What is the EEF's Check and Adapt approach — and how do teachers use it in practice?

The Education Endowment Foundation's Check and Adapt framework gives teachers a practical structure for acting on what pupils show them — in the moment, and over time.

What is the Check and Adapt approach?

Checking for understanding is a core part of effective teaching — but the EEF is clear that the check itself is only the starting point. What matters is what teachers do next.

The EEF's Check and Adapt tool, published in early 2026, frames three pathways teachers can take once they have evidence of where pupils are. These reflect patterns teachers see every day: most pupils misunderstand, some are unsure, or most understand. Each pathway suggests approaches drawn from across EEF guidance reports — not as fixed routes, but as a menu of options teachers can draw on depending on what their pupils show them.

Adaptive teaching is not about planning three different lessons or creating separate worksheets for every group. It is about picking up on pupil signals and making timely decisions — in the moment, and over time.

The three pathways

The framework is built around three scenarios. The approaches within each pathway are not fixed to one route — classrooms are rarely that simple. The pathways provide structure; the decisions come from teacher knowledge of the pupils.

After adapting, the EEF recommends re-checking — a quick follow-up to see whether the approach landed. This is feedback working as a continuous loop, not a one-off moment.

How does Showbie support this in practice?

Showbie gives teachers a way to gather real-time evidence from pupils and act on it quickly. Whether that means identifying where understanding has broken down, delivering differentiated tasks to different groups, or sharing exemplars to extend thinking — Showbie makes each step of the Check and Adapt cycle practical to do in the classroom.

The infographic below maps Showbie features to each of the three EEF pathways, giving teachers and school leaders a clear picture of how the platform supports evidence-informed adaptive teaching.