Promoting individual and group regulation through social connection: strategies for remote learning

Abstract

Purpose: In a classroom, the teacher and other students play an important role in regulating individual and group learning. However, the sudden shift to remote and online learning, as a result of social isolation during COVID-19, has created a social disconnect, making these immediate regulatory supports less accessible. A need was identified for strategies to support collaborative learning regulation when learning remotely and online. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on models of self-, co, and socially shared learning regulation, a series of resources were developed for students, teachers and parents to support effective online collaborative learning. These strategies embedded evidence-based principles of learning drawn from the learning sciences, including elaboration, retrieval, dual coding and concrete examples. Findings: A set of ten student resources have been developed, accompanied by supporting information and strategies for teachers and families. These resources have been shared with schools across Australia. Originality/value: These evidence-based strategies are valuable, as they are addressing an identified urgent community need. Based on the science of learning, these strategies are original in synthesising effective learning techniques with the three forms of learning regulation to encourage student connection and collaboration in online and remote learning.