What was learned and by whom:
Teachers :
• the archive of images exists and can easily be accessed
• that their displays can be seen and copied by other people from the photographs in the archive
• that the archive can be useful for ideas for displays.
Other T A s :
• that their work making displays is appreciated
• that it is possible to get ideas from the image archive.
• that other schools do things differently
Children :
• that displays in other schools can be very different from those in ours
• that making displays is important to them
• taking part in the focus groups made them reflect on how exactly displays contributed to their learning.
What I did:
• carried out 3 teacher interviews
• carried out 2 TA interviews
• conducted 2 focus groups with children
• kept notes in my learning journal about incidents related to promoting the image archive
• kept notes in my learning journal about critical incidents in school relating to displays
• read back through my learning journal to find other display related incidents.
• Reflected on these in my learning journal
This differed only slightly from my plan. I was only able to conduct 2 focus groups with children. I had intended to use the children's classifications of the images to provide more meta data for the archive but this seemed less important as the enquiry moved on. I also intended to produce a questionnaire to both obtain more data from teachers and to promote the archive. I then decided that this was a distraction from the direction the enquiry was taking. Also I made far more use of my learning journal than I had anticipated.
What I learned :
• displays are an important issue for both teachers and TAs
• there is a lack of sharing of display ideas
• the display archive may be one way to address this
• some teachers' self-esteem may be enhanced by the quality of their wall displays despite changes in the Workplace Agreement.
• children value time spent on displays not only as creative time but also for learning.
• valuable learning can take place during the production of displays
• children can gain value from displays that they have not actively been involved in making, if the display is used as a starting point for exploring a subject.
• deep learning may result from exposure to good displays with children able to recall details as much as a year later
• interaction with each other and adults enhances the effect a display has on children.
• The collaborative skills involved in making displays with children are something that are easily overlooked as a benefit.
• actively encouraging the children to reflect on their reaction to displays made them aware of their own learning.
Was it worthwhile and why?
I think it has been a worthwhile enquiry. I intend to continue to promote the Flickr group. This is now starting to grow. A very recent development is that one of my teachers has consulted the archive, found a display from a school at the other end of the country for the next topic we are doing in science and has asked me to re-create the display. I will then photography my interpretation of the display and add that to the archive. I hope to encourage other people to do the same.
The focus groups with children have had particular value for me. Talking to the children has confirmed some of my ideas but has also alerted me to other ways of looking at things. I had tended to see time spent physically making displays as rather 'dead' time. To many children, though, it seems to be an important part of the learning process, a time to talk through concepts.
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