As these strange and uncertain times continue, it is tempting to put deeper, long-term thinking on hold. After all, everyone is exhausted, there’s a crisis to manage and who knows what the next weeks and months have in store? There is, however, something restorative and energising about raising our eyes to the far horizon and we have been thinking hard about some of the lessons (so far!) of 2020.
Here are five things we are thinking about:
1. Time
Do we miss the sport, music, drama, robotics, debating, excursions, clubs, tours? Absolutely. But having more time has been glorious! I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how I’m going to manage when everything reboots again. Many families have described their appreciation of the slower pace and even the enforced companionship.
As a family, a school and a community, how do we balance the inviting richness of a full extra-curricular program with the personal richness of being a little calmer and slower. What does this mean for our programs in the future? Do we need to adapt the structure of the school day and the school year to provide a better balance?
2. Teaching
Teachers, like most other professionals, had to re-think almost every aspect of their work. The efficiency of face-to-face teaching is clearer than ever, particularly with younger students. We have, however, compressed years of professional learning and emerged with new capabilities. Teachers are using a wider range of methods of delivery and now have a larger number of tools at their fingertips. This has improved their pedagogical armoury and put them in the position where they can select exactly the right mode or tool for a particular objective.
Sometimes there is no substitute for teaching face-to-face but there is now a heightened awareness that alternatives can at times work better. For example, some teachers have decided that flipped learning (where lessons are pre-recorded and studied by students individually, and class time is used for questions and working through problems) works better for certain classes and are continuing this practice for those students. Other teachers have found that digital marking tools allow them to provide superior feedback in less time.
3. Flexibility
Enforced remote learning has forced teachers to question the assumption that we would always be physically present during lessons, and prompted some new thinking about ‘asynchronous learning’, ie setting carefully prepared and structured work for students to learn independently.
Too much teaching in this mode can be a problem: in the classroom, teachers constantly adapt the content and pace of each lesson in response to what they observe in their students. A teacher who rigidly completes a lesson according to plan without regard to whether their students are keeping up is not a good teacher. In the classroom, detecting whether students are keeping up can be surprisingly difficult. If the teacher is not present, however, it is impossible. This experience has, however, made clear that judicious use of asynchronous learning can be highly effective.
Previously, teaching a lesson without being physically present would most likely have invited scepticism – from teachers themselves, as well as from students and parents. In the past, I would have expected significant resistance to the idea that a well-designed, asynchronous lesson can be as effective, and sometimes more effective, than a face-to-face lesson. This has, however, been our experience – not, I emphasise again, for all lessons or even a majority of lessons. But for some.
This in turn opens up a range of possibilities. In a previous life I played the six-dimensional chess game of writing the school timetable, and a common problem arises when, say, a teacher can be allocated to teach four out of five lessons but there is a clash for the last period. What if that lesson could be delivered in a highly effective way without the class teacher present, with the students supervised by another teacher or even at home? Does that provide options not previously feasible for staffing, timing of the school day, subject combinations for students or specialist teaching? Would students and parents accept this as a feature of a high-quality education?
4. Learning Preferences
All of the girls are happy to be back but there is a small minority who like school for the presence of their friends while prefer a remote mode for learning. For some of these girls, social interactions are an effort, so a day spent purely on learning without having to invest in the emotional work of friendship is a welcome relief. Obviously, it’s not good for such girls to retire entirely but can we ease the pressure on them?
Teachers also observed that some girls were more active contributors through online ‘chat’ functions than in a normal class. Is this because they prefer to present more considered thoughts and the delay on ‘chat’ works to their advantage? Is there a protective sense of distance through a screen? Their contributions are valuable, so can we find new methods providing the same advantages which can be incorporated into face-to-face teaching?
5. Feedback
There were some unexpected advantages to communicating remotely. The parent webinars were, contrary to my expectation, experienced by parents as being more personal! The ‘chat’ function facilitated far more lively Q&A than I’ve ever experienced in the usual live format. Similarly, parents reported that Parent-Teacher interviews were more personal, more private and – just as importantly – a whole lot easier to manage logistically. Teachers reported that the interviews were more relaxed than usual (some parents told me it was their glass of wine that did the trick!) and, despite our fears, were more likely to run to time.
Our need for parent feedback was heightened because of our distance from the students so we increased the avenues for feedback via webinars, forums and surveys. This was helpful for us and parents expressed strong appreciation for this. They also enjoyed the greater insight gained into their daughters’ learning.
Looking Forward
There is no shortage of people claiming that COVID-19 will transform the education landscape radically and unrecognisably. I think that’s unlikely. Humans are social creatures and we learn best in community. As lockdown taught us, we crave the physical presence of others and can best sustain learning in an environment with close and stimulating personal interactions.
Clearly, however, there is a great deal that we will want to retain and build on from this experience. It will take years to tease out the lessons, pitfalls and possibilities from these sudden changes and the thoughts above are just the beginning. We will soon be surveying parents to gather your reflections on the past few months and your thoughts on how it might change the future for the better. We look forward to this ongoing dialogue and welcome your thoughts for the years ahead.