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home > Media services > News > STEPS key findings presented during validation workshop at the European Commission STEPS key findings presented during validation workshop at the European Commission The key findings of the 18-month Study of impact of technology in primary schools (STEPS) were presented at a validation workshop held on 25 June 2009 in the premises of the European Commission (EC) in Brussels. More than 70 high level experts coming from the European Commission’s DG Education and Culture, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), and ICT cluster, as well as from OECD, universities, national agencies and ministries of education, met to discuss the results of what is the most detailed picture ever taken of ICT impact on European primary education. The research was carried out jointly by European Schoolnet (EUN) and empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH. The study shows that ICT policies and strategies have had a positive impact on primary schools, teachers and teaching, and learners and learning in the EU 27, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway. These improvements include increased access to and use of ICT in schools, higher levels of teacher competence and improved learner outcomes, particularly motivation and competence development. ICT strongly supports education policies and innovative practices but challenges remain for its potential to be fully realised in primary education. STEPS’ aim was to explore how ICT is impacting on everyday teaching and learning in European primary schools by providing a comparative analysis and individual country profiles reviewing the 27 EU member states (EU27) plus Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway. The study,
The STEPS workshop offered an in-depth insight into the results of each survey, showing the participants the different sources of evidence and the interrelation between their findings. Results were presented by Anja Balanskat, Roger Blamire, Lucia Sali and Bert Jaap van Oel for EUN, and Werner B. Korte and Tobias Hüsing for empirica. To give a national perspective on STEPS, the national correspondent from Italy, Marilena Nalesso, and the STEPS supporter, Laura Franceschi (Agenzia Nazionale per lo Sviluppo dell’Autonomia Scolastica, ANSAS, former Indire), explained the Italian approach to STEPS. After the presentation of the study, a round table brought together major representatives to compare different perspectives: European policy perspective (Godelieve van den Brande, European Commission’s DG Education and Culture), national policy perspective (Odile Arbeit de Chalendar, French Ministry for Research and Higher Education), primary school perspective (Ferry de Rijcke, Inspectie van het Onderwejis, and Riina Vuorikari, European Schoolnet), and research perspective (Morten Søby, ITU). The major issues raised focused on new indicators and benchmarking systems; the pedagogical use of ICT; new skills and assessment; the link between policy makers, evidence and vision; and teachers’ professional development. The STEPS final report will be submitted to the Executive Agency in the coming weeks. Further information:
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