The 7 Dangers of Pandemic Pedagogy
With the recent school closings millions of k-12 students across the US shifted to online or distance based learning in a matter of 3 weeks. The necessary social distancing treatment to fight the COVID19 pandemic has thrust educational professionals, teachers, parents and students into a new form of digital education that can only be called Pandemic Pedagogy. Make no mistake, this novel approach to mass education is nothing like the online learning or distance education for which some educators have opined. Furthermore, it is not like homeschooling that many parents practiced before now. Pandemic Pedagogy is in fact, a massive scramble to place internet connected computers and screens in front of students to deal with the initial shock of shuttering schools. It is driven primarily by the fear of students losing 6 or more months of instructional time. By all accounts, Pandemic Pedagogy lacks the thoughtful analysis, planning, and instructional intentionality that defines any ideal type of teaching. And although we all believe in the need for the education of our children, even in times of crisis, Pandemic Pedagogy as it is currently being practiced is risky for a number of reasons.
- Pandemic Pedagogy is based on the false assumption that parents who are at home and working online can serve as effective co-teachers for their children. As it now stands the last 3 - 4 weeks have seen a large part of the American workforce adopt work from home arrangements. These arrangements mean that parents are preoccupied with their own digitally connected life. A work life that is dominated by video conferences and computer time as well as sensitive or at least pseudo private conversations. Where parents have multiple children in school engaging in Pandemic Pedagogy on top of this schedule, it is likely that the children will lose or at worse be loose.
- Pandemic Pedagogy lacks the professional ethic of any other form of teaching. Traditional school is setup to provide the types of special support mechanisms that children need based on learning preferences and needs. Teachers are taught to thoughtfully, intentionally and deftly respond to these particular and special needs of students. Moreover depending on the nature of these needs, schools and districts provide special supports from reading specialists, STEM resource educators, speech and language pathologists as well as special needs teachers and aids. None of these so far are accounted for in Pandemic Pedagogy. Yes, time will tell as to how we make adjustments to support individual student needs, after this initial period of scramble. Teachers and administrators must be careful to provide enough time for all learners to keep up with tasks and assignments. In the online world assignments are more individualized as a result each student necessarily requires more time on task in order to complete tasks and activities. Students in the online world cannot hide Dyment and Downing (2018) so this means that every interaction is observable and scorable. This can be overwhelming if the volume of work is too much for appropriate pacing.
- Pandemic Pedagogy assumes that all teachers can effectively teach remotely. But the truth is that there are many teachers that never experienced online learning or teaching. And a great many of them, never learned how to deliver instruction online. Teachers who never learned to teach online or through any virtual approach is now being asked to engage in instructional design, delivery, implementation and assessment, - all online. We should expect in some cases a steep learning curve and great deal of trial and error. A challenge in the beginning is the belief that 6 - 8 hours of traditional classroom "seat" time is quantitatively equivalent to 6 - 8 hours of online learning time. This is a fallacy and if instruction is designed around this model it will lead to rapid burnout of both teachers and students. We should not create learning experiences with the intention to tether a student to a computer for 6 - 8 hours a day. A simplified approach to communications and a rational approach to student task demand should be adopted at the district level. The Harrisburg School District in South Dakota seems to be managing this approach well, this is in part because they have had a great deal of time to implement and test their online model. Other districts can look to them in this time of crisis.
- Pandemic Pedagogy is based on haphazard curriculum. One of the realities of Pandemic Pedagogy is that teachers suddenly find themselves trying to keep up with a number of applications and platforms. From the core Learning Management System meant to organize and deliver instruction to the smaller support applications and websites, there is a great deal of rapid just in time learning. In our public school district here in Saint Louis MO, all 2000 teachers and 28,000 students moved into Microsoft Teams in a matter of 5 days! Microsoft Teams is an integrated platforms that works well with Microsoft Office suite as well as a host of other platforms. And if that is not overwhelming enough, each platform requires special login credentials and passwords. The sheer volume of apps can pose a challenge for kids, parents and teachers. Administrators are best served in this crash program if they select one platform and embed resources within the platform as best as possible. For example after adopting a single Learning Management System like Instructure Canvas, Teams or Google Classroom, coach teachers to post assignments within the pages of these platforms. Integrate activities and embed them within the pages so that students don't have to "link off" and go to many other places. Try to avoid multiple links into many different platforms and other sites. Remember, if Pandemic Pedagogy, is confusing for you, it is confusing for students and parents as well. Teachers should take time to learn the platform. And only post a limited number of assignments until they are comfortable posting more.
- Pandemic Pedagogy assumes normalcy and that we can teach like we are in a typical on ground classroom. Perhaps the greatest failing of our massive experiment in online teaching to-date is the notion that students who are now cloistered in their homes can be easily motivated and engaged to willingly learn online. But we must be careful, the single most critical success factor in online learning is student self efficacy and motivation. Misapplied online learning can lead to poor levels of engagement and motivation. Considering that students and parents did not choose to engage in this type of instructional engagement, it is important that supports be provided to engage students and to offer scaffolds that build discipline, autonomy and mastery. The traditional approach of one teacher to many students in the on-ground classroom is not the ideal model for this new environment. This experiment will fail miserably, if student success coaches and technical support personnel are not provided for learners. If schools and districts do not offset the shock of wholesale switching to online, they risk compounding the anxiety and disruption that students are feeling around Covid19. The initial foray to an unwelcome instructional delivery approach can create a different crisis.
- Pandemic Pedagogy fails to realize that we are attempting to educate in the middle of a Pandemic. This goes without saying, but the truth is, we cannot try to teach from "bell to bell" students need downtime to reflect and process the surreal disruption of a worldwide pandemic. Students and families are cloistered at home, it is also a time to reconnect, and think about not just their cognitive capacity but also their emotional changes. A pedagogy that prioritizes seat time around a computer will create anxieties and tensions of its own. These are not normal times. Schools should not try to shape how individuals and families live through these challenges and support each other.
- Pandemic Pedagogy sidelines questions of equity. The lack of digital learning resources and instructional skills have been a longstanding challenge in public education. Yet in this time of massive school shuttering and remote learning there has been little discussion about how to tackle these access issues. The solutions remain spotty and haphazard based on individual schools, buildings and districts. This invariable means that the victims of Pandemic Pedagogy will not only be the disillusioned teachers and students from resource rich background. Those who will find themselves intensely overworked and frustrated but also the resource poor. Those who are struggling to find the Chromebook or iPad to access the learning materials, those who will have no broadband connection whether through low cost, low speeds or lack of availability. And those who do not live at home with a resident "computer guru" who can solve technical problems and download new apps to help them learn.
It should be said that despite these dangers, in the current circumstance, remote learning is what we must do as we work through the challenges posed by COVID19. However educators must not fall prey to a "Pandemic Mindset" one where we scramble to help and support our students. There is still time and space to confer and collaborate so that we build and implement effective instruction.
References
Dyment, J., & Downing, J. (2018). “There was nowhere to hide…”: the surprising discovery of how weekly web conferences facilitated engagement for online initial teacher education students. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 46(4), 399–418. https://doi-org.library3.webster.edu/10.1080/1359866X.2018.1444140Gabor Andrea. (2020). Schools Aren’t Ready for Online Learning. BloombergQuint. March 31, 2020. https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/coronavirus-shutdowns-highlight-weakness-of-online-u-s-schooling
Levine, Eliot. (2000). Personalized Learning from a Distance: An Early Report from Schools Closed by Coronavirus. Aurora Institute. COMPETENCYWORKS BLOG. April 1, 2020. https://aurora-institute.org/cw_post/personalized-learning-from-a-distance-an-early-report-from-schools-closed-by-coronavirus/
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