Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning: EEF's guidance

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Using Digital Technology to Improve Learning | EEF

Introduction

The guidance includes ways to

improve teaching. Timely practice improves accuracy of assessment for learning, so that teaching is better targeted to be on each learner’s firm foundations. Timely also ensures that the teacher has more time in the lesson to give feedback (whilst the learners are engaged in their timely practice, which most learners can do independently and accurately most of the time - about 80 percent of the time), the teacher has time to give 1 to 1 feedback and we make the feedback is more likely to be effective, by ensuring learners have a chance to apply the feedback soon.
improve learning the example they give: increasing the quality and quantity of pupil practice is an exact fit for timely practice. Timely practice does this by making practice of the teaching of the lesson a better fit for the learner and making retrieval practice (practice on everything learned by each learner prior to the leaner) scheduled to embed learning most deeply.

This EEF guidance report is designed to support senior leaders and teachers to make better informed decisions based on the best available evidence we currently have. It includes a number of practical examples of technology being used in ways which support improved teaching (e.g., by increasing the accuracy of teacher assessment) or improve pupil learning (e.g., by increasing the quality and quantity of pupil practice).

To develop this report’s four recommendations for using digital technology to improve pupils’ learning we not only reviewed the best available international research, but also consulted with teachers and other experts.

R1: Consider how technology will improve teaching and learning before introducing it

Timely practice does not look exciting - we see learners practicing a mixed bag of questions for 10 to 15 minutes of the lesson and the teacher giving some learners feedback.

Sometimes the conversation within the feedback of the teacher and the learners seems rather more sophisticated than would be expected by the level of difficulty of the mathematics - it appears if anything that the teacher is doing a great job of training the learners in cognitive and meta cognitive skills, it doesn’t seem that it can be the learners retrieval practice questions.

It is only when we see the longer term effectiveness of the timing of the practice - that timely practice shows what teachers can get excited about. Low attaining and under achieving learners, start to catch up with and in many cases over take the attainment of their previously more highly attaining peers not using timely practice.

New technology can often appear exciting. However, it can become a solution in search of a problem unless it is introduced in response to an identified need. It is often useful to link the introduction of new technology to wider planning, for example, a review of assessment policy.

Schools should consider the pedagogical rationale for how technology will improve learning. The principles of how to use technology successfully are not distinct from questions of how to teach effectively or how children learn.

Without a clear plan for support and implementation, technology is much less likely to have an impact. This includes considering what initial training will be needed, what time and resources are required, and what ongoing support should be available.

Decisions about whether to introduce technology should also include an analysis of the costs of implementing the technology, alongside the expected benefits.

R2: Technology can be used to improve the quality of explanations and modelling

Timely practice provides teachers with:

assessment for learning data - who already knows which small bites - to enable the teacher to teach on firm learning foundations;
teach-learn practice questions - which the teacher can use to teach each small bite;
practise-learn worksheets - which the learners can use to practise their small targeted bite of the teaching of the lesson.

Technology has the potential to help teachers explain and model new concepts and ideas. However, how explanations and models are conveyed is less important than their clarity and accessibility to pupils.

Introducing a new form of technology will not automatically change the way teachers teach. Interactive whiteboards are a good example highlighting the need to consider the pedagogical rationale for adopting a form of technology, and for carefully planning the training required to enable teachers to use it effectively.

Technology can help teachers model in new ways and provide opportunities to highlight how experts think as well as what they do, but may be most effective when used as a supplement rather than a substitute for other forms of modelling.

R3: Technology offers ways to improve the impact of pupil practice

Timely practice ensures learners do more practice, they are presented with:

worksheets on their “small bite” of the new learning of the lesson, which improves the pace of their practice and
personalised assignments which review all the “small bites” of prior learning using increasing interval retrieval practice - so prior learning is more deeply embedded in long term memory rather than being allowed to be forgotten.

Technology has the potential to increase the quality and quantity of practice that pupils undertake, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Technology can be engaging and motivating for pupils. However, the relationship between technology, motivation, and achievement is complex. Monitoring how technology is being used, including by checking that all learners have the skills they need to use it effectively, is likely to reduce the risk that technology becomes a tool that widens the gap between successful learners and their peers.

Some forms of technology can also enable teachers to adapt practice effectively, for example by increasing the challenge of questions as pupils succeed or by providing new contexts in which students are required to apply new skills.

Using technology to support retrieval practice and self-quizzing can increase retention of key ideas and knowledge.

R4: Technology can play a role in improving assessment and feedback

Timely practice is an assessment and planning feedback tool.

The teacher uses timely practice to find fine granular detail on learners firm learning foundations.
The teacher is strongly encouraged to use this to plan the most suitable next small bite of learning (layer) to teach each learner, and get each learner to practice on each topic.
The timely practice app then schedules increasing interval retrieval practice for each learner on the learning of each lesson, to more deeply embed each learner’s learning.
The retrieval practice is responsive to feedback - after feedback (which the retrieval creates time in the lesson for the teacher to give) the wait between one practice and the next is reduced, so that the learner is more likely to be able to remember the feedback and accurately apply it to their next similar practice question.

Technology has the potential to improve assessment and feedback, which are crucial elements of effective teaching. However, how teachers use information from assessments, and how pupils act on feedback, matter more than the way in which it is collected and delivered.

Using technology can increase the accuracy of assessment, or the speed with which assessment information is collected, with the potential to inform teachers’ decision-making and reduce workload.

Technology can be used to provide feedback directly to pupils via programmes or interventions, but in all cases careful implementation and monitoring are necessary. Feedback via technology is likely to be most beneficial if it is provided in addition to, rather than instead of, other forms of feedback.