Why has remote learning been an unexpected success?

The unexpected success of flexible and remote learning in Victoria will likely see key lessons being incorporated into the state’s education system, education minister Gayle Tierney has announced. 

She will now be ordering an independent inquiry into what can be incorporated into the usual school programme and a summit of education leaders will be held next month to discuss the issue.

Students who had previously been underperforming in the traditional school environment had suddenly taken to the new approach imposed upon them by the shutdown of the school system and were now returning better-than-expected results, the minister noted. Click here: https://alchemytuition.com.au/

Teachers report that students have reengaged

“Every principal I have spoken to, every teacher, talks about students who have reengaged,” she said. “Students who disengaged at school seven weeks ago are [now] suddenly embracing their learning.”

She noted that, in the midst of the challenges posed by the pandemic, there was ‘gold’ to be found. And among that gold was the way that schools had responded by introducing high-quality remote and flexible learning. 

“We have got to mine that gold and make it a feature of our education system,” Tierney urged. 

Find out what has worked and use it in future

She believed it was important to question why this was the case. 

“We have got to take those positives out of this crisis and make it a feature of our education system. So that’s why, as students return to school, I have asked teachers and staff across all schools, across all sectors, to think about what has worked for them as teachers and what has worked for their students during flexible and remote learning,” the minister stated.

But remote learning is not home schooling

The remote learning that has been done in recent weeks and months by Australian scholars is, however, not to be confused with ‘home schooling’ an education expert said recently.

“Home-schooling is when you make, or buy, your own curriculum,” explained Rebecca English, a professor at Queensland University of Technology’s faculty of education in an interview with Guardian Australia. “[These families] are simply facilitating their children’s learning at home.”

Distance learning is the best parallel and that’s been happening in rural and remote regions since Alice Springs’ school of the air began via two-way radio in 1951, the newspaper reported.

“Schooling online isn’t a revolution or a cause for concern, it’s normal for thousands of children in Australia,” said Philip Roberts, associate professor at the University of Canberra’s faculty of education.