Interactive teaching with interactive technology

Abstract

Some of the recent initiatives which aim to improve teaching and learning in schools in the UK have promoted the idea of ‘interactive teaching’. Other schemes promote the use of interactive technologies for learning, yet no strategy has been developed for linking the two policies or investigating how interactive technology supports interactive teaching. This paper examines different interpretations of interactive teaching, considers why such teaching is believed to be more effective than approaches which place the teacher in a different role, and analyses the evidence concerning its effectiveness. It discusses what advantages, if any, the use of ICT offers to teachers pursuing interactive teaching approaches in the classroom, then characterises the ways in which ICT needs to be integrated into teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge if it is to support a move from ‘surface’ to ‘deep’ interactive teaching. Using a number of case studies drawn from research in primary and secondary schools, it explores how interactive teaching can be supported and improved using interactive technologies in the classroom. It concludes by considering the implications for forthcoming research into ICT and interactive teaching.