If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that enabling learning for primary children through digital technology is hard without preparation. Schools that had invested in pedagogy, technology and partnerships have ridden the storms of lockdowns better and with less disruption. 

Primary teachers have been amazingly adaptable and creative in their solutions. So much is normally built into the physical spaces and human interactions on top of the formal curriculum, that moving to online resources to deliver the curriculum while maintaining relationships with the children was a big ask.  

As we find a way out of lockdown and the 21/22 academic year comes into view this is a good time to explore how to make digital provision a more natural part of school life by integrating the best aspects of our lockdown experiences.  

What does quality digital provision look like for pupils? 

Above all, the impact of barriers to digital inclusion cannot be overstated. At a basic level, if students cannot access digital learning, then digital provision cannot be successful. Lack of devices and internet access are barriers, but teachers, learners, parents, and guardians also need support and guidance in the effective use of technology and platforms (EEF, 2020) .  

At Pearson we have continued to review and build upon the research that exists around effective digital learning. We have heard from teachers that collaboration, motivation and engagement, and supporting independent learning continue to be challenging when it comes to digital delivery. We have broken down a few key questions to consider as markers of good quality digital provision.  

1. Do pupils have opportunities for collaborative learning? 

Collaboration and communication are pivotal when setting up Primary classrooms and lessons, but it’s more than just classroom management. Research has shown that students working together collaboratively develop higher level thinking skills and retain information longer than individual students working alone (Johnson & Johnson, 1986). Collaborative learning is also linked to improved critical thinking (Totten, 1991; Gokhale, 1995).

 There are many tools that can be used to deliver collaboration remotely, from the use of shared documents or discussion boards, through to breakout rooms and chat. Whichever tools you use, it’s important that activities are designed to encourage interaction and active engagement. 

Giving children clear roles in a group task, such as Chair/Reporter/Researcher, helps give structure to collaboration to help model for pupils how they should work together.

2. Do pupils receive feedback that helps them move forwards

The quality and quantity of feedback is especially important for remote learning when teachers are not present. When pupils receive limited feedback they can easily disconnect from learning- and primary aged children need this consistency and regularity all the way to Year 6.  

So, what does effective feedback look like? 

Feedback is more effective when: 

• It is timely and thorough.

• It focuses on the task and specific features of a student’s work, not the individual. 

• It includes areas of strength and information on how to improve. 

There are many benefits to automated feedback, including timeliness, as well as removing some of the burden of feedback from teachers.

However, this will depend on the quality of automated feedback provided (for example, whether it is tailored to the question and student response) and automated feedback will need to be supplemented with feedback from teachers, especially when it doesn't address the specific issues of pupils.  

3. Are pupils encouraged to become independent learners? 

Primary aged children can move towards independence, but for much of the time they are dependent on teachers, and interdependent on their peers. A primary teacher’s professional judgement helps determine when a child is ready for independent learning – but all children should experience independence in some way, and digital settings encourage and support this.  So, how can independent learning be facilitated?

Here are a few strategies:

• Showing ‘What good looks like’ - so children know what and where they are aiming at/for.

• Scaffolding, where pupils are initially guided in their learning, but guidance is gradually removed.

• Modelling, where students observe teacher’s (or others) behaviours - for example when solving a problem. This could include the use of worked examples or talking through questions.

• Giving opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own work.  

Whilst metacognitive skills can be taught fully at secondary, at primary, aspects such as reflection can be explicitly taught and used from a young age. This could involve verbalisation and drawing, as well as writing.  

For example, journals, written reflections, group discussions or drawing can be used by pupils to reflect on how they feel about their learning, their level of confidence, what they found difficult and easy, and why. This could involve the use of polls to collect feedback from pupils, or the use of audio or video journals. 

4. Are tasks and lessons engaging and motivating?

Primary schools are often places of laughter and play – however, engagement and motivation in learning needs to be relevant to that lesson. Colouring in a map can be motivating, especially when you get a sticker for completing the task – but it’s possible that the pupil learns nothing about maps or location/place.

There are several things to consider around the design of tasks to ensure they are both motivating and engaging for pupils. For example:

• Including a real audience for their work (parents, school community members, local business, siblings, local charities).

• Acknowledging when tasks are difficult.

• Ensuring there are clear instructions for tasks (particularly  important for online learning where students are working without the teacher present).

• Including opportunities for both collaboration and autonomous work. 

5) Are parents and guardians engaged with and supported?

Parental engagement has a significant impact on the success of online learning. For primary age pupils, parental engagement has its biggest impact on developing language skills and being able to organise and communicate thoughts and feelings – for example, by parents listening to their child reading, or talking to children about their day at school (Harris and Goodall, 2007; OECD, 2012).

Parental engagement can take many forms, including:  

• Encouraging and nurturing each child

• Demonstrating that they like to learn new things and showing their children that they don’t give up when tasks are difficult.

• Praising good behaviours

• Helping children to organise their space and time e.g., ensuring they take regular breaks from a screen. 

Of course, parents and guardians face obvious barriers, including balancing support for learning with their own work, having multiple children often of different ages to support, knowing how and when to differentiate activities, and knowledge of the education system (Garbe et al, 2020). 

Supporting parents and guardians with these challenges can be made simpler using digital resources – for example, providing online support around differentiation to be accessed when needed and ensuring parents, guardians and pupils have the information needed to organise work. These simple steps will have a significant impact on delivering effective online learning. 

So, with the vaccine rollout worldwide offering hope for a normal academic year for 2021/22 let’s build on the successes of the innovation driven by lockdown and its extended periods of learning outside of the classroom, as well as looking to address the newly created challenges. 

Digital learning is here to stay and has much to offer if harnessed appropriately and with pedagogy, technology and partnerships at its heart.