The Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning (CIRL) has been busy during lockdown.
CIRL have been looking at ways that events can be hosted on virtual platforms and a number are now scheduled virtually. These include society talks with Professor Elgin and the British Council; a conference exploring the theme ‘Virtues in the Classroom’ in collaboration with the University of Hertfordshire; and a number of workshops aimed at teachers, run by Professor Lucas, Dr Kathy Weston, and Professor Dame Alison Peacock. The CIRL team have also written a series of blog posts on research-informed practices on distance learning, and have released the second CIRL podcast.
With schools still closed due to the current health crisis, Eton has extended access to its online learning platform, EtonX, to all state schools. CIRL have been building a series of teacher professional development courses for EtonX to support teachers tasked with the new challenge of supporting their students during lockdown. These courses will consider topics such as resilience, revision, academic engagement, and wellbeing.
CIRL are also working to support boys by encouraging them to communicate regularly with Eton. Focus groups have been established, with boys participating from a cross-section of boarding houses, and meet to discuss how boys are finding the extended period at home, how they remain positive and how they are coping with homework, online learning and other activities. Finally, a bespoke questionnaire to assess boys’ wellbeing has been designed with the Director of Welfare and will be ready to launch this half.
You can read more about CIRL’s work here and access the podcast mentioned above here.
