The InTER Programme followed on from the Information Technology and Education (ITE) Pilot Programme (1985-88) initiated by the Education and Human Development Committee. The Final Report of that Programme and its extension sketched a vision of collaborative research which became a cornerstone of the subsequent InTER Programme.
After extensive consultation with the community and ESRC's Human Behaviour & Development Committee, four topics for research were agreed for inclusion in the planned first phase of the Programme. The InTER award allowed for the financing of three of these four over three years (1988-91).
From 100 applications, three inter-disciplinary, inter-institutional consortia were negotiated and funded. The approved programmes of research covered the following topics:
- collaborative learning, stimulated or enhanced by problem solving tasks requiring computer interaction; (Groupwork with Computers);
- the development of basic concepts in mathematics and science building on existing research into earlier conceptions, sometimes naive, of natural phenomena; (Conceptual Change in Science);
- the value of technology-based tools for exploratory learning based on experience of modelling in the industrial sector and of simulation-based discovery learning in education combined with opportunities for learners to express their own knowledge of a domain; (Tools for Exploratory Learning).
An additional award was made early in 1989 for a one year project: