Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and of the Sutton Trust, has backed research which demonstrates how harnessing relatively simple and widely used forms of technology such as ‘texting’ can benefit pupils and parents alike.
Sir Peter Lampl said:
“We know that engaging parents in their child’s learning is one of the most effective ways of improving attainment, but we know much less about how to do this effectively.
“Today’s findings show us that harnessing a simple form of technology like ‘texting’ could be an low-cost way of making a real difference to grades.”
During the trial, parents were sent an average of 30 texts over one school year (an average of one per week). The messages covered a range of topics from dates of upcoming tests and warnings about missed homework, to conversational prompts aimed at understanding what children had learnt that day.
The evaluators reported that absenteeism was reduced ,schools embraced the programme and the vast majority of parents were supportive of the programme including the content, frequency and timing of texts.
Today’s findings suggest that texting could be a low-effort and low-cost way of improving pupil attainment through parental engagement. Most schools already have the required texting software and messages can be free if parents have downloaded the relevant software (which is also free) onto their smartphones.
Notes:
The Teaching and Learning Toolkit is an accessible summary of educational research developed by the EEF in collaboration with the Sutton Trust and a team of academics at Durham University led by Professor Steve Higgins. The expanded Toolkit covers 34 topics and summarises research from over 10,000 studies. The Toolkit is a live resource which is regularly updated.
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