Many schools struggle with developing a whole school approach to embedding the use of technology in teaching and learning. This course 'Collaborative schools development' is designed for aspiring schools leaders and advanced teachers to explore strategies for whole school development and improvement using technology; to understand the main issues for mainstreaming best practice; to identify a specific development focus at classroom level and school level; and to implement change with peer support.
The ‘Collaborative schools development' concept and materials have been developed within an EC-funded Living Schools Lab project. The course is based on evidence gathered from school visits, teachers, focus groups, and experts in 12 European countries.
The course documents have been written for the trainer of the course, but also provide an outline for potential participants. The course outlines a series of ten investigations that can be undertaken by teachers within their own schools, with a strong focus on mainstreaming the use of ICT to support whole school development. From the outset, potential participants have been identified as aspiring school leaders. The recommendation has also been for pairs of participants either from the same school or same locality. One participant would be identifi ed as an Investigation Leader (IL) focusing on developments at whole school level. The second participant would be identified as an Investigation Practitioner (IP) focusing on development at classroom level.