Advice for Remote Teaching

The paragraphs below are taken from the above publication...

Replicating the classroom remotely

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has found that the effectiveness of remote teaching is determined by many of the same factors as determine the effectiveness of live classroom teaching. For example:

• ensuring pupils receive clear explanations

• supporting growth in confidence with new material through scaffolded practice

• application of new knowledge or skills

• enabling pupils to receive feedback on how to progress

These characteristics of good teaching are more important than the medium of delivery, be it in the ‘live’ classroom or through remote provision (whether or not that remote provision is live or pre-recorded). It is important that schools consider how to transfer into remote education what we already know about effective teaching in the live classroom.

Live classrooms enable important interaction between teachers and pupils through, for example, questioning, eliciting and reflective discussion. These complex teacher skills in the live classroom are not always easy to recreate in a remote environment, but where remote education recreates at least some aspects of this interactivity and intentional dialogue, teaching is likely to be more effective, support pupil motivation and lead to better progress.

Pupils in the early stages of their formal education are likely to have particular needs which cannot easily be addressed in the same way as those of other pupils. Likewise, some pupils with SEND will require specific approaches tailored to their circumstances. Some suggestions are given for these cases later in this document.

Access to appropriate devices and connectivity is essential for technology-led approaches to remote education. However, securing access for all pupils is a significant challenge in many contexts. As schools plan for potential future disruption, it may be helpful to:

• maintain an up-to-date record of which pupils and families do not have device or internet access

• consider how school technology resources could be used in future to support pupils without sufficient remote facilities. This could include preparing to provide laptops and chargers to identified families with any usage or loan agreements necessary to help safeguard school property

• ensure that any equipment obtained under the department’s Get help with technology programme is clearly identified and ready to be re-distributed for a similar purpose

You should also review the Department’s guidance about planning for local restrictions including Tier 2 restrictions.

Effective remote teaching provision

While pupils experienced disruption to their education from 23 March 2020, a number of different approaches were used by schools to continue their education. Many schools also learnt from experience and innovated, took on board pupil and parent feedback and improved their provision as the weeks passed.

While there are a number of ways to implement high-quality remote education, remote-access technology offers many advantages which enable schools to continue a relatively normal programme of teaching across all or most curriculum subjects.

Interactive platforms

Many schools have been able to use a single, interactive platform such as Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom for their remote education provision. By using these and similar systems, it is possible to create virtual classes by drawing information from schools’ Management Information Systems, enabling a single point of access for all lessons and resources and allowing teachers to host both live and recorded explanations and lessons.

Schools can apply for government-funded support through The Key for School Leaders and access one of two free-to-use digital education platforms: G Suite for Education or Office 365 Education. To help applicants make the most appropriate choice for their school, The Key also provides feature comparison and case studies on how schools are making the most of these platforms.

Linking platforms to applications

It is possible to enhance these platforms by using applications which allow for easy video recording of teachers teaching, explaining and questioning. Loom is a popular video recording application which many teachers find straightforward to use and can easily be linked to platforms such as Microsoft Teams.

Tests and quizzes are an important part of effective teaching and can be easily created to precede or follow teaching sequences. When teaching live, it is possible for teachers to question individual pupils and for pupils to pose questions to teachers or peers, for example using the ‘Chat’ function. Google forms, Kahoot, Classkick, Socrative, Edpuzzle are just some other examples of other software which work well for rapid feedback and allow live marking.

Schools can use these media to continue to deliver most of their normal planned curriculum, and, where available and relevant, textbooks (both ‘hard copy’ and electronic) could be issued for pupils to use at home to complement and support lessons.

Where lessons are recorded, they can be accessed later by pupils, making flexible use possible in the context of limited or shared device access. These and similar platforms can make it easier for teachers to monitor pupils’ progress because work can be viewed or submitted through a single system. This in turn may make it easier for teachers to adapt work in the light of pupils’ progress.

Other resources, including other good quality online resources (both free-to-use and subscription-based) can be linked or embedded.

Because these platforms enable the creation of simulated or virtual classrooms, it is easier to carry over what we know about effective teaching from the live to the virtual environment. This can include clear teacher explanations of new content which are sequenced to build on previous learning, targeted questioning, and scaffolded practice.

Maintaining aspects of school life online

These platforms can also be used beyond the individual lesson context for other events such as whole staff briefings and professional development sessions, and for teachers to lead events such as year or whole school assemblies. It is important that these aspects of school life are maintained during any period of disruption.

In some cases it is possible to expect a normal school day to be worked remotely by both pupils and teachers. Recognising that this will not always be practical, where it is possible the routine can prove beneficial to pupils and support them in the management of their work and time.

Often, it is necessary to operate more flexibly, for example to accommodate contexts where pupils are having to share a single device within the home, meaning that access to recorded lessons is also needed. However, frequent contact between pupils and teachers is crucial. This contact may, for example, be through presence in a remotely delivered lesson, questioning, feedback, or some other form of on or offline exchange about schoolwork.

Continuing the planned curriculum

Continuing to teach all or most of the normal planned curriculum in the remote environment is important. Subjects where this is more challenging are those that would normally include significant elements of practical work in the live classroom, for example sciences, music or technology. However, in these and other cases, video demonstrations (and there are many ready-to-use examples linked to the curriculum available on platforms such as YouTube) can substitute well for practical work, particularly if accompanied by teacher explanation, commentary and a text book or electronic resource.

It is important to note that high quality remote teaching is far more than setting work for pupils to complete, although setting tasks to complement sequences of teaching plays an important role. Evidence shows that lengthy or open-ended projects or research activities are in most cases less likely to lead to strong progress or outcomes. ¹ Such approaches should generally be avoided in favour of the more interactive, teacher-led approaches to delivering the school’s planned curriculum described above.

Organising structured remote teaching suitable for very young pupils

It is recognised that very young pupils are likely to have particular needs which cannot easily be met in some of the ways described above. For such pupils, it is likely that the priority will be progress in early reading. Ensuring continued access to appropriate reading books and resources for early readers should be considered as part of contingency planning.

Helping parents, carers or other adults at home to continue to support children in their early reading, where appropriate and practical through structured practice of phonics content, is another important part of contingency planning for children at this stage. Other content for these pupils is likely to include providing guidance for supervising adults to ensure that time is used as productively and developmentally as possible.

Teachers having difficulties creating online content

While many schools will want to retain the tried-and-tested education resources they already use, some may find it helpful to use resources such as Oak National Academy to offer lessons in most school subjects. Oak delivers a sequenced curriculum, with some elements of choice, which can be used flexibly by schools as their main remote provision - or to complement other parts of remote provision.

The curriculum is published on the Oak National Academy website, so schools can consider how it aligns with and complements their own curriculum. Oak lessons are available from reception to year 11, are free to use, and can be integrated with platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom.

Teachers can easily collect results of online quizzes and tests to monitor progress. Oak represents a good option for many schools when they are contingency planning, but headteachers should also be aware of other commercial, educational resources available. The British Educational Suppliers Association’s LendED platform, for instance, provides a searchable list of resources for remote education.

Resources to support staff in remote teaching