Good communication with schools a major factor in success of home-schooling, EDUCATE Ventures study finds
Families who had good communication with their child’s school during the first school lockdown were ten times more like to feel confident about home-schooling that those though contact was inadequate, according to new research from EDUCATE Ventures Research Limited.
Families’ domestic situations were also a major factor in how well they coped with the disruption, the report, Shock to the System: Lessons from Covid-19, found.
The study, which was compiled over a nine-month period in conjunction with Cambridge Partnership for Education using surveys, questionnaires and interviews — and included responses to questions set through Parent Ping — is thought to be the most comprehensive picture of life yet produced about how schools, families and the technology sector fared during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The report found that teachers, parents and educational technology (EdTech) companies experienced a diverse range of problems and challenges, which were partly caused by a lack of understanding of one community by others. This disconnection between schools, families and the EdTech sector meant that the education ecosystem generally was unprepared for the challenges of the situation.
For many parents, juggling working from home with supporting children felt like they were doing neither adequately. One mother said in an interview with EDUCATE researchers that being interrupted by her children while working meant both work and trying to teach her children were taking longer: “I thought I was doing a bad job at my job, and a bad job of being a mother”.
Falling behind was a big or quite a big concern for 77% of single parents but only 54% of non-single parents. Nearly six out of ten single parents reported financial concerns, but only 16% of non-single parents were worried about this.
Access to the internet and devices was also a major challenge. One teacher described how, in some families, up to five children were vying for the use of one laptop, and many didn’t have a printer or some other device that could help them to access learning. “If they let the school know they were given paper copies of things, but they had…to sort of be able to get to school to let us know” the teacher said.
Families with children who have special educational needs were particularly disadvantaged, with 68% saying they found home learning challenging. Only 28% agreed that their child’s educational placement had provided very good support and 40% felt they received no support from educational or other agencies.
Professor Rose Luckin, professor of learner centred design at UCL Knowledge Lab and director of EDUCATE Ventures Research Limited, said: “A supreme effort was made by many people: parents, teachers, EdTech companies and school leaders alike to secure learning for many students during the pandemic restrictions. Now, we must build upon the foundations for the future by creating more communication and better connections between the different groups of people that make up the education ecosystem.
“Technology has an important role to play in this respect. It is also essential that we move away from any notion of a “one size fits all” model of support and pay far greater attention to the diversity within our school population.”
Dr Carmel Kent, EDUCATE Ventures’ head of educational data science, said: “In carrying out this research, we wanted to listen — to teachers, to parents, to school leaders and to the EdTech companies trying to support them. We modified our research questions and methods as the lockdown evolved to bring a holistic and authentic picture of the shock waves ripping through the education system.
“As a team, we emerged from this exercise completely in awe of the parents and schools of this country and of the huge burden they carried, and continue to carry, on their shoulders. This was a huge learning process, and we need to ensure those lessons are learned.”
Download the full report, Shock to the system: lessons from Covid-19 here.
