Previous version of the article originally published in The Conversation (Spanish version): https://theconversation.com/cuatro-consideraciones-para-la-ensenanza-en-la-pandemia-145364
Lo bueno, si breve, dos vezes bueno; y aun lo malo, si poco, no tan malo.
“‘Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia’ ” (1647),
Baltasar Gracián
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the greatest disruption in education systems in the history of Humanity, according to the report of this August 2020 from the United Nations. It points to an impact of 94% of the world’s students, with about 1.6 billion students from almost two hundred countries in which schools have been closed. At best there has been a sudden and uneven leap into distance education. At worst, the most vulnerable students have been disconnected from the education system.
This brief United Nations report is highly recommended for all teachers to read, as it adds to the well-known preventive health considerations (masks, hand hygiene, distance, classroom ventilation …), others referring to coordination between the different agents of the educational community (teachers, students and families) and the fundamental importance of political and institutional action, unfortunately in some cases of slow response and oblivious to scientific recommendations.
However, I would like here to add some considerations regarding four crucial pedagogical elements: Access, Context, Didactics and Creativity (ACDC). It is not about the rock group of the Young brothers and company going to pedagogy (although some of their songs can stimulate us in our particular Highway to Hell), but let me explain what these ACDC considerations consist of:
Access
Access to online education was a priority for most administrations after the confinement and closure of educational centers. And it was logical that this should be the case, because without the Internet, and without computers or mobile devices (and without electricity in many corners of the Global Village), communication between teachers, students and families was practically impossible. Now, as we will see, the mere access that technology provides, although necessary, is not enough for online education. It is simply a necessary condition in which the role of public administrations and schools is crucial so as not to leave anyone out of the educational system. Providing electronic devices and guaranteeing the internet connection of the most disadvantaged is a priority. The role of teachers here has been to detect these cases and try to mediate with their superiors to solve these dramatic disconnections. I know teachers who, in the most critical moments of last March, went far beyond their functions by leaving personal devices, taking laptops from the centers to the students ‘homes and even helping their students’ internet connectivity. But that’s not the point: this is where schools should report and administrations (local and state) respond. Lack of access is undoubtedly the pillar of inequality.
Context
However, the fact that a student has access to the internet does not imply that the conditions are in place for them to learn. The pandemic has shown that face-to-face teaching provides, in addition to access to education, an adequate context for learning. That is why face-to-face presence is key and many efforts are being made to return to it: it is in the classroom where teachers can control that there is a favorable pedagogical climate, a safe context and environment, actually basic conditions for education. Now, let’s place ourselves in a learning context of blended learning.
The blended learning implies that periodically we can contact our students directly. Some face-to-face classes are given in which the tasks to be carried out should be planned remotely (supplying the appropriate pedagogical materials, with detailed instructions for families, especially in nursery and primary education), correcting the work posed, solving the doubts that have arisen , explain those especially complex contents and evaluate.
The face-to-face classes are going to be worth their weight in gold, so each teacher must assess their context and prioritize what they do in them.
It is important to review what students have learned and tasks done remotely. Also plan the activities for the days when we will not see them. However, the fundamental thing about these face-to-face classes is to maintain the bond with our students.
This emotional bond can be maintained online, yes, but the presence helps to alleviate two of the biggest drawbacks of distance learning: the lack of self-discipline when there are no established schedules and the socializing encounter with classmates.
In distance learning, the context remains at the mercy of the students’ daily reality. Hopefully, they will be well fed and who will follow healthy schedules and routines for their age, with an appropriate corner for study, with parents or guardians who can help them with their homework, who can follow the instructions that the teacher will have provided; But there will also be those who, far from having domestic help, will find their problems when, despite access, it will be difficult for them to follow a distance course.
In the latter case, it is about those students for whom the school is a sanctuary, the only place that guarantees them to have some medium-term opportunity, students for whom we must raise the flag of presence.
Didactics
Although we constantly complain about time, most of us teachers hook up. The ideal is not to give up any content. Education is based on them, on what we explain.
But now, in a pandemic situation like the current one, we must select the most important content. Or be concise in exposing our matter. Perhaps there are parts of our subjects that do not result in what we expected. A good teacher notices when a class has gone bad. Let’s minimize them. We do not insist on what does not work even presentially.
Feedback, corrections and instructions after the exercises is crucial. If after the effort of your students your answer is simply a numerical grade, perhaps followed by a “very good”, what do students learn from it? It is preferable to put fewer activities but spend more time on feedback, assessing the positive aspects and showing which parts of those evidences are incorrect or could be improved.
We must also give clear indications, information and feedback from the follow-up, to parents or tutors who have become in many cases our domestic correspondents.
In this didactic sense, a small blackboard or a piece of paper allows us to explain exercises or make corrections remotely to a whole connected group, solving doubts and avoiding many hours of individual emails or videoconferences. You can prepare paper dossiers or digital activity sets (with their corresponding links). Resorting to textbooks can be another solution for teachers: they centralize activities, and contain an alternative explanation to the teacher that the students and their families appreciate so much.
Creativity
In problematic situations our creativity emerges. Let them tell the management teams by setting up classrooms in unsuspected corners, bubble groups, placing hydroalcoholic gels and coping with the Tetris of the course schedules; to teachers rethinking their subjects, contemplating the three scenarios (remote, blended or with masks in the center); the students communicating at untimely hours to solve that strange exercise, searching online for materials for a project that they can do with the tools at home, or writing an original text for the demanding language teacher; and family members organizing to face the challenge of schooling in times of a pandemic.
Because schools, far from killing creativity (DEP Sir Ken Robinson), encourage it, and in what way. Innovation and creativity at full throttle. Let go and trust that it is an innate cognitive ability that you turn to almost every day in problem solving.
I wish you a Creative return to the classroom. First, ensuring Access, Context and Didactics. It is our role. Maybe with some ACDC song in the background, motivating and that we get involved in this unusual return to school. Some Rock & Roll will do us good.