Thread by @SuzieJabarian

Doing a little reading on #blendedlearning. The #RemoteLearning Guidance Report by @EducEndowFoundn is excellent, but I’m keen to dig a little deeper myself. So, I thought I would share some insights from research articles as I go along.

First #ResearchReview is on...
1/13

'Quality in a Blended Learning Environment' by Fray, Fisher and Pumpian (2013).

I like the title. It highlights an important goal for teachers right now: strive for high quality blended learning experiences for all pupils. We can't forsake quality when BL is here to stay.
2/13

Fray et al. (2013) explain that definitions of BL vary.

Is this problematic? I think establishing a shared definition of BL is important, not just within schools but perhaps even between them. Will this kind of continuity and consistency of lead to more equitable BL?
3/13

Fray et al. (2013) assert: “The concept of quality instruction is relevant regardless of where it occurs.”

This is the single most crucial message to reach schools and teachers: it is not the technology but the pedagogy that will make a difference.
4/13

The authors highlight features of high quality instruction that are as important online:
- establishing purpose
- thinking aloud and modelling
- complexity or demand of task
- high expectations
- academic language
- guided instruction.
- assessment, feeding back and forward
5/13

Establishing purpose:

The authors highlight the danger of students getting caught up in a digital task and losing sight of learning. This reminds me of @teacherhead's excellent ‘The Tyranny of the Task’ blog. We need to incorporate systematic checking processes for BL. How?
6/13

@teacherhead cites @dylanwiliam: deploy students as resources for one another. I like this! It would help to improve the capacity for checking within BL. It would also facilitate meaningful peer interactions, which the #EEF claim provides "motivation & improve outcomes”.
7/13

Thinking aloud and modelling:

We know students, as novices, benefit from observing expert thinking. This should be an essential feature of reduced face-to-face lessons. Online, I think factoring in voiceovers (as a minimum) will help to ensure we don’t hinder home learning.
8/13

Complexity of task and high expectations:

I paired these because I think they are inextricably linked. BL does not = superficial learning. This instantly got me thinking about Bjork and desirable difficulties. @Benneypenyrheol has covered this extensively. In a nutshell...
9/13

...when designing BL, we need to resist over-simplification. We need to carefully consider challenge, variety, spacing and retrieval. In fact, the testing effect - or retrieval practice - as a learning vehicle, should be a deeply embedded and ubiquitous feature of BL.
10/13

Guided instruction:

BL is not synonymous with discovery learning. DL might feature when appropriate BUT quality of instruction relies "on the gradual release of responsibility". BL is crying out for the ‘I do-we do-you do’ approach - which can be achieved online, too.
11/13

Teachers can utilise visualisers or @Screencastify / @loom / PPT to pre-record models / worked examples - @atharby demonstrates this well! The important benefit, of course, is that this gives pupils access to expert thinking: they see “disciplinary cognition at work”.
12/13

Last thing from the article that struck a chord is this:

The purpose of BL is *not* to wholly replace
classroom instruction with online experiences, but
rather to capitalise on the most robust features that each
environment has to offer.

13/13