Presentation given at the 49th IATEFL Conference in Manchester 12 April 2015. The British Council's Ceibal English project has the potential to develop deep learning by promoting student autonomy, creativityand collaboration, even where the teacher is not physically present in the classroom.

1. Can Remote Teaching Lead
to
Deep Learning?
Paul Woods, Former British Council
English Adviser, Uruguay

2. What my bosses in
London thought I did
What my mates
thought I did
What I thought I did
What my parents
thought I did
What my wife
thought I did
What I really did

3. Can Remote Teaching
Lead to Deep Learning?
Paul Woods, Former English Adviser.
British Council Uruguay
New Pedagogies
Much more than ‘flipped’ classrooms or MOOCs (Massive
Open Online Courses) where content information and
existing knowledge are ‘delivered’ online.
“Simply adding a layer of expensive tools on top of the
traditional curriculum does nothing to address the learning
needs of modern learners.” Will Richardson

4. Deep Learning
• The explicit aim is deep learning
that goes beyond the mastery
of existing content knowledge.
• ‘Creating and using new
knowledge in the world.’
• Technology has unleashed
learning, and the potential for
students to apply knowledge in
the world outside of school
• New pedagogies leverage this in
the formal learning process.

5. (based on Ramsden, 1988)
Deep Surface
Focus is on “what is signified” Focus is on the “signs” (or on the
learning as a signifier of something
else)
Relates previous knowledge to new
knowledge
Focus on unrelated parts of the task
Relates knowledge from different
courses
Information for assessment is simply
memorised
Relates theoretical ideas to
everyday experience
Facts and concepts are associated
unreflectively
Relates and distinguishes evidence
and argument
Principles are not distinguished from
examples
Organises and structures content
into coherent whole
Task is treated as an external
imposition
Emphasis is internal, from within
the student
Emphasis is external, from demands
of assessment

6. “Learning” means different things to different people. Säljö
(1979) interview-based study, 5 categories:
1. A quantitative increase in knowledge - acquiring
information or “knowing a lot”
2. Memorising - storing information that can be reproduced.
3. Acquiring facts, skills and methods that can be retained and
used as necessary.
4. Making sense or abstracting meaning - relating parts of the
subject matter to each other and to the real world.
5. Interpreting and understanding reality in a different way
- comprehending the world by re-interpreting knowledge.
There is a clear qualitative shift between conceptions 3 and 4.
1, 2 and 3 are views which underpin surface learning strategies
4 and 5 relate to deep learning.

7. The 6 C’s of 21st Century Education
Plus character education
and citizenship

8. Teaching
• Teaching shifts from
focusing on covering all
required content to focusing
on the learning process,
developing students’ ability
to lead their own learning
and to do things with their
learning.
• Teachers are partners with
students in deep learning
tasks characterised by
exploration, connectedness
and broader, real-world
purposes.

9. Learning
Learning outcomes are
measured in terms of:
• Students’ capacities to
build new knowledge and
to lead their own learning
effectively,
• Students’ proactive
dispositions and their
abilities to persevere
through challenges, and
• Students’ development as
citizens who are life-long
learners.

10. Roles of teachers
• Build trusted relationships with students and peer teachers; seek good mentors
• Help students find and build on their interests and aspirations through deep
learning tasks
• Require challenging learning goals, tasks and success criteria for self and students
that require creation and use of new knowledge
• Develop repertoire of teaching strategies; use different strategies to activate
learning
• Provide high-quality feedback and encouragement, especially when students face
challenges in learning
• Collaborate with other teachers and leaders researching the impact of different
learning strategies on students
• Model a proactive disposition towards learning
• Use digital tools and resources to explore new concepts and ideas, challenge
students to create new knowledge, accelerate students ability to drive their own
learning

11. Roles of learners
• Build trusted relationships with teachers and peers; seek good mentors
• Explore own interests and aspirations in learning goals and tasks
• Develop capacity to define learning goals, tasks and success criteria, partnering in
the learning process
• Develop capacity for reflection and perseverance in the face of challenges;
provide high quality feedback and encouragement
to others
• Provide feedback to teachers and peers on
the learning process and one’s own progress
• Discover and create digital learning tools
and resources to explore new content ,
concepts, information and ideas, using
these to connect with peers and experts
throughout the world
Fullen M and Langworthy M (2014 ) A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies find Deep Learning

13. Remote teaching in Uruguay
• 4000 remote lessons per
week taught by remote
teachers using hi-tech VC
equipment.
• Teachers are located in
Uruguay, the UK, Argentina
and The Philippines
• Teachers collaborate
closely with class teachers
who do 2 practice lessons
per week

14. Collaboration
• Collaboration in learning is easy to
consider on the surface, but tough to do
well in practice.
• One of the most complex transitions for
students and teachers to make is the
move from a pedagogy that centres on
individuals demonstrating their learning
to a pedagogy that embraces groups
demonstrating their learning.
• Yet in modern workplaces, success most
often depends upon the ability of
everyone to work together to integrate
complex parts and ideas into a coherent
product, solution, policy or program.
• This requires individuals to share
responsibility for the ends of their work,
to make substantive, negotiated decisions
together, and to work interdependently

15. Digital tools and resources
enable :
• the discovery and mastery
of new content
knowledge;
• collaborative, connected
learning;
• low-cost creation and
iteration of new
knowledge;
• use of new knowledge
with authentic audiences
for “real” purposes; and
• enhancement of teachers’
ability to put students in
control of the learning
process, accelerating
learner autonomy.

16. Collaboration
Using OLPC Laptops
Every child in state
schools in Uruguay has a
laptop or tablet
This greatly facilitates
collaborative groupwork
and project work and the
development of learner
autonomy through doing
simple research

17. Critical Thinking
“Engaging students in ongoing,
cognitively
challenging (reflection) activities”
From : “Integrating technology with student-centered learning”
A Report to the Nellie Mae Education Foundation 2011
Prepared by Babette Moeller & Tim Reitzes . http://www.nmefoundation.org/

18. www.posterenvy.com

19. •BIG questions are “open” questions
and cannot be answered with a yes or
a no or a small phrase.
•BIG questions require multiple
resources to be answered.
What is a BIG question?

20. challenges assumptions
generates energy
focuses enquiry and reflection
touches a deeper meaning
evokes related questions
is thought provoking
From “Asking Big Questions”, A Catalyst for Strategy Evolution,
by Juanita Brown, David Isaacs and Nancy Margulies
http://www.theworldcafe.com/articles/askingbig.pdf
A Powerful question….

21. Communication
genuine questions vs.
display questions
“Display questions are questions you ask to see if the person you are speaking to knows
the answer. In an ELT classroom, this normally means questions teachers ask learners to
see if they understand or remember something”.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/display-questions

22. Very sad. My dog died.
Excellent answer!
How are you?

23. “RT refers Ss to the other column and models the
role play activity
with the CT, asking him/her questions to
complete the corresponding column.
RT invites Ss to work in pairs and complete the
second column with information about their
partners.
Ss engage in the pair work activity”. Lesson Plan,
Week 28

24. AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK, 14% OF MY TEACHERS LET ME
CREATE SOMETHING NEW WITH TECHNOLOGY….
Creativity

25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

27. Using new knowledge in real contexts
• In deep learning tasks, the goal is
to develop new knowledge,
through the integration of prior
knowledge with ideas,
information and concepts, into a
wholly new product, concept,
solution or content.
• In good deep learning tasks,
students also go beyond creating
new knowledge to doing
something with it – to using that
new knowledge in the world.
• In this sense, deep learning tasks
have a constructivist orientation,
with an emphasis on the
application of new knowledge in
real contexts.

29. Creativity – an example:
My Favourite Australian Animal Project

34. p337

36. So, yes, remote teaching can lead to
deep learning!
• It depends on the teachers and having excellent
coordination between remote teacher and class
teacher
• The Ceibal English project could make better use
of the OLPC laptops by integrating creative deep
learning tasks using the laptops more
comprehensively into lesson plans.
• This was not done earlier, (because of doubts
about whether every school would have wifi),
but now that we know that the technology
works, this is a logical next step

37. Any questions?
E-mail rphwoods@gmail.com

38. Thank you for listening!
For more information on the Ceibal English Project,
contact:
• Graham Stanley, British Council Director Uruguay
graham.stanley@britishcouncil.org
Fullan, M and Langworthy, M, (2014 ), A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find Deep
Learning, Pearson.
Tochon, F V, (2014), Help Them Learn a Language Deeply, Wisconson, Deep University
Press.
Mira, M, E, (2014), Focusing on Quality Interaction in Remote Teaching, Unpublished
powerpoint presentation.
Atherton J S (2013) Learning and Teaching; Deep and Surface learning [On-line: UK]
retrieved 4 April 2015 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/deepsurf.htm