Thank you COVID-19! Sincerely from the Education System.
“Next assignment, please draw or write your favorite smoothie recipe” my daughter’s teacher announced just seconds before the zoom ran out of the 40 minute limit.
My daughter, four years old, grabbed a pencil and a white sheet of paper to start making her attempt at writing her recipe. She quickly wrote the number 8 to indicate 8 pieces of watermelon.
As I started helping her to stretch out the word for her to hear all sounds in the word watermelon “wwwwwaaaaaatttteeeeeee,” she immediately interrupted me with a cry of desperation “Mom, please, I need silence to concentrate on writing the word.”
Self advocacy had sneaked into my daughter’s skill set without notice. She was advocating for her optimal learning environment. She knew exactly what she needed in order to continue writing her entry: SILENCE and SPACE to think.
As with any challenge, the COVID pandemic has its silver linings.
The education system received the golden opportunity to reevaluate what the education system should look like for our students.
Schools worldwide closed due to the rapid spread of COVID 19, leaving over 1.2 billion children out of the classroom. With the world shut down, distances should have become longer, but the internet shortened these distances to a manageable level.
Distance Learning is the new method of education in a world where internet penetration has risen and remote work has become the new standard for the workforce. Learning online skills became a survival of the fittest situation in education. Children needed to quickly learn new skills to a fast moving world. Adapt or die.
Students learned time management as they had to study independently and connected to the class. They learned to identify what distracts them from the environment they were in to better focus in class. And they learned turn taking as they had to wait for their turn to unmute the microphone to speak.
Students went from negotiating screen time with their parents, to binging on it with full parental support.
Schools, as we know them, need a facelift. The “factory model” of education does not fit the needs of the post-industrial era we are in. A top-down management with age-based classrooms and a focus on producing results were all characteristics of an “automated” school system. The desired skills were memorization, conformity, same style of learning, and same pace of learning. This was suitable for the rapid spread of education during the height of urbanization and industrialization in the 1900’s, but not for the information age.
On average, students learning online who have access to the right technology, retain 25-60% more material than those learning in face-to-face instruction retaining about 8-10%.
Younger students need a structured environment to learn so they will not get distracted. Some students have busy home environments which has required that they use most of their cognitive effort on remaining focused. Others feel they understand a lesson, and then discover they misunderstood it when they have to work independently.
Not all is grim, there are blessings in disguise. Students have been practicing the same skills that the remote workforce was needing in real time.
Distance Learning gave students another unexpected benefit to become more independent in their learning by adding self-advocacy skills to the toolbox. Receiving the support at home and in school to learn how to ask for help when needed and be given the space for independent work, allows students to develop self advocacy over their education.
My daughter, like many other children, has developed independence in learning. She is able to attend online classes and work on the assignments by herself. Her confidence has shown throughout this school year at home.
When students know when to ask for help, they become self-aware over their learning. Learning to think about their thinking is essential to identify the confusion points that might be blocking their learning. Empowering students with this skill, frees them from the cognitive load and anxiety that might revolve around developing new skills.
Online skills have been put to use in a social context as well. Kids can continue building on these skills to stay connected to family members abroad. Parents can plan play dates for their kids without having to block any work time from the agenda.
Unfortunately genies in a bottle don’t exist to grant us a perfect school for our children. Change happens progressively as everyone works towards common goals. We can start by integrating both online and offline worlds to better support our learners for the future.
Parents can support their kids at home by asking them about what steps they will take to do their homework. Teachers can plan their lessons including questions that focus on the mental process needed to identify the answer to the questions. Schools can start by including in their curriculum a cohort based course that connects students around the world to build upon online skills.
COVID will pass.
Parents will go back to work. Teachers will return to the classroom. Students will return to school. These students will now have a new toolkit that will serve them for life. This is an opportunity to build upon these foundational skills that have become a standard in the information age.
COVID has been a blessing dressed as a tragedy giving us the opportunity to dismantle the education system and assemble it into what will support students to be: resilient, independent, and empowered with self advocacy over their education.
