Covid-19 Remote Learning: Small Changes, Big Difference for Scotland’s Children and Young People

This blog, the fourth about our Covid-19 Project with Scottish Children and Young People, details outcomes from Workshop 3 that relate to remote learning. Taking the 5 big Covid-19 challenges discussed in workshop 2, our young consultants were unanimous that remote schooling is having the greatest impact on their well-being and attainment. There was also strong consensus over the small changes that could make a big difference.

The Project

The Project, self-funded by APiC, addresses the absence of young Scots’ rightful participation in the Covid-19 crisis response. It involves teams from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and (Rural) Stirlingshire and Falkirk, each with 4-6 boys and girls, aged 10-16 years. Leith Community Crops in Pots, the  Children’s Parliament Imagining Aberdeen programme, Denny High School, Northfield Academy and Manor Park Primary School helped us with the recruitment. In total, 25 young consultants took part.

The Workshops (3 to-date) use a collaborative online environment which integrates video conferencing and a digital workspace. The project teams led and facilitated all discussion activities. The consensual outcomes from each Workshop, as agreed by all teams, then determined the agenda for the next.

Our Remote Learning Experience

The big challenges:

  • More work and less direct help from teachers
  • Much more limited opportunities for collaboration with classmates
  • An overload of screen time (something we’re also struggling with in our free time!)
  • Access to technology and materials, including paper
  • More distractions at home.

Overall, these issues were leading to reduced motivation for our young consultants and their peers to learn, and contributing significantly to their stress. They give vital insights into why the attainment gap is likely widening in Scotland, and what we might do about it.

Small Changes, Big Difference

One: Manage our workload – it’s too much!

Young people reported receiving more work than they can complete in a school week. They felt teachers have limited awareness of cumulative workload between different subjects, and better communication between them could make a huge difference. In addition, teachers should adapt work and deadlines to consider the technological challenges and stress involved with learning online.

“It feels like we’re stuck in an endless cycle of work and we’re never done. No weekend.” Young Consultant

Two: Help us to collaborate with our classmates.

Education has become isolating and demotivating, and the young people are missing classmates and the peer support they provide. They felt more workgroup collaboration via video-conferencing would help across all subjects. If authorities struggle to make this happen, then schools should empower young people to setup their own informal video / social media groups.

We need more team-based activities over zoom or teams just like this project” Young Consultant

Three: Help us communicate directly with our teachers.

All the young people reported that gaining help from teachers via email is difficult and slow, and leaving questions on group boards can be embarrassing. This approach, particularly in the absence of peer support, means that when pupils get stuck they feel they can’t progress. If they could leave private voice or video messages for teachers, or book one-to-one chats it could help motivate them to continue. They also felt quicker feedback on work, and upfront introductions to new subjects by the teacher to the whole class would help them feel included.

“You used to be able to ask teachers in your classrooms, now you have to email them and wait” Young Consultant

“We could learn about something first and then we can do work about it instead of doing it all at once” Young Consultant

Four: Give us more outdoor and offline learning.

With learning, socialising and leisure during lockdown all largely happening online, young people reported feeling exhausted by screen time. They were also struggling with distractions of the home environment, and were clear that Covid-19 provides more opportunity to bring outdoor learning into their curriculum. They highlighted that physical education, geography, biology, history and art are ideal for blending online collaboration with individual place-based or outdoor activities. In fact, using more paper jotters and text books might allow more reading and writing offline. Adjustments to learning approaches and infrastructure could also make more outdoor classes possible.

“In school there’s no avoiding work, at home there are endless distractions – family, friends, YouTube, texting, etc” Young Consultant

“We now have a real opportunity to integrate the outdoors into our learning” Young Consultant

“We can see ways of some classes such as geography, biology, art and PE being more outdoorsy” Young Consultant

Five: Work together to standardise and support approaches.

The young people spoke about big variation in the quality of service they are receiving. They felt authorities should listen more to pupils, teachers, and parents about what does and doesn’t work. Some spoke about wishing to have all of their work on one learning platform, and many felt they are watching too many educational videos and not getting enough live video teaching. Pupils without a home computer have even greater challenges, with some only able to attend school on their phones. Families also now need to access and purchase some of their own materials such as paper, which is can be an ongoing struggle.

“Some people doing lots of work. Others none at all. This will impact their learning long term – especially in exams next year” Young Consultant

“All of the negative factors discussed can contribute to a sense of being overwhelmed” Young Consultant

To see more of what some of our young consultants said about this, check out this article that appeared in the Scotland on Sunday 14th June 2020.

The young people were clear that the challenges they face are creating or exacerbating divides between classmates. These are causing significant de-motivation and stress for all, but the burden is falling most squarely on groups who have been the focus of Scottish Government’s attention in closing the attainment gap.

What’s next?

APiC will provide a full project report in the coming weeks that covers all the findings of our three workshops, and set out the recommendations for small changes that would make a big difference from all of our young consultants.

Having demonstrated the importance of enabling and hearing young people’s voices at this time, APiC is now seeking to secure further funding to continue this Covid-19 Project with Scottish Children and Young People. This would allow Scottish Government, and relevant authorities and third parties to give young Scots their rightful say, and to work with them on appropriate solutions to the significant and ongoing challenges they face.

  • If you would be interested in funding the continuation of this unique and important project, please email us, we’d love to hear from you.
  • Like APiC, Children’s Parliament are also keen to share how the Coronavirus Lockdown is experienced by children. Created by the Members of Children’s Parliament, the Corona Times Journal is helping adults to understand the impact that the coronavirus is having on children’s lives. They are also inviting children from the ages of 8-14 to take part in a national wellbeing survey.