The three main challenges have been:

1. Technology - how are pupils accessing the work? Are they sharing devices? Teachers are not used to recording lessons

2. AfL - Can’t see cues from student behaviours. Are they understanding?

3. Environment - What is the environment like in a pupils home and what is the impact?

How can we ensure pupils are learning at home?

Young adults working memory can only hold 5-9 chunks of new information at one time, this is less in children. Cognitive “overload” disrupts the working memory from processing new information.

Therefore we do not want pupils to be using their working memory to work out how to complete a task before they even start learning and takes away from the content.

Building Schemas

Schemas are built by experience therefore constantly changing as pupils learn.They are a memory trace that can hold simple and more complex information

Consider them to be like a filing cabinet when we learn something it is filed away in a schema which we can come back to, change etc.

Strong schemas are automated they do not need your working memory.

Therefore working memory is freed up for new information - therefore activating schemas in learning are important to activate things already know to build upon. E.g. Islam will be added to a religion schema or linking schemas together.

However information can be filed away in an incorrect schema, therefore teachers place a crucial role in ensuring pupils build correct schemas and provide the correct knowledge

Therefore purposeful and systematic deliberate practice is important.

Applying cognitive load to remote learning

At home pupils will have a lot of distractions whilst they are trying to learn.

We can reduce the strain on students working memory by the kind of tasks we set for pupils.

1. Start the lesson with a short review - Reviewing can help us to recall and understand new materials. We are asking pupils to recall schemas and strengthen them

Example of how to do this - multiple choice quiz, recap verbally.

Multiple choice is good as it gives a prompt and helps to recall that schema back into working memory.

2. Obtain a high success rate (of student understanding) - A highly successful teacher will ensure that each pupil has learnt information correctly before they practice it. If we come across misunderstandings we should pause and re-teach before the mistakes are committed to long term memory.

But how do we know online if pupils have understood our explanations?

Be direct in how you want pupils to complete the tasks and what they should be learning

Use techniques such as look-cover-write-check -repeat and anticipate common misconceptions

Support pupils in practising new information they are learning

A lot of pupils' misunderstanding can be task based rather than knowledge based - they spend more time thinking about the task rather than the information. Therefore keeping tasks similar means this is not taking up working memory - it is freed up to grapple with information.

What is a pause point?

This is a short task after an explanation which allows pupils to do something with their new knowledge - deliberate practice.

If we talk too much without pause points pupils can become “overloaded”

In the classroom it is easy to see when to pause as we take cues from pupils and adapt.

Online you will need to plan in pause points based on knowledge of misconceptions and content we know pupils find difficult.

• How do we prepare pupils for extended and independent tasks?

• How do we give meaningful feedback when we are not in the room?

Models to scaffold - needed in each section and these may be smaller steps then when teaching in the classroom. Examples are sentence starters or paragraph scaffolds or using success criteria. You could use these to differentiate for pupils. E.g just success criteria for MA, think about your class.

We can't control motivating pupils directly in the room therefore you need to consider where this will come from.

You can control the content of the lessons therefore models need to have high standards of expectation to drive motivation.

Models for feedback - Be positive and specific, Focus forwards

Plan feedback and create models in order to pre-empt misconceptions for example narrate over a model answer picking up misconceptions.

When should we use a model?

Pre - Task: Scaffolds

Mid - Task: Addresses misconceptions and refocuses

Post- Task: delivers feedback on successes, suggest improvement.

Consider: If you are videoing a lesson pupils may wait for your model by continuing the video rather than being resilient and trying on their own. You must be comfortable with that reality.

The most important thing is to encourage and motivate.

Key Takeaways

1. Deliberate practice is important during remote teaching to help pupils build their schemas.

2. Make sure you recap and that tasks are simple for pupils practice

3. Script specific feedback which is encouraging but holds pupils to high standards to motivate them.

4. Plan in a variety pause points and make sure you plan in enough time for pupils to find the pause button.