Are schools putting kids off computers?
A researcher at the University of Huddersfield has just co-written a controversial book claiming that schools are putting young students off of computers despite the fact that these days youngsters’ lives seem to revolve around electronic technology. According to Dr Nusrat Haq’s research, some pupils, believing they know more about computers than their teachers, even try to bunk off when it is time for their lesson in computing and information technology. When Lahore-born Dr Haq embarked on PhD research at the University of Huddersfield she realised that while it was widely assumed that computer lessons in schools were a good thing, the views of pupils had not been sought. She set out to fill the gap, interviewing up to 600 pupils at schools in West Yorkshire. Dr Haq says, ‘I found out that pupils do not enjoy using computers at school. They actually feel they know more about the subject than their teachers and they often have much more advanced technology at home than the school is equipped with.’ She continues, ‘Sometimes they do not understand the instructions that the teacher is giving them and a lot of pupils confessed that they often tried to skive off computer lessons!' Dr Haq’s views are shared by her academic supervisor, the University of Huddersfield’s Professor Cedric Cullingford. Professor Cullingford says, ‘At home, young people become expert computer users. Then they come to school and are taught as if they are ignorant, using machines that are out of date and with teaching methods, involving worksheets and so on, that are nothing to do with computers at all. They just find it appalling and a waste of time. Even if you put a few more banks of computers into a school, that makes no fundamental difference to the way that pupils think about them. They associate the pleasure and the utility of computers with home, but at school they are just another dreary lesson.’ However, Professor Cullingford argues, computers could be used much more imaginatively within lessons as a way of enabling pupils to find out information – and then learning how much they should trust it. He says, ‘Children are naturally curious and they like to ask questions – but that is not being encouraged. Schools should encourage them to be critical and to think. This is all the fault of government policy and not the teachers themselves. The government is in a muddle about whether pupils should learn about computers or actually use them.' Computers, Schools and Students: The Effects of Technology, by Cedric Cullingford and Nusrat Haq is published by Ashgate. Find out more about the University of Huddersfield. Content added on 1st March 2010. |
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Research at the University of Huddersfield has found that schools may well be putting youngsters off of computers.