What our research tells us about virtual school visits

Our research, published in Teaching and Teacher Education, compared the effectiveness of virtual modes of observing expert practice on teacher trainees’ learning and development, against the more traditional use of in-person visits.

The study involved a randomised controlled trial with groups of trainees on our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme, with one group using livestreamed observation alongside a tutor to help them link theory to practice and understand what they were watching. The results showed that the virtual method was not less effective than in-person observation.

The research was conducted during the 2023-24 academic year as part of the first year of the Department for Education’s Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP) programme and evaluated whether hybrid school visits – combining livestreamed lesson observations with tutor-led discussion – could match the effectiveness of traditional in-school visits. Using a randomised crossover trial design, trainees experienced both in-person and hybrid observation formats, allowing researchers to directly compare their impact on participants’ confidence and ability to plan and apply teaching strategies such as questioning and scaffolding.

The findings showed that hybrid visits were not less effective than in-person visits in improving trainee teachers’ self-efficacy and teaching practice. Researchers also found that each approach offered distinct benefits: hybrid visits enabled tutors to provide real-time guidance during observations, while in-person visits offered greater immersion in classroom life. The findings suggest that both approaches have an important role to play within teacher training programmes, with hybrid visits potentially offering particular advantages in the earlier stages of training and in-person visits becoming increasingly valuable as trainees develop confidence in observing and interpreting classroom practice independently.

While the study has limitations, and the trial was conducted within a specific programme moment (during Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP), the findings should give confidence to policymakers and other teacher education providers who are exploring the use of livestreamed observation to facilitate trainee development at scale.

Dr Lydia Lymperis, a Research Fellow at the National Institute who led the work, said: “Our findings suggest that virtual observations – when used as part of a hybrid model – can be an equally effective alternative to in-person visits for trainee teachers. This creates significant opportunities for teacher education providers in terms of flexibility and scale and offers the potential for a more diverse range of school settings to be observed by trainees. However, expert facilitation by an in-person tutor is still needed to ensure success, and future research will need to determine the most effective means of training these facilitators.”

Calum Davey, Executive Director of Research added:
“England needs ways for trainee teachers to learn from the diverse expertise in the system if we are to make progress on tackling attainment gaps, enabling inclusion, and improving outcomes for disadvantaged children. Schools often lack the capacity and resources for hosting trainees to observe expert practice. It is therefore promising to learn from this study that hybrid and virtual methods can deliver comparably effective results for trainee teachers. The National Institute will continue to investigate potential uses of technology across all levels of teachers’ professional learning, to identify other opportunities for developing the high-quality teachers that children deserve.”

Read the full report: Assessing the impact of hybrid school visits in initial teacher education.

Learn more about this research on our project page.