Pupils are bored by computer lessons because teachers underestimate their technological expertise, according to Government-commissioned research.
The problem is growing as more children gain access to computers and the internet at home.
The study, published by the Department for Education and Skills, found that many of the 2,200 pupils surveyed at 60 English schools, particularly those in secondaries, are frustrated by teachers’ failure to acknowledge the computer skills they have developed outside class.
It found that 88 per cent of pupils in the sixth form and 75 per cent at key stage 2 have access to a computer at home.
Steve Bacon, general secretary of the National Association of Advisers for Computers in Education, said the failure to recognise secondary pupils’ ICT skills has been pointed out by Office for Standards in Education inspection reports.
He said the situation is partly caused by better primary computer teaching in the past couple of years. The report highlights the need for secondary schools to work closely with their feeder primaries to ensure that teachers know what skills pupils possess.
Despite the pound;230 million Lottery-funded programme to give teachers training, many are still not using technology confidently in their lessons, and relatively few use it in a way that “motivates pupils and enriches learning”.
Many teachers have been reluctant to receive training in their own time. The researchers also found that the training is not appropriate for the many without basic computer skills.
Controversially, the report suggests that teachers might be more likely to use computers effectively in class if doing so was linked to threshold payments.
The final version of the ImpaCT2 report will be published next year. The interim report can be read at www.becta.org.uk * On average, only six pupils in a school are able to access the internet at the same time, according to a survey of UK state schools by the British Educational Suppliers Association. However, internet access is improving - up to 26 computers a school from 12 two years ago. There are now almost one million computers in schools, although a quarter are so old that they are “ineffective”.
The proportion of teachers confident in the use of ICT is up 13 percentage points to 60 per cent, even though more than half have not yet taken part in the Government’s ICT training programme.
See Online Magazine in this week’s TES
