tessellations.
4. Problem solving with real mathematics.
5. Assessing oral skills and mental mathema-
tics.
6. Assessing practical mathematics.
This set of activities also goes some way to-
wards meeting a request from the schools for
ideas on extended pieces of mathematics for
GCSE course-work.
It is also intended that formative evaluation will
occur on a weekly basis where tutors will meet in-
dividual class teachers to discuss the follow-up
activities and to amend the six-session prog-
ramme if it is felt that the teachers are not benefit-
ting sufficiently. It is felt that this process should
be of direct benefit to both students and teachers.
The lack of impact on teachers has been a prob-
lem to date, and it is hoped that schools, through
being much more closely involved in the plan-
ning of the programme, will participate more in
the work during the summer term.
Summary
The statement of intent on initiating the model
was set out in the 1986 paper, where benefits for
teachers were stressed:
'It is essential, however, that such an ap-
proach forges a partnership so that teachers
in the participating schools develop profes-
sionally from the experience ... the model
constitutes an effective model of school-
based in-service training.
Teachers will have the opportunity to ex-
perience new and varied methods . . . Heads
of departments will be able to utilize the ex-
perience in order to facilitate departmental
discussion on key issues in mathematics
eduction'.
(Straker, 1986, p.114)
In short, the project cannot be seen to be work-
ing inthisway.and there now needs to bea major
emphasis on teacher involvement in the next part
of the project if the IT-INSET model is to be a two-
way learning process for teachers and students.
Clearly the introduction of these activities into the
various mathematics departments has not facili-
tated in-service education for the teachers, and
the negotiation, now envisaged on an individual
school basis, should assist in forming a better re-
lationship to everyone's satisfaction.
Bibliography
Straker, N. (1986) 'IT-INSET: Partnership in the Initial Train-
ing of Teachers', British Journal of In-Service Education,
12: 2 : 112-114.
141