Teacher-Student Interactions and Learning Outcomes in a Distance Learning Environment: A Forty-Five-Year Journey from Theory to Practice
Baruch Offir, Ingrid Barth, Aryeh Ben- Chayim, Michal Aflalo
This paper describes a remote learning project that enabled high school students in peripheral areas
to participate in an introductory university course without leaving the supportive framework of their
high schools. This project was based on the first author’s foundational work on remote learning systems
during the 1970’s, many years before the Internet became universal, long before social networks, and
platforms such as ZOOM. We set-up a distance learning system based on point-to-point communication,
which at first supported mathematics studies and then went on to other subjects. Twenty years after
the initial publication of the principal study identified key interaction patterns that correlate with
positive learning outcomes, the goal of the current paper is to include subsequent implementations and
extensions of the mediating teacher model across different disciplines with different target populations.
The doctoral researchers who participated in the original project have since applied and adapted the
mediating teacher model in their own fields: However, the consistent applicability of the core mediation
principles and strategies across diverse educational settings continues to validate the crucial role of
the mediating teacher in the classroom. These mediation principles have proven essential in addressing
contemporary educational challenges, particularly as GenAI and digital technologies reshape the
learning landscape while highlighting the irreplaceable value of classroom-based mediating teachers
in remote learning projects.
