Teacher Lived Experiences of Learning Analytics Use and Implementation

Digital education technology takes on many forms within schools and its use is growing alongside increasingly globalised and competitive contexts for educational institutions, supported by trends promoted by globally recognised policy influencing organisations. Learning Analytics software collects and processes vast amounts of data about young people to track learning and growth so that teachers may design personalised learning pathways.

Critical academic voices are communicating concerns about the contribution Learning Analytics make to student surveillance, datafication of education, and the erosion of teachers’ abilities to make choices based on their own professional knowledge.

Critical applied research was conducted to explore the lived experiences of teachers at a private international secondary school in Bogotá, Colombia, and develop a narrative about shared perceptions of the implementation of Learning Analytics.

This paper explores the conceptual themes uncovered from semi-structured interviews with seven teachers interacting with Learning Analytics. The research revealed that there was a significant lack of confidence in the way Learning Analytics were implemented at the school, primarily resulting from a lack of clear objectives, unsuitable training, and minimal onboarding for new teaching staff. The participants described feelings of overwhelm and burden with the volume of data they had access to, but that they were optimistic about the possibilities the data could produce if they had time, training, and a clear framework for how to meaningfully include the data in their work.

This paper is a summary of a master’s thesis.

Julia Briggs
Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK)
MBA Educational leadership student
Bogotá, Colombia

Originally from the UK, Julia has lived and worked in Colombia since 2012. For over a decade she has been a teacher of Science and Chemistry at the secondary level. Recently Julia has left classroom teaching and now is head of operations for an educational consultancy company and also provides professional learning workshops for teachers across the world.

Mark Curcher
Tampere University of Applied Sciences, TAMK
Tampere, Finland

Mark is a Senior Lecturer at Tampere University of Applied Sciences in Finland, where he also the Program Director and designer of the MBA in Educational Leadership. Mark has been an educator for thirty four years, working in the UK, Middle East and now Finland in a range of educational settings.

Mark’s involvement with educational technology dates to his earliest experiences as a teacher in the late 1980’s and includes experiences as a learner, facilitator, course and curriculum designer. He considers himself fortunate to have been able to work with a large and diverse collection of educators from around the world and this has reinforced his view that context is a critical component of the educational process. His current interests include the impact of digitalization of education on the professional identity of educators, the social impact of the increasing datafication of the educational process and punk pedagogy. Mark describes himself as a “Pedagogical Provocateur” and “Educational Emigre” and positions himself as a critical educator.

Teacher Lived Experiences of Learning Analytics Use and Implementation

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