The majority of schools now have established middle management posts in computing. In 'Effective Secondary Schools' (HMSO 1988), there are three chapters dealing with issues related to the management of policy, curriculum and assessment, learning and teaching, resources, staff, ethos and self-evaluation. These are relevant to the teaching of all subjects and are discussed below in the context of computing studies.
Leadership and the Role of Promoted Staff
6.1 It is important that there is a clear identification of responsibility for computing (both the subject of computing studies and the use of computers across the curriculum). All authorities and the majority of schools have appointed principal teachers of computing with full responsibility for the teaching of computing studies courses. In the small number of schools where the equivalent post is established at APT level, or where the teacher `in charge.' of computing studies is either not promoted or has other promoted responsibilities, it is important that no-one is left in any doubt about the scope of their responsibilities and extent of their authority.
6.2 An effective head of department requires a number of key qualities: professional competence in the subject area and as a teacher; leadership qualities; the ability to establish and maintain good relationships with people; and good educational management skills.. In computing departments, there is a particular emphasis on the need to maintain high levels of technical competence in the face of rapidly changing technology and on the need to be able to plan and develop new courses. Most principal teachers have had to establish their departments from scratch and few have had any subject-specific role models in their own schools. Thus, in computing it is particularly valuable for heads of department to have frequent discussions with colleagues in other schools,' good quality advisory support, and discussions on general and subject-specific issues with the senior management team in the school.
6.3 The role of the principal teacher of computing varies across schools, mainly depending on the extent to which he or she is expected to encourage and support the use of computers in other subjects, the extent to which computing skills are to be taught and developed by co-ordinated work across departments, and the extent to which the principal teachers in the school make more general contributions to the management of the school.
6.4 Where teachers of computing have a remit to support the cross-curricular use of IT within their school, this can involve assisting in the preparation of the school's policy for IT advising on equipment and software purchase, the installation of systems and software, first-line maintenance of equipment, network management and staff development, including team teaching. It is important that the nature of this support is clearly identified, and that a realistic estimate is made of the time which will be required. Some principal teachers, for example, are allocated time within the pupil week for network management and to support colleagues in their use of IT. Inspection findings have identified that the non-contact time allocated for these purposes is not always sufficient; in such cases not only the cross-curricular support but also the functioning of the department can suffer as a consequence.
6.5 The importance of leadership is always stressed when management is discussed; it is particularly important in computing because most principal teachers have to support inexperienced staff and help them to develop, and establish departmental ethos at the same time as they are developing courses and resources. Until recently, they were often themselves relatively inexperienced teachers of the subject. Part of the art of good leadership is the demonstration of good practice, thereby setting standards for others to emulate, but principal teachers also have to make it clear what they expect of other individuals, given the current state of their technical knowledge and experience of teaching the subject, and deal with any weaknesses by planned staff development. In particular, when teachers are inexperienced, have teaching commitments to other departments, or have a senior, management or guidance role in the school, care must be taken when managing their workload.
6.6 Senior promoted staff, particularly the headteacher, can contribute to this leadership by helping the principal teacher to establish the department, acting as a sounding board for new ideas, encouraging the principal teacher and staff, and providing a context of clear school policies and development plans.
Aims and Policies
6.7 All staff are relatively new to the teaching of the subject, although a few now have over 10 years of experience, and ideas about how best to organise and teach computing studies are still changing rapidly. In many schools, excellent documents containing succinct statements of what is to be provided and how it is to be delivered are made available to all staff. The best of these are contained within 20 pages or so and cover the provision of courses, approaches to learning and teaching, assessment, management of hardware and software, and staff development. These documents provide a basic summary of the working of the department, and are usually supported by more detailed documentation related to each of the courses that includes detailed descriptions of resources, sequence, learning and teaching styles, and assessment.
Management of the Curriculum and of Teaching and Learning
6.8 Most schools now provide courses at each stage. Some introduced courses at all stages simultaneously while others have adopted a more measured approach, but few have yet provided a complete range of courses for all categories of pupils, and all need to maintain a continuous review of what is available and how needs are being identified and met. In the best schools there is regular discussion between the principal teacher and the senior promoted staff about the range of courses which are provided. Categories of pupils who may not be provided for are those who wish to take short courses in S3 / S4, pupils who have taken Standard Grade but do not want to, or are not able to, take Higher Grade, and pupils who have already taken Higher Grade but do not wish to take a full CSYS course. Sometimes these gaps are deliberate, because of lack of staffing or resources, because it has been decided to introduce these courses at a later date, or because of broader curriculum considerations. In other cases, schools would deliver these courses if they could, and while they usually try to achieve this by an increase in the overall teaching time devoted to the subject, sometimes this is not possible because of a shortage of staff, resources or accommodation. In such cases, they may need to consider reducing existing provision, the use of composite classes, or making some use of non-specialist accommodation. The use of staff not qualified in the subject to teach younger classes has been used extensively in the past to increase the amount of specialist time available for certificate courses, but schools are rightly increasingly reluctant to ask staff to teach subjects in which they have limited expertise.
6.9 In almost all schools there was evidence that a considerable amount of effort had gone into the planning and preparation of courses. The sequence of topics and times allocated to each topic were, in most cases, appropriate and there were few examples of schools seriously misjudging the time required to deliver each section. Considerable efforts had been made to identify the detailed content to be covered and the required resources.
6.10 The extent to which schools had planned the detail of the teaching and learning approaches varied, however, and many did not plan methodology in as much depth as they had planned the content. In these schools teachers need to think through their approaches to aspects of learning and teaching, such as how to teach programming, how to develop problem-solving abilities, how to make effective use of group work and homework, and how to ensure that the needs of each individual are identified and met. As indicated in chapter 4, the provision of coursework evidence and the feedback of constructive assessment information could be improved in a number of schools. Schools should review their policies and guidance for teachers on assessment.
6.11 Most teachers welcome the types of support documents described above. In schools where staff are experienced and effective, these are likely to represent a consensus view of good practice. Where some staff are less experienced or effective, the role of the PT in helping staff to develop their teaching styles should not be underestimated.
Management of Staff
6.12 Responsibility for management of staff, including deployment and development, is shared between senior promoted staff and heads of department. Until recently, schools often relied upon a large number of staff each teaching a few periods per week of computing, often in S1/S2. This provided valuable staff development experience (and frequently there was no realistic alternative), but it was difficult for those in charge to develop a coherent team with consistent approaches to the teaching of the subject. It also meant that one individual usually carried the full responsibility for the introduction of all certificate courses. For example, in half of the schools inspected recently, Standard Grade had been introduced by a single teacher. While this was usually unavoidable, it did represent a substantial burden on the individual.
6.13 Most staff involved now have formal academic and teaching qualifications in computing, and a small team of individuals is involved in most schools. The existence of these small teams has been beneficial for the individuals concerned and for the development of the subject. Staff tend to be more committed to a subject when they have a substantial time allocation to the subject and know that this win continue for the foreseeable future. Because these teams are now recognised in most schools as departments with the same status as the others, the sharing of development work becomes easier, as does making arrangements to have meetings.
Management of Resources
6.14 As computing has developed, schools and education authorities have attempted to maintain a balance among their investments in staff, accommodation and resources, and to match this against the availability and demand for courses, and their ability to manage these developments simultaneously. Some encouraged the development and provision of courses by making accommodation and resources available and then deploying staff to them; others provided these in response to strong demands from staff. In most schools the initial investment is complete, and there are rooms with sufficient hardware and software to deliver most of the courses currently available. The next phase is well under way, with a second generation of hardware and software being acquired, additional rooms being sought to meet developing demand, and staff focusing on the improvement of existing learning materials rather than the initial acquisition of basic resources. The cost of providing the necessary resources has previously been dominated by the set-up costs. These have been substantial and have usually been funded by specific local or national initiatives. The cost of maintaining and improving this provision is not known with any certainty, but schools and authorities recognise the need to ensure that hardware and software is sufficiently up-to-date, without getting involved in excessively frequent or costly upgrades. The role of specialist staff in giving advice to those responsible for funding decisions is critical.
6.15 The provision of accommodation, hardware and software is now reasonably similar across schools. Most computing is taught in full-size classrooms with between 12 and 20 workstations, and most of these rooms are used almost entirely for the teaching of computing. There are sometimes complaints in schools by teachers of other subjects that they cannot take classes into the computer room because of heavy use by computing classes, but it is still comparatively rare for non-computing teachers to take classes into computing rooms during periods when these rooms are available. The most frequent examples of flexible use of accommodation are cases where computing classes have open access to the departmental facilities and individual pupils move between rooms during lessons as required to gain access to specific facilities.
6.16 Security is an issue which most schools have addressed; specific security systems have been installed in computer rooms to prevent hardware theft, and in most cases this has proved successful. Recently, the detection and elimination of software viruses has become a concern for many teachers; major problems such as the loss of all project work shortly before the SEB submission date has prompted many staff to adopt stringent software protection measures, although, as discussed in Chapter 4, this is usually in the context of a policy of open access to resources and the encouragement of responsible attitudes.
6.17 As the range of courses and numbers of pupils involved become greater, the organisation of software and, in particular, pupils' personal data files becomes more complex. Two broad approaches tend to be adopted in well-organised schools: the use by each pupil of one or more floppy discs for which the pupil is responsible; or the provision of a directory for each pupil on a network hard disc for which the pupil and teacher share responsibility. The latter system is now very widely used, and is effective so long as there is good protection against software viruses, the network is reliable, and the directory system is clearly organised.
External Links
6.18 The importance of establishing and maintaining contacts with fellow professionals in a rapidly changing subject cannot be over-emphasised. These contacts with advisory staff, teachers in other schools, lecturers in teacher training institutions and technical support staff are necessary to enable staff to remain up-to-date both technically and pedagogically. Most teachers have established an extensive network of such links, and while there are inevitable time pressures, and difficulties for staff in remote schools, they usually manage to maintain these to at least a reasonable level. Where staff often have more difficulties, however, is in maintaining contact with the broader computing community. Current developments in commercial, industrial and academic computing are relevant to the teaching of computing in schools, but the time involved in establishing these contacts is considerable. The existence of the Higher Grade Investigation has prompted many staff and pupils to make direct external contacts, leading to valuable spin-offs for staff in terms of more up-to-date knowledge of current practice.
6.19 Contact between computing teachers and primary schools has often been limited to the provision of valued technical support. As indicated earlier in the discussion of S1/S2 courses, it will be necessary for teachers to develop their contacts with primary schools to ensure the coherence of the computing provision made for pupils as they move from primary to secondary schools.
6.20 Teachers of computing have been helped considerably by the nature and extent of the support services provided by education authority advisory services. Advisers, some with support teams of teachers, technicians and clerical staff, purchase equipment and software for schools and provide technical advice and support. They also give support and advice on curriculum matters, lead local curriculum and staff development (often helped by seconded teachers), and have been a focal point for discussion of issues relating to the teaching of the courses and the development of the subject. They can monitor and advise, represent the subject in debate within the education authority, and give advice to headteachers on matters of staffing and resourcing. Most teachers speak highly of the support they receive and welcome opportunities to meet with their adviser and other practitioners to share experiences, express anxieties, discuss matters of common concern, and plan for the future.
Monitoring, Evaluation and Development Planning
6.21 In most schools, teachers were conscious that they had introduced several new courses in a short space of time during which their own perceptions of how best to teach the subject had been maturing. In that context, they appreciated the need to review all aspects of their provision and many had made significant progress towards doing so. In some cases there had been a formal and comprehensive review of materials, course structure and delivery of specific courses. In other departments, evaluation had been more haphazard. In only a few schools was there evidence of pupils being formally consulted about the quality of provision.
6.22 Effective evaluation of departmental provision involves a number of different activities. The total time spent on such review should not become so great that it interferes with teaching and learning, but some attention should be given to each of the following:
consideration of what pupils have demonstrated that they can do in the context of the aims and objectives of the department, of the school and of specific courses or units of work, and comparison of this with what is recommended in any relevant national guidelines;
review of the range of courses and options available to each identifiable group of pupils in the school;
evaluation of the extent to which provision in computing studies - especially in the common course - contributes to a coherent set of IT experiences across departments;
analysis of the results obtained by pupils in external examinations and of the success rates achieved in internally assessed modules;
regular review of the overall provision of staffing, accommodation and resources, and of the hardware, software and learning materials available and required for each course;
review of the learning, teaching and assessment methods which are used (not just those which are declared in the policy statements);
evaluation of the extent to which staff have the technical knowledge, experience and confidence and the teaching skills which are required to deliver existing and proposed courses;
evaluation of the extent to which best practice is being shared across the depart ent;
consideration of how to gain maximum benefit from the available technical support; and
evaluation of pupil response to provision (including uptake, success rates, enthusiasm, response to explicit questions).
6.23 Effective departments have of course always undertaken many of these activities. The current emphasis on this type of monitoring and evaluation as the first stage of the development planning cycle is intended to promote consistent application of good practice rather than to introduce radically new techniques.
6.24 Inevitably, the process of monitoring the full range of departmental activity will yield a very long list of desirable development tasks. This should be reduced to a set that can be undertaken effectively in the time available. Effective planning need not be complicated, as illustrated in the school where:
"All staff are involved in monitoring the operation of courses and the success of teaching and learning approaches. On the basis of that evaluation, they identify general and specific aspects that need developed and produce three lists: High priority; Definitely needing done, but no immediate urgency; Longer-term requirements. High priority tasks are then delegated within the available time. Remaining time is then used for lower priority tasks.."
6.25 Responsibility for evaluation and for planning future development work is shared between senior and departmental staff, but in many schools the teachers` perception was that senior staff had played little part in this process beyond looking at examination results and reacting to any complaints. While staff often appreciated the implied trust in their professionalism, many would have preferred a more active involvement by their senior colleagues in the difficult process of evaluation of their provision.
6.26 The subject-specific issues identified in this report are summarised in the next and final chapter. It is intended that this summary should help departments (and others) decide which matters may need to be addressed when they are evaluating work already done and planning for the future.