New Generation Instructional Information Technology and the Management of Teaching and Learning

D.S.G. CarterFaculty of Education, Curtin University of Technology

Western AustraliaEmail: dcarter@educ.curtin.edu.au

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference (September 11-14 1997: University of York)

Abstract

The recent experience of curriculum change suggest that information overload is a health hazard, and, rather than supporting change efforts, it has become a bottleneck tending to inhibit school improvement and curriculum reform. Information management for decision support is crucial to innovation and implementation success. A new generation of instructional information management systems (IIMSs) are now becoming available at affordable prices. These tools, which are professionally driven rather than for the purpose of scientific management, seek to integrate the school community with the web of relationships between curriculum, teaching, assessment and school organisation. In this demonstration and presentation an example of an Instructional Information Management System (IIMS) will be rendered transparent, and implications for collaborative information-based work cultures considered.

Over the course of the last decade it has become evident that systemic educational

reform, at all levels of the education system, has become a cross-national

preoccupation. Central to the reforms is a concern to raise educational standards

developed variously by state education agencies, universities and colleges,

professional associations and registration bodies, the corporate sector and

government agencies, with input from a range of stakeholder groups. Recent

experience with large scale planned change, however, has illustrated the swamping

effects of extensive information provision which overwhelms those undergoing the

processes of change, and those who are charged with managing its implementation.

This has, in effect, tended to work against the implementation of planned change,

rather than promoting it ( Hall and Carter 1995).

In the flurry of activity associated with effecting educational improvement and

change, the latent power of new technology for information processing does not

appear to have been fully exploited in order to manage curricular operations and

change processes in an integrative, systemic and comprehensive fashion. The

reasons for this are complex and go beyond the scope of this paper. In this turbulent

educational environment, increasing pressures for accountability have resulted in the

proliferation of a multitude of standards to help specify what it is that educational

institutions should be accomplishing via publicly funded instructional programs.

One of the consequences of these externally generated pressures for more precision

in student monitoring and reporting against socially desirable outcomes, is to present

educators with a dilemma as to how they might meet the individual needs of

students, while maintaining consistency of quality against a set of standards.

Accountability, in the sense of being able to define precisely and show relationships

between system variables and student learning, proves to be an important but elusive

task without recourse to information management technology to meet the increased

societal expectations of schools colleges and universities measured in terms of 'value

for money' for the educational resources expended. To this end new information

technology has an increasing role to play in managing information for decision

support from the classroom to the boardroom.

Computer Managed Teaching/Learning Systems

Several Computer Managed Learning (CML) products are commercially available to

teachers and trainers under the general label of ‘instructional management systems’.

It is obvious that all have different features, however, and, depending on how one

defines instruction, some of these systems may not be true instructional management

systems. For example, a management system which works to identify learning

deficits in students by managing objective and test question item banks; test

generation and scoring facilities, and student analysis and reporting may be more

appropriately termed an ‘assessment management system’. Some assessment

management systems include the capability of managing instructional resources

along with objectives, and can be used to guide the selection of instructional

resources where additional teaching is considered to be necessary.

Good assessment management systems are useful at pointing out ‘weak’ areas of an

instructional program by comparing students’ performance against objectives.

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Generally originating in the 1960’s mainframe environments, these systems are

traditionally termed ‘computer managed instruction’ or CMI systems. They are not

particularly good at helping educators identify causes of problems and analysing

relationships between curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Instructional Information Management Systems (IIMSs) broaden the concept of

assessment management by providing information management ‘upstream’ of the

assessment process. Ideally, IIMSs (by definition) should be able to manage critical

information at every step of the complete curriculum and instructional design

process (ie designing, developing, delivering, assessing, and evaluating instruction).

Student assessment in a well designed IIMS is only one aspect of a much broader

information system which manages information that is required as other

instructional decisions are made ( Bloch, Hedburg and Harper, 1994).

According to total quality management practices, we cannot continue to rely on the

method of detection of defects if we want to learn how to improve quality. A good

IIMS, then, needs to assist educators in the management and analysis of all aspects

of the curriculum cycle in which candidates for assessment and analysis include

intentions (outcomes and curriculum) and process (teaching and learning) as well as

product (learner performance - students’, teachers’ and supervisors’).

Well constructed Instructional Information Management Systems (IIMSs),

employing relational data base technology, are designed specifically to allow for the

unobtrusive and automatic acquisition of data describing the core operations of

education and training institutions (Burger; 1995). They can be used to formalise

and capture the interlocking cycle of relationships between curriculum, instruction

and assessment within a given context. They underpin and support information-

based practice for managing student centred learning. By acquiring skills in the use

of IIMSs, integrating data on curriculum, state and national guidelines, professional

needs and competencies, student demographics and performance, practitioners can

begin to identify and understand those relationships and patterns that contribute to

overall system and institutional improvement in which student learning is paramount

(Carter and Burger; 1994).

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The curriculum as lived out in the every day experiences of students is multifaceted

and changing. Thus, two-dimensional models appearing in a range of curriculum

documents do not, and cannot, adequately represent the dynamic nature of learning

context, curriculum processes and associated knowledge structures. To be

responsive to these, the curriculum of each institution has to be locally crafted in

order to capitalise on local talents, with local insights in order to specific student

needs. Sophisticated IIMSs enable instructional leaders to determine the curriculum

scope and sequence they desire, while enabling each of their teaching staff to be

actively engaged in curriculum development activities in an on-going way.

Information management and professional accountability

It is recognised, generally speaking, that second order changes which have occurred

behind the classroom door, reflecting advances in new information technology, have

at best been piecemeal where change has occurred at all (Fullan, 1992; p. 10). The

reasons for this are complex and go well beyond the scope of this paper.

Nevertheless, at the junction of teaching with learning, the introduction of the

microcomputer together with advances in communications technology, provides us

with the latent capacity to transform both including the organisational structures in

which teaching and learning are embedded.

Ideally, IIMSs (by definition) should be able to manage critical information at every

step of the complete curriculum and instructional design process (ie. designing,

developing, delivering, assessing and evaluating instruction). Student assessment in

a good IIMS is only one aspect of a much broader information system which

manages information that is required as a range of decisions about teaching and

learning and associated processes are made. Sophisticated IIMSs which combine

those functions that lie at the heart of any educational institution, such as curriculum

development, instruction, evaluation and assessment, allow for the formation of

information rich environments with great transformative potential. In short the

computer, when interacting with a professionally informed mind, acts as a magnifier

of human capacities that enables us to perceive yet further possibilities previously

beyond our comprehension.

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Informating educational environments

There are two ways of using technology to achieve information rich environments.

One is for the purpose of automating: the other for informating. While there are

some who clearly seek to use technology for the former purpose, it tends to become

mechanistic and to isolate the human element from the process itself. Automating

then is not a satisfactory means for supporting teachers and administrators and for

educational problem solving. To informate1, however, is to empower educators as

professionals. It is in this context that instructional leaders can work with staff and

students in order to resolve the question of what information has to be readily

available and easily accessible for them to understand the nature of certain

educational processes and to execute instructional and curricular events.

In the information rich environments created by the use of an IIMS, where

information can be shared ecologically within and across the academic community,

explicit connections between internal and external environments and their various

components becomes a practical reality. When configured and used in this way

information management technology can provide, for example, the means for:

· ascertaining which curriculum elements are included in daily instructional plans,

· monitoring student grouping practices;

· tracking students student performance and recreating instructional histories;

· facilitating the development of teacher made learning materials;

· enabling the management of material resources;

· differentiating the form of assessment programs across different time spans and

subject areas, and,

· effecting curriculum alignment to external references, benchmarks and standards

on a continuous, routine and substantially unobtrusive basis (Carter, 1993).

1 Informating was first coined by Zuboff (1988) and refers to the generation and dispensation of information across organisational boundaries creating an information rich environment that now includes data previously stored in people’s heads, in peoples’ conversations, in filing cabinet drawers and/or on widely dispersed pieces of paper (pp. 9-10).

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For outcome evaluations, supervision and accountability purposes, administrators

can ascertain the extent to which a particular teacher uses a variety of

teaching/learning activities and resources aligned with instructional objectives, or

the extent to which curriculum and its implementation matches external guidelines,

standards and benchmarks, or other performance indicators. The capabilities of the

particular IIMS you will see demonstrated at the presentation are summarised in

Appendix 1. It’s curricular structure is shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: IMSeries Curriculum Structure for Outcomes Based Education

Curriculum and Outcomes HierarchyCurriculum Cross References

Because the IIMS automatically records detailed audit trails as teachers and

administrators use it, it become possible to obtain profiles of how the performances

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of students are changing, by viewing sets of records accumulated unobtrusively

through the daily operations of the institution over selected periods of time.

Instructional process

Generally speaking, there is little argument among professionals that helping people

realise their full potential as learners is an ultimate aim of education. How well this

is realised in the context of institutional and national goals depends on how well

teaching staff are motivated to work for constant improvement, and are themselves

provided with the resources and incentives to grow and develop as learners

concerning their own professional practice. In this regard Sarason (1990) makes an

observation that if teachers, as learners, do not perceive that the appropriate

conditions for their own growth obtain, they cannot create and sustain them for

students. From this point of view, student learning is also a function of teacher

learning, continuing development and growth.

For learning to be made effective it has to be closely integrated across different

subject matter areas. For this to occur a 'whole curriculum' perspective concerning

the vertical sequences of learning activities and their integration across content areas

at different year levels is required. Further, the monitoring of student progression

against standards has to take place across different subject matter, in different

learning contexts and employing different instructional processes. In so doing, a

more flexible approach to the use of time and student centred course implementation

modes is implied as individuals progress at different rates.

Monitoring and reporting validly on student learning and progress is a most difficult

thing to accomplish and to demonstrate in practice. To do this effectively, and with

insight, teachers must be able to capitalise on new knowledge, make data-based

professional judgements, and acquire intimate knowledge of the changing needs of

the learner in the exercise of their own creativity and spontaneity. We now have the

on-line information management systems available to resolve at least some of the

problems of curriculum integration; of directing learning sequences, and monitoring

and reporting their effects on learning and achievement from students' initial entry

to the institution until their final graduation and/or departure.

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While a well designed curriculum, aligned to appropriate instructional processes, is

regarded as fundamental to helping each student achieve mastery of the objectives,

and is easily accomplished in principle using the new IIMS technology, slavish

adherence to the textbook and detailed attention to every objective in the curriculum

is not a means to achieving the desired learning. In effect, the latter is likely to

work against the intended result of fully realising student learning potential.

For the instructional context and learning environment to be regarded as potentially

rich, a process orientation is necessary in which a variety of teaching and learning

strategies are present, with students afforded the opportunity to read and discuss

much more widely than is directly required for the immediate achievement of short

term objectives. It is also important to realise that it is not necessary - and even ill

advised - to seek to control all the activities that take place under instructional

processes. What is important is to be able to ascertain their nature at will, and to

direct them differentially to learners as needed, and in the full knowledge of the

extent to which external agencies are also influencing and guiding instructional

processes.

Assessment of student performance

With a renewed focus on student learning outcomes, and the trend towards

competency-based curriculum frameworks requiring the close monitoring of student

progress towards the achievement of certain standards; also to provide feedback for

further instruction, or for counselling and reporting, timely information is required

by decision makers. This includes not only what level of mastery was achieved by a

student on a particular occasion, but also the conditions under which the

performance occurred. For decision-support systems to be able to inform and guide

practice, it is necessary to retrieve a comprehensive range of data for any student at

will, and to relate them to other relevant factors such as when certain objectives

were taught to different groups of students, with what resources and activities and to

what effect. To inform decisions, data also needs to be related to student

characteristics, aspirations and needs in order to make judgements when counselling,

making inferences about student mastery, and reporting accurately and meaningfully

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to significant others and ‘the system’. The focusing of relational data on a particular

student performance, at a specific point in a given assessment period, can be

represented as a performance point which is illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The Concept of a Performance Point

In the aggregate, each performance point becomes a data point for the

contextualised construction of a performance profile of student achievement against

any criterion, objective(s), activity, resource or benchmark, need or external

reference managed by and accessed via the IIMS. The pattern of performance

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points shown in Figure 2 allows the instructor to recover information-rich patterns

in student achievement ‘captured’ by the IIMS unobtrusively during the day-to-day

processes of curriculum and instruction. Educators can contemplate them and arrive

at decisions with, and on behalf of, the student, leading in turn to more accurate

diagnoses of learner needs. In effect this provides the basis for individualised

attention and thus enhances individual student progression towards the achievement

of desired objectives and outcomes.

It should be remembered that the functions of those types of assessment that are

learner centred and those which are essentially for the purposes of accountability,

credentialing and reporting, need to be held separate. Both aspects of assessment

imply different sets of relationships between the teacher and learners and learners

with each other. Once assessment data can be readily retrieved and contextually

related to the instructional conditions under which it occurred, it can be used to

contemplate and monitor student performance in a form accessible to students and

their mentors. Further, these data become immediately accessible as feedback for

the further design and implementation of curriculum and associated processes in an

on-going and cyclical manner.

While there is a place for examinations and testing, in the context of student centred

and self-directed learning, an accurate and useful set of performance points for the

enhancement of instruction and learning is more likely to be achieved by reducing

the emphasis on a few highly precise measurements, and moving towards

continuous assessment by increasing the value of many varied and less precise

measurements. The latter might be realised through the use of student portfolio

assessment, for example. To demonstrate increased teaching/learning effectiveness,

student progress needs to be interpreted via professional judgements, together with a

range of student work samples, and referenced to a range of formal and informal

assessments gathered over time. It is difficult to imagine how this might be given

practical effect in the absence of new generation information management

technology.

Conclusion

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As advances in information technology lead us towards more interactive, resource-

based learning environments, the role of the teacher or lecturer necessarily changes

from that of instructor, in the traditional sense, to become a manager of student

learning. In the social dimension of schools, colleges and universities, a parallel

shift in emphasis is needed in order to supplant the instructional dominance of

transmission models of teaching with constructivist approaches to student centred

and student directed learning. To this end, the use of professionally driven

Instructional Information Management Systems(IIMSs), in contrast to Management

Information Systems (MISs) (based on scientific management principles for the

purpose of efficient administration), enable the advocated shift in emphasis to

become a practical reality.

At the start of this paper a dilemma for educators was posited regarding how might

they meet the individual needs of students while maintaining consistency of quality

against a set of standards. It has been argued above that this becomes a practical

reality when appropriate learning environments are constructed, in which

information flows freely between functions and across organisational boundaries. It

also requires the exercise of high quality educational leadership supported by new

information management technology. This is regarded as fundamental in order to

support learning communities in which teachers become students of their own

professional practice, informed by data, normally lost as ‘noise’, but now made

readily accessible to them via an IIMS. The integrative possibilities lie latent in the

technology until realised by informed professionals. In order to realise this ideal,

however, they must be adequately prepared and supported to take on new roles, and

engage in new practices in different institutional settings employing collaborative

work cultures networked via information management technology.

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Contact:D.S.G. CarterFaculty of EducationCurtin University of TechnologyGPO Box U1987Perth Western AustraliaTel (08) 9266 2172Fax (08) 9266 2457Email: dcarter@educ.curtin.edu.au

References

Bloch D., Hedburg J.G. and Harper, B. (1994) Managing Information Systems in

the School. International Journal of Information Management. 14 (1), 443-

464.

Burger M. (1995) Instructional Information Management Systems and Systemic

Change. In, Jenlink, P. (Ed.) Systemic Change. Touchstones for the Future

School Palatine: Illinois, IRI Training and Publishing Inc.,117-133.

Carter D.S.G. (1993) An Integrative Approach to Curriculum Management Using

New Information Technology. Education Research and Perspectives. 20 (2),

33-45

Carter D.S.G. and Burger, M. (1994) Curriculum Management, Instructional

Leadership and New Information Technology. School Organisation. 14(2),

153-168.

Fullan, M. (1992) The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York. Teachers

College Press.

Hall, G.E. and Carter, D.S.G. (1995) Managing Change in the 1990’s. In, D.S.G.

Carter and M. O’Neill (Eds.) International Perspectives on Educational

Change and Policy Implementation. London: Falmer Press.

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Sarason S.B. (1990) The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform. Jossey-Bass

Inc. Calif.

Zuboff, S. (1988) In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and power.

Basic Books, New York.

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Appendix 1Using powerful relational data base technology, IMSeries™ is the first of a new generation of instructionally driven Information Management Systems (IIMSs) for use in education and training contexts. It’s essential features are summarised below.

Curriculum Development and Design

Curriculum

· Defines structure and content· Import and export· Develop, maintain and analyse without using codes· Maintain multiple lists of external standards against which locally

developed curricula can be aligned to meet national, state and local standards

· Combine graphics and formatted text in developing reports

Maintain

· Review and revise common elements (eg., subjects, courses, concepts, objectives, activities, resources, questions and evaluation strategies)

· Control and alter sequences of curriculum elements at all levels of the curriculum

· Easily move and copy sections· Identify gaps and overlaps in student skill development and/or

instructional strategies· Allow users to extend existing, or define new sets of standards against

which local curricula and instruction might be analysed· Store graphics and text-based instructional resources and automatically

manage them as part of the broader curriculum· Print curriculum reports and results of queries to ASCII files, to the

system printer, or to the screen for previewing.

Analyse

· Analyse curricula horizontally and vertically· Determine frequency and location where specific external standards are,

and are not, addressed· Conduct ad hoc queries to obtain any information about curricula and

how they are organised, what content they contain, or where specific content is contained

· Search for specific information (at all levels) based on words and word combinations

Instruction and Assessment

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Planning

· Construct and maintain detailed lesson and other instructional plans for different types of teaching/learning

· Validate what has been taught to each student· Design instruction and assignments that align with student outcomes· Coordinate planning of instruction with colleagues· Examine instructional histories for any student (test scores,

demographics, lessons/instructional episodes implemented, student performance data, disciplinary information and attendance

· Plan for special needs students who are mainstreamed· Access LAN/WAN (including Internet) resource banks· Articulate curriculum and instructional planning across grade levels,

programs and sites.

Delivery

· Group students for remedial/extension work· Locate instructional strategies and resources quickly (regional, district

and within campus)· Scan for available internal and external resources and media· Determine what instruction has occurred during any given period of

time, thus allowing for quick identification and development of student make-up work

· Link CAI lessons back into design processes· Given a selected intervention, examine probability of implementation

success through the analysis of trends and student patterns of performance

· Facilitate student or teacher initiated cooperative learning· Facilitate flexible student grouping strategies while maintaining an audit

trail of instruction delivered to each student

Assessment

· Communicate instructional and evaluation information to parents and significant others in a variety of data forms and formats

· Supports a wide variety of assessment strategies and ways to record student performance

· Maintain electronic portfolios (certification of skills, observational data, anecdotal notes, writing samples, process/content based evaluations, soundbites and QuickTime movies of student performance and rehearsal of competencies)

· Graph performance profiles for any time frame and student outcome(s)· Allow for continuous evaluation of student progress so that instruction

can be more closely matched to individual needs· Develop progress reports for student/parent/system information· Automatically generate tests and assignments· Analyse student performance and growth by any skill, construct,

knowledge area or outcome

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