Taking Time to Connect with the Home Learning Environment

For effective parent and carer engagement in the home learning environment you need two things: trained Early Years practitioners who are both confident and competent in developing parent/carer partnerships and parents and carers who understand their role and are confident and have the capacity to support their child. Maureen Hunt explains how to support the parents and carers who need it the most.

There is a weight of evidence that concludes that the greatest impact on children and young people’s learning arises from the things that parents/carers do with them at home, so it is not hard to understand that if you have someone behind you, encouraging and supporting you in something you will be at an advantage.¹

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      string(243) "Action research in South Wales has proven it’s never too early to teach children how to think. Researchers Russell Grigg and Helen Lewis report on the strategies uncovered to extend and deepen pupils’ thinking – even at a very young age."
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      string(5663) "use them quickly and almost automatically (for example,rattling off ‘I see… I think… I wonder…’ without external prompting). Oncefamiliar and well-known, routines can be transferred to situations beyond theclassroom, and applied to many aspects of daily life.The ‘thought-full’ classroomThe literature on thinking skills reveals many differences over what is meant bythinking, what ‘good’ thinking looks like in practice, whether it can be taughtseparate to knowledge, and how it can be assessed. Monitoring and assessmentof thinking development is complicated by the fact that young children maylack the language capability to tell us what they’re thinking about, and howthey’re thinking about it. Often practitioners can only make a best guess as tothe thinking that is going on.Despite these challenges, there is broad consensus over the kinds of practicesthat promote ‘thought-full’ classrooms. These include:n providing challenging tasks – what Adey and Shayer refer to as ‘cognitiveconflict’5, whereby teachers set activities that are just beyond pupils’ current11Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&LearningThinkingSkillscapabilities but, with appropriate support from the teacher and more ablepeers, stretch the mindn sharing thinking vocabulary in everyday conversation and displays – e.g. ‘sort’,‘reason’, ‘predict’, ‘connect’n encouraging curiosity where learners are not worried about making mistakes– e.g. asking questions, trying things out, taking risksn providing opportunities for purposeful dialogue – e.g. through role-playscenarios, group projects or real-life investigationsn using a range of purposeful questions and prompts – e.g. Can you say whatyou now think/know? What do you want to find out? Why are you doing this?Would you do things differently next time? Why?n using a range of written and audio-visual resources to stimulate thinkingn modelling thinking strategies and dispositions – e.g. ‘thinking aloud’ whenworking through problems, asking ‘why’ questions, the disposition to wonderand be adventurous.Everything we learn takes place in a social and cultural context, and children’sunderstanding of the world develops as they handle things, play with friends andinteract with teachers. So, for example, although problem solving is somethingthat is carried out ‘in the head’, it can be improved through interactions withcritical friends, teamwork, group projects, mentoring and using cultural tools suchas the internet, books and language.Sometimes social learning canreinforce negative thinking – forexample, if children learn prejudicialviews or a poor work ethic from a group.Tishman et al. point out that teachersneed to ‘enculturate students intogood thinking’.6 In such classrooms,teachers encourage pupils to speculate,challenge, and seek explanations.A thinking culture is created whenpupils learn to value evidence andwhere thinking is named, noticed andcelebrated. Classroom displays mightinclude posters of thinking in action, suchas a girl with a thought-bubble above herhead showing her reminding herself tostand back. Adults might also modelhow they go about tackling problems,sharing their thoughts aloud, while alsodrawing on exemplars from the world ofscientists, historians or artists.The teachers in this project felt that,with the wealth of materials available touse in the classroom and the number of initiatives and priorities that teachersface, many of these underlying principles had been forgotten. They saw thisproject as an opportunity to stand back, reflect upon their practice and thenrefocus on key aspects of good teaching.Why it’s important to talkThe relationship between language and thought has occupied many theorists.Famously, Piaget considered that thought preceded language, while Vygotskysuggested both processes were interdependent.There is evidence that certain groups of children can access the educationalprocess more successfully than others. Children possess ‘cultural capital’, whichto a greater or lesser extent allows them to make sense of, and interact with,“ A thinking culture is createdwhen pupils learn to valueevidence and where thinking isnamed, noticed and celebrated.Classroom displays might includeposters of thinking in action, suchas a girl with a thought-bubbleabove her head showing herreminding herself to stand back. ”ThinkingSkills12Volume5.3nCreativeTeaching&Learningclassroom practices. Evidence has highlighted, for example, the importance toa child’s cognitive development of a home learning environment where parentstalk, sing and read to their child. This can account for a 12 per cent gap indevelopment by the age of five between the richest and poorest children.7 Talkis a powerful way of developing understanding, because it allows the learnerto organise and adapt what they know. Barnes described this kind of languageas ‘exploratory talk’, where the speaker is hesitant, mulling over the meaningof what they are doing, trying out ideas and arranging information into differentpatterns.8 Sentences may be unfinished, broken, and full of ums and ahs, butscientific studies show that these so-called ‘disfluencies’ help young childrenpredict which words to pay attention to.9 The implication for practitioners is toensure that young children have the opportunity to talk purposefully withoutinterruption, fear of being made fun of, or being contradicted.Unfortunately, Barnes points out that much of the talk teachers expectfrom children is of a ‘presentational’ type, where the emphasis is"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Making thinking visible in the primary classroom

27 Mar 2015

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      string(5753) "Technology FeatureSchools are taking technologyand virtual learning to the nextlevel with the integration ofimmersive and multimediabased tools in the classroom,empowering and connectingteachers, students and parents.Social networking has become anintegral part of  most students’ livesand 2010 has seen schools go onestep further to connect teachers andstudents. Microsoft has strong beliefs increating a sense of  community betweenteachers and pupils, making it easier toshare files and interact with each other,helping individuals and teams becomemore efficient and organised both inthe classroom and at home.It is vital to recognise theimportance of  introducing innovativetechnologies into the classroom– technologies which empower thestudents with self  learning techniquesand equip the teachers with theresources to ensure the classroom is anexciting place to be.The vision of  the future is toconnect the world of  learning,regardless of  location, because newtechnology will eventually allowstudents to communicate with eachother from around the world, learningdifferent languages and cultures.It will also allow students to learnat their own speed – so pupils willbe physically in the same place butlearning different subjects and atdifferent speeds – giving way to a“social classroom” that more closelymirrors the layout of  the workplace.The technology-rich classroom isalready evident with the increasing useof  interactive white boards in schools.The future of  teaching is undoubtedlya more interactive environment,incorporating the growing trend ofsocial networks to engage studentsand communicate with peers acrossthe globe. Lessons will move awayfrom the display mentality, with ateacher at the front of  the classroomand will become more interactive– an informal collaboration betweengroups of  pupils and teachers.Microsoft is looking into theways technology can enhance theway we learn, work and live in thefuture. Although at the momentTaking schools intothe multimediasphereMicrosoft is a worldleader in developingnew forms of teaching,particularly creatingimmersive multimediaexperiences whereteachers can customiselessons and createinteractive environmentsfor their students. Here,Ray Fleming, Education Marketing Manager forMicrosoft, discusses new innovative technologieswaiting to hit the classrooms of tomorrow.http://www.teachingtimes.comTechnology Featureit’s all quite futuristic, it is based ontechnology that already exists, such asthe Microsoft Surface, a touchscreencomputer the size of  a coffee table.This revolutionary multi-touchcomputer encourages learners tocollaborate, and responds to naturalhand gestures and real-world objects,helping people interact with digitalcontent in a simple and intuitive way.Microsoft’s vision for Surface isto expand into giant touchscreensthe size of  a wall that will connectclassrooms all over the world and offerthe platform for students to interactwith each other in a large scale way.Microsoft’s SharePoint is anotherexample of  a new immersivetechnology that can help improveschools effectiveness by providingcomprehensive content managementand help students and staff  to effectivelysearch for information to help theirlearning. SharePoint is helping unitethe classroom and will ease the lives ofteachers, children and parents globallyby making their day-to-day tasks easierto manage and comprehend.The main goal for the futureis creating a true virtual learningenvironment for the children of  todayto communicate and interact with theirpeers and teachers. Using the technologyof  today helps create this space andprepares the pupils for the future ofemployment and education by allowingthem to learn using the most up-to-datetechnology, so that they can be ready inyears to come when thetechnology and softwarecontinues to develop.SharePoint providesa comprehensive,flexible platform thatempowers people towork both individuallyat their own pace andalso to work togetherin ways that are mosteffective for them. 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Digital Learning

Taking schools into the multimedia sphere

5 Sep 2010

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      string(5796) "Only 51% of households earning between £6000-10,000 have home internet access The closure of all educationalestablishments was a shock to pupils, parents and schools alike. Pupils andteachers were forced to operate remotely at very short notice, pupils received fewer learning hours and had theircurriculum cut, and much of the work set by schools assumed families had accessto devices and home internet. Study after study  showed that these changes disproportionately impacted pupils from lower income homes. Digital Access West Yorkshire’s Claire Garside reflects:“Lockdown happened very quickly andat a time when most schools didn’t have a school-wide policy for remoteteaching and learning. Teachers from all classes or subjects hadn’t receivedany/enough training and support to be able to adapt to the change incircumstances. Digital exclusion and the impact on educational attainment,health and wellbeing needs to be addressed – people/families need to besupported to get online and connect with others.”Home accessIt’s easy to forget that digital is neither universal nor free. 22% of the UK’s population have lacked basic digital skills since long before the Covid-19 outbreak, and the less you earn, the less likely you are to spend your money on an internet connection. For example, only 51% of households earning between £6000-10,000 have home internet access, compared with 99% of households with an income of over £40,001.It’s clear that throughout thiscrisis, schools have been working hard to try to give their pupils the bestopportunities possible. But tasking children with work to do online assumed agood internet connection and access to appropriate devices. From the stats above, we can see thatthis approach excludes almost half of low income homes, and, to add insult toinjury, those children falling through the cracks are already less likely to succeedat school. When schools set learning tasks that require an internet connectionat home, the gap is only likely to grow further during this crisis. Teaching staff are of courseconfronted with the harsh realities of these inequalities every day. As one head teacher said:“I was talking to one family onFriday, when I was delivering free meals. I did take them a paper pack of work,because Mum said it was ‘pay the wi-fi or feed the children’ this month…Sometimes people simply can’t afford to pay for wi-fi.”To extract maximum learning potentialfrom the tech, there needs to be reinforcement across the board: socially andculturally as well as practically. The kit is just the start While it’s a great start to make devices available in family homes, there also needs to be a sensitivity to how the tech is used – what role does it play in the home? What happens if we try to change the purpose of familiar tools? Are children emotionally ready to repurpose their ‘toys’ for learning? This, coupled with the practicalconstraint of inaccessible devices, poses serious challenges to learning fromhome. Another head teacher explained:“The majority of children in schoolaren’t accessing any of the online learning that we’ve set. I know that some ofthem don’t have reliable internet. Most of them who have anything have phonesor tablets. They’re often shared with siblings, so their access to somethingappropriate to work on is quite limited.”The Government acknowledged the issueup to a point, distributing 200,000 laptops and six-month internet accesspasses to care givers and disadvantaged pupils, but even this failed to addressthe magnitude of the problem.Distributing equipment was a goodstart, but it was exactly that: just a start. It relied on the idea thatparents, on the whole, have the time, skills and space at home to supportschool work outside of the school environment. Parental engagement A survey of teachers by the National foundation for Education Research (NfER) found that just 55 percent of parents were engaged in their child’s learning, while a UCL study suggested that pupils learning at home spent 2.5 hours a day on school work, on average, with one in five doing less than an hour a day. That means that two million children in the UK were doing less than five hours of work a week, many of them were in the free school meals category.Issues for teachers Even if students can do their work, there can be issues with assessment. Evaluating academic progress in these conditions is very difficult without knowing the hours spent or what opportunities the pupils have had to engage with the material. It’s worth noting that setting and assessing work remotely can be extremely labour intensive for teachers, who feel a great deal of care and responsibility towards their students and have rapidly had to convert their tried-and-true methods to suit the new landscape. One teacher told us:“The most surprising thing was howmuch work was involved; it wasn’t a case of setting some work for an hour inthe morning and taking the rest of the day off.”Digital literacy is another, oftenoverlooked, part of the equation. There are interactive websites that connectpupils with teachers, and unsurprisingly the schools with developed digitalstrategies have fared much better throughall this. But in situations where parents – and teachers – don’t know how touse (for example) the interactive dashboards, they can’t help their children toget the full benefit.It’s not all bad news There have been indications that some pupils"
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Blogs

What Happened To Learning During The Lockdown In Leeds?

28 Sep 2020

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      string(374) "... hugely influential role in theirdevelopment. With what we’ve learned from online learning during Covid-19 andrecognising that some children are simply suited to this learning environment,isn’t it time that we pay attention to each student and the potential for a betterand more tailored way of learning? Home ..."
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      string(5804) "Dr Sara de FreitasSinceschooling began, we have applied the classroom-based model to all students. Historically,virtual learning was simply seen as ‘an alternative to normal schooling,’ designedfor students who couldn’t attend mainstream schools, people needing additionalsupport, or something schools used to fill gaps in teaching provision. Thencame Covid-19.Atfirst, the pandemic and subsequent lockdown took us all by surprise. Theinitial concern from parents and teachers was about the impact of learningoutside the traditional classroom setting with the question of the potentialdamage that this may have on student development. However, after several monthsof remote, online, blended learning, teachers and students alike are realisingthat many positive lessons have been learned; the main one being that onlinelearning suits a lot of students. Whathas changedOverthese past few months, online blended learning has become the new ‘norm’ and astructure that a significant number of teachers and students have thrived on. Across the world, the pandemic hasaccelerated the adoption of remote learning by about five years and has certainly giventhe education sector an insight into its benefits. Even prior to the pandemic,various research papers stated that the online educational market will continueto soar.  And while there have beeninevitable teething problems in mainstream schools, many are starting toconsider whether the future might just have become the present. It has only been in recentyears that schools and families have increasingly recognised the alternative viableoption of online schooling. InterHigh attracts students for any number ofreasons. We have budding athletes such as table tennis star Anna Hursey, theyoungest athlete in the history of any sport to compete in the CommonwealthGames. Anna was able to meet the mandatoryschooling requirements by accessing online, fully synchronous, learning. In herwords, “Online learning allowsme to continue with my education whilst developing my table tennis career.”Anotherexample is the Parsons family. Emma Parsons’ two children use online schooling.She said, “each child has their own unique identity andevery person is treated as an individual. Yet when it comes to education, mostare given the same ways and opportunities to learn. Why then are we sosurprised that many children act out or disengage?”We also have many students whojoin us for short periods of time, such as international students, or atmainstream schools who just want to come to us to study a specific languagethat is not supported at their school.Whatever the individual child’ssituation and needs, parents and teachers play a hugely influential role in theirdevelopment. With what we’ve learned from online learning during Covid-19 andrecognising that some children are simply suited to this learning environment,isn’t it time that we pay attention to each student and the potential for a betterand more tailored way of learning? Home support is essentialWith the experiences I have gatheredover the years, into the critical factors affecting the success of remoteteaching and working with Wey Education’s trained teaching staff, I feel I amwell placed to offer my advice to mainstream school teachers who have only juststarted on their journey of delivering an effective education online.Many of you reading this will feel that I’m about six months too latewith my advice because at the current time we are all set for schools to openin September. However, firstly there could be a phased approach, with half thestudents attending on one day and the other half receiving the same lessons thenext day. Added to this, there is always the danger ofclosure due to a second wave. We also fear that other pandemics could prevailat any time. Moreimportantly, the time has come for schools to expect that anincreasing number of students may elect to continue to learn online. Whatever happens, online, blended learning is likely continue; we havecertainly seen a significant increase in student registration. With this in mind, whatsteps should schools be taking to prepare for the best opportunities for theirstudents, whatever the future holds?The challengesIT infrastructureOf course, it is not hard torecognise that the first problem that most schools faced as we went intolockdown was the lack of a suitable IT infrastructure and bandwidth to connectwith all its students. We also can’t ignore the fact that most schools hadstudents without access to suitable hardware and Internet connectivity. Now wehave time to consider the importance of a suitable way to deliver the learning,it is critical that the IT infrastructure is in place and adequately resourced.At InterHigh we ensure that investment into the core IT infrastructure allowsfor different devices and lower bandwidth to be factored into the design. Wealso ensure that all students have the appropriate devices to access our schoolplatform, ideally laptops and PCs. The software to support learningcontent including interactive activities and videos is vital. The learningplatforms that were introduced many years ago to deliver a more personalisedapproach to learning are becoming increasingly important to store this learningcontent, upload reading material, provide website links, employ assessmentsystems and establish areas to upload work for assessment and to download itonce it has been marked. If they haven’t already,schools must establish or review a school wide video conferencing (VC) application. We use Adobe Connect due to our keyfocus"
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Blogs

The do’s and don’ts of remote learning - How AI works and what it brings to the table

10 Aug 2020