Without question, the pandemic has been stressful. For many of us in the education sector, the phrase “remote learning” today invokes the same horrific feeling of despair that was once reserved for terms like “team-building” and “parents’ evening”.
However, the pandemic has also forced educational institutions to take a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional classroom dynamics. As a teacher in an inner-city vocational FE college, I know not everyone will have had the same experiences. However, I cannot help but marvel at the positive changes and improvement to quality standards that the pandemic has brought.
Coronavirus: Smaller classes in colleges
Let’s face it; sometimes, the classroom can feel like a battleground. As a functional skills English teacher, my students are less than pleased to find themselves back in English for yet another year. With 25 to 30 teenagers crammed into a classroom, some days can feel more like crowd control, rather than a literacy lesson. However, due to social distancing, it was no longer possible to sardine the students together and instead, we had no choice but to get creative.
Instead of the usual two lessons a week, our classes were divided into one traditional teacher-led lesson in college each week, and one independent directed study session.
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The effect of which was astonishing and the eyes in the back of my head could not believe what I was seeing. Overnight, behavioural issues plummeted. Students could no longer fade into the background, to send text messages under the table or hit/throw things at each other because I could see them - all of them. A natural dialogue began to flow in a way that I have never experienced before. Students became more confident in class discussion and activities, paving the way for (dare I say it?) class collaboration.
Having smaller classes also allowed me to give more dedicated time to each student. Sitting together, we finally had a chance to read through their writing in depth, allowing me to identify the root of a problem.
Re-centralising the student
Social constructivists have long argued for the power of active learning. A passive learner is engaged and given autonomy over their learning experience, becoming involved in the conquest for knowledge. However, when getting your student to show up with a pen is a challenge, social constructivism falls by the wayside, favouring a more traditionally structured approach. Yet the introduction of independent directed study meant that this approach was no longer an option. It simply did not work, because I was not there to motivate and goad the students to put pen to paper.
They have no choice but to think for themselves; the result of which led to an exciting development. My worst students suddenly became my best, engaging with the material and thriving in the flexibility that directed study offers.
With the traditional four-walled educational environments removed, they approached the tasks creatively, and in ways I could not have imagined. Their improvements were clear, even to them, which reinforced their motivation to succeed. More interesting still, I found that many of my best students lacked the contextual knowledge of what I was teaching. They had simply learned to parrot my own words back to me without really understanding why. I was then able to challenge this, using directed study time to do one-to-ones or allow students to embrace flipped learning and seek the answers for themselves.
Real-life application of technology
Finally, one of the best chances came in the form of real-life application of technology. I must admit, I always assumed I was using technology well in my classroom. I had fooled myself into thinking that a Kahoot! game or Padlet page activity was enough and that I was forward-thinking in their use.
Then remote lessons began, and, like most teachers facing the prospect of the total unknown, I was floored. However, after a weekend of YouTube tutorials, I started to see what technology really had to offer and experiment with ways to adapt my lessons to fit a multi-platform approach. Microsoft Teams truly opened my eyes; the instant message application that appeared more like a text message led to a considerable increase in student communication. It allowed me to approach the students in a medium that they both understand and are comfortable with.
Remote learning also brought a degree of flexibility. When students missed their lessons due to whatever reason, instead of missing a week’s worth of input, I could simply add them to the next lesson’s video call. All around students were more willing to independently check their mistakes and actively look for solutions using the internet. After all, how often in the real world will you be writing a CV and stop to look a word up in a paper dictionary? It just does not happen.
Yet, what I found the most interesting was the ways in which the integration of technology helped to support students with learning difficulties. The application of an immersive reader allowed students with dyslexia to access the information; matching sounds to the written word and building there phonetical understanding. Dictate became a great tool in demonstrating how accents can affect phonetical spelling.
Challenging traditional classroom dynamics
As teachers, we have a habit of wearing our years of experience like medals of honour. However, this experience has taught me that I do not have three years’ experience teaching in FE. In reality, I have only one year of experience, times by three. Yes, the pandemic has come with challenges, and no, those challenges are far from over. Yet the upheaval has also been a time for progress, flexibility, creativity, and innovation in education. Challenging traditional classroom dynamics and pushing boundaries.
Jennifer Wilkinson is a functional skills English lecturer at Leicester College and a PhD student at De Montfort University
