George Churchill PGCE Year 2

EPF 309 (1b)

How do you use technology to promote higher order thinking

skills? Use practical examples to illustrate how technology

supports active learning.

Word Count: 1936

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 George Churchill PGCE Year 2
Introduction

Technology is a rapidly developing area of education and it is important nobody gets left behind.

Rather then creating barriers, technology used in education can be used effectively as a tool for

inclusion and support individuals needs, overcoming barriers of access to the curriculum. The

learners I support are all post 16 and each learner has unique individual needs to enable their

lifelong development. My learners are categorised under special education, a generic term used to

represent learners who have dif culties in learning and require more supported education to

overcome obstacles that negatively impact their development in education and life skills.

Dif culties in developing thinking skills has put my learners focus on rote memory rather then

complex thinking such as problem solving and decision making. There are many innovations with

technology that can support SEN and it has been suggested in the Journal of Special Education

Technology that technology can act as a cognitive prothesis, to create conditions for equal

opportunity with the curriculum.

It is also important to remember that technology alone does nothing and requires teachers with a

positive attitude to collaborate with learners and colleagues to put it into practice. The purpose of

my job is to promote independence and HOTS, which is central to any vocational programme or

curriculum at any level and indeed pervades all aspects of education. I am responsible to my

learners taking control of their environment and gaining independent living skills at NEAS. The

ability to exercise control over ones environment is an essential prerequisite for the development of

skills related to decision making and problem solving (Banes & Coles, 1994: p. 8).

Literature Review

The main concern in my role supporting learners with ASC is, does technology predominantly

occupy my learners rather then educate them? Cuban (2001) reported teachers view computers

as audiovisual equipment and do use them to support HOTS but tend not to drive and develop

them. There are many areas that can create barriers for my learners and making adaptations is an

essential role I must ful l to meet individuals needs. The most highlighted areas my learners need

support with include communication/interaction, cognition/learning, emotional/social development

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
and sensory/physical (Department for Education & Skills 2001: S7:52, p. 85). The Journal of

Special Education Technology has suggested that technology can act as a cognitive prosthesis to

create conditions for equal opportunity with the curriculum. ICT has huge potential to engage

learners HOTS and can provide opportunities for teachers to develop their CPD (Florian & Hegarty,

2004). By enabling technology, we as teachers are providing the basis for inclusion to aid and

develop HOTS, in my role some of my learners can struggle to form a character or word with a

pencil, but by introducing a keyboard (which can be modi ed to suit learners needs), my learners

can hit a key on a keyboard, empowering and enabling my learners to be able to ful l an everyday

task they once found beyond their grasp. Our current technology is made more inclusive and

portable to use in a variety of environments and this has changed the dynamics of education and

inclusion. It is obvious that technology is a great aid/resource that can overcome learners physical

or communication barriers, but how does it integrate and develop HOTS?

Barriers to HOTS

SEN learners using ICT in mainstream education can be isolated, using technology resources

different from other learners can make them appear different to others and also exclude them from

group work, stunting both social and language development. Teachers are expected to incorporate

new technology equipment and software into their teaching with little or no training or support, but

only their own initiative to develop CPD in their social time. Maintenance of equipment also

requires expertise (maintain network, install/update software, PAC testing for safety) and so can

prove costly in both mainstream and SEN, this unfortunately relies on funding, those on low

funding can be excluded. Implementing or using software/technology for the rst time can also

lead to high levels of stress, technical issues can be behavioural triggers and upset or break

routine with some of my learners who then have a negative experience. In SEN learners often

leave education without developing HOTS that they can use as transferrable skills in employment,

they do not envision their interests and hobbies as having an actual profession. We as teachers

need to raise more awareness and implement strategies to make sure employable skills are

developed within our sessions that use technology. ICT can provide a platform that has structure

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 George Churchill PGCE Year 2
for working experiences while still in education, at NEAS we deliver sessions such as business

administration (book making, recipe building, newsletters), and these are skills that take place in

every of ce around the country in employment.

Assessment

SEN Code of Practice (Department of Education & Skills, 2001) stresses early identi cation of SEN

for intervention, these need strategies in place for screening and assessing. Assessment depends

on good diagnosis, which is not easy and can be time consuming, requiring previous experience in

SEN. Assessment is not a single event but a continuous one, but if early intervention encounters

problems you risk learners failing a lot, which can have negative impacts, these can have both

emotional and motivational repercussions such as learnt failure damaging con dence and causing

anxieties in the future. Fortunately, with the development and implementation of technology, we

now have computer based assessments in place to aid teachers, taking away human errors (CBA),

enabling technology to assess a learner by providing scores on performance, making it speedier,

more reliable and also ef cient (Olsen, 1990), applying computerised adaptive testing in schools.

What CBA cannot provide is rst hand observation (mood, effort, health and emotion) as only

human observation can detect this, such things as visual discomfort, speech and language.

Dyscalculia screening for learning dif culties in numeracy can be more effective with CBA, so it

appears integrating both methods of assessment is bene cial rather then one or the other,

modifying assessments to involve both technology and rst hand observation.

Positives to HOTS

There are unlimited advantages of using technology in education, but are they a long term bene t

to development? Poor phonic skills can be improved and aided through practice, linking in with

behaviourism theory. For example, word processing with computer aided speech feedback to

decode words unfamiliar to my learners does and can improve reading comprehension and

develop speech and vocabulary. Many of my learners within NEAS love to use new words and

learn pronunciations and meanings, they can be very inquisitive and eager to understand

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
conversations around them and computer aided technology supports them. In our case software

such as Microsoft Word and Communicate and Print are positive resources that support my

learners and can also act as an assessment tool, as well as diagnosing areas such as cognitive

functioning and dyslexia etc. These can aid expressive language, improving social communication

and interaction that are fundamental to breaking down barriers in the wider community. These

integrated learning systems also provide instant feedback for staff and learners and can be applied

to every subject in the curriculum in mainstream education, not just SEN.

Areas that support my learners go beyond cognitive, speech and language. With technology also

aiding learners visually, physically and vocationally. Keyboards can be modi ed to have larger

letters or shaped to suit the individual learner and a mouse with the keyboard can aid motor control

and hand to eye co-ordination that enables learners in SEN to access writing, create pictures,

patterns, designs (card making/textiles etc) and produce or develop presentation skills (powerpoint,

person centred plans etc). Speech, images, words and animation can be combined in interactive

ways to structure concepts that suit levels of understanding for individuals to suit their interests that

can allow more independence and success when implementing HOTS. Again, not only does these

resourceful softwares and computer components develop my learners skills, they also provide

invaluable employment skills and experience in a world dominated by technology. The Internet is a

valuable resource to both staff and learners at NEAS and a brilliant research aid, with ready made

access available that is constantly updated and support our learners in a wide variety of sessions,

from building recipe books with new ideas to researching horticulture ideas and healthy living

sessions.

Virtual environments can aid independence (paying bills, accessing shopping, communication aids

etc), facilitating concept attainment through practical activities. Not only that, but virtual

environments also allow our learners to make mistakes but without suffering the real, social

humiliation or negative consequences of any errors that could take place in the community. Virtual

worlds like the Internet or software resources can also be manipulated by me and fellow staff to

support our individual learners with areas such as online shopping or accessing libraries where in

the community these environments are set and can be unpredictable (noises, colours, smells,

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George Churchill PGCE Year 2
animals). By improving our learners chances of success we can then begin to develop these

sessions to promote and convey HOTS, enabling our learners to acquire independent living skills

that can be applied to real life environments like shopping and managing nances. Studies have

previously produced research that showed evidence of learners in SEN using virtual environments

to begin with, were far more equipped and prepared when developing these skills into real life

environments when shopping then their counterparts in mainstream education, who had never

used virtual environments (Standen et al, 1998). One of the standout technologies of our time that

has evolved massively and fruitfully is communication and networking. Rather then widen the gap

of exclusion areas such as emailing, video calling and social networking has developed inclusion

for my learners in SEN. These areas allow a safe environment for my learners to keep in touch

with friends and family and communicate feelings, emotions and daily activities to those close to

them, bridging the gap in previous generations of losing touch with loved ones and peers who lived

far away or could not make daily contact. This area of evolving technology is used daily in my role

when supporting learners, who love to email their parents with activities, sessions and

achievements providing a very inclusive resource for them and promoting independence and

HOTS.

Conclusion

At NEAS we focus on developing our learners needs to access information independently, solve

problems (aided by sabotage methods, Maslows Hierarchy of Cues etc) and improve decision

making. SEN is a generic term used to represent learners who have dif culties in learning and

require a more supported educational environment. Dif culties in thinking skills, focused more on

role memory rather then complex thinking such as problem solving and decision making as stated

previously, require resources, aids and structure that can support my learners. This has fostered

dependence on others such as care staff, support workers, family and colleagues due to learned

helplessness, almost as if the environment was set up for them to fail all along. If my learners are

to achieve more independence they need to attain higher order thinking skills through observing,

describing, organising, questioning, problem solving and time management (Lombardi & Savage,

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 George Churchill PGCE Year 2
2010: p27-31). Learning and behavioural dif culties can be experienced by any individual or

learner at any time and is not just in SEN. Technology is not a barrier and in many areas can act

as a tool for inclusion, aiding my learners visual, verbal and hearing impairments with such simple

modi cations such as changing size of font on a computer screen, adding text to sounds to aid

speech and concept of language or changing colours to control visual learning experiences that

could previously of isolated them and stunted development.

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References

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Disorders 5.3 (2011): 1003-1010. Web.

Florian, Lani and John Hegarty. ICT And Special Educational Needs. Maidenhead,

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Lombardi, Thomas P. and Luise Savage. "Higher Order Thinking Skills For Students With

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Petty, Geoffrey. Teaching Today. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2009. Print.

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Robinson, Denise. "Editorial: Teaching Standards, FELTAG And The I ". TiLL 6.1 (2014):

3-4. Web.

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Rose, Richard. "Special Educational Needs: A New Look". European Journal of Special

Needs Education 26.2 (2011): 273-276. Web.

Thomas, Carol Chase. "HELPING STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

DEVELOP EXPRESSIVE WRITING SKILLS". Reading & Writing Quarterly 12.1 (1996):

59-75. Web.

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