Category: Inspirational tip

Many teachers in Brazil are going back to class this week and a major concern they share with school managers, policymakers, parents, and students themselves can probably be captured in the following question:

How much have students learned in the pandemic?

Perhaps an even more accurate question would be how much have they NOT learned? No matter which one you prefer, before you can answer them, you must at least assume two things:

1. There are certain outcomes students must achieve in their learning experience;
2. These outcomes can be measured/ascertained based on certain criteria;

Regardless of what you, dear teacher, might feel, you need to be able to check whether students were successful in getting from the place of “I don’t know this” to “I know this”. You need evidence and that usually means grades (at least in our educational system). There’s a problem, though. Can these numbers (grades) really tell us if our learners were able to accomplish the learning outcomes of their course? Can numerical grades truly measure learning? If not, how can students show their learning to us? In other words:

How can students make their learning visible?

If we think about it for a couple of minutes, we might come to the conclusion that, again, we need to find clues that can help us see what our learners are doing/producing. We might even consider that process quite similar to the scientific method. We start with a question – Are students in fact learning? – then we move on to a hypothesis – I believe this particular student is learning because of their grades – then we devise an experiment – But I suppose the test grades aren’t enough so I’ll ask them to work on a project – then we collect data, analyze, and come to a few conclusions (based on logical thinking, the specialized literature, which should be checked by peers)

All of that might feel quite daunting and you may be very uncomfortable with the idea of being like a scientist. You might even think that this is irrelevant and that you can rely on test grades to assess your students’ learning. What if I told you that much of what we have “learned” is forgotten by the end of the day, the week, or the month? What if you applied the exact same test on your students a few days after? Do you think they’d get the same test results? If things are quite easily forgotten, does it mean they have actually learned them?

Let’s do our own experiment. Go back to your time as a student. Perhaps even a language student. Try to remember a test you took and that you got a very good grade on. Reflecting on that experience now, can you tell me with confidence that you can still remember the concepts your “learned” then? If you took the same test today, would you be able to ace it? I remember getting very good grades in high school. I even got selected to represent my school with some other colleagues in a physics Olympiad because of my grades. The thing is: I’ve forgotten most of it and I’m pretty sure I’d fail pretty much any physics exam today.

Assessment of performance, Assessments of Learning, Assessment for Learning

Naturally, you might say (and I wouldn’t argue) that I haven’t practiced my physics problem-solving skills for decades and that’s why I can’t retrieve most of it. You may even tell me that it’s different with language learning, particularly when you keep using the language long after your classes have finished. You’d probably be right, after all:

Practice doesn’t make perfect but it makes more permanent

I’m not here to dispute that. What I want to raise your awareness to is the fact that in many cases we’re not really assessing learning. Rather we’re assessing performance. Learning and performance are two separate things. You may have learned something well and it will last for many years (yes, it’s possible to unlearn things) but you might fail a performance test. The opposite is also true. How many times have we gotten lucky and done well on a test simply by guessing the answers (this can happen a lot when we use multiple-choice tests)?

The Bjorks (2011), Robert and Elizabeth, a couple who happens to share the same passion and expertise for cognitive psychology, tell us that performance has to do with what can be observed and measured at the time of taking a test. Learning is what sticks with us. It changes our knowledge in a more permanent way and it can’t always be captured by standard testing.

If regular high-stakes tests (summative assessment) normally assess performance, what can we use instead? If standardized testing won’t do, how about using more personalized types of exam?

Think about two test models:

1. Question with gap and multiple choices – previously chosen by the teacher
2. Open question: what have you learned in our classes? – personalized, no prompts, no exclusion criteria

Sure, correcting test 1 would require a lot less work. But what if instead of applying many multiple choice tests, we could apply fewer and use more open-ended tests with our students? I suppose this would guarantee that their answers were “better evidence” of their learning, wouldn’t you agree? We can call this type, although still summative, assessment of learning. It does look at students’ work in retrospect, like assessment of performance, but it allows them to create their own script to some extent.

Another great way to think about assessment is by keeping track of students’ learning curve and shift the focus to the process instead of the product. That is concept of formative assessment. It doesn’t really require a single event on which a numerical grade will be given to students and that will determine how much they “know” or “don’t know”. Formative assessment is interested in how learners make progress toward the expected learning outcome (and possibly beyond) and that is the foundation of assessment for learning (AFL). In that sense, we can look at five important characteristics as discussed by Cambridge Assessment International Education:

The Cambridge Assessment International Education report goes on and mentions that:

AFL helps in making understanding and knowledge, as John Hattie describes it, ‘more visible’. AFL helps learners understand what excellence looks like and how they can develop their own work to reach that level.

Despite controversies about Hattie’s statistical methods when looking at more than 1000 meta-analyses, how he focused on academic achievement and left out other important variables, and how he chose the studies (click here for a summarized critique of his work) we can say that his work has certainly stirred things up in the last decade by claiming that certain things make learning more visible. What are they and how can we use them?

Making Thinking and Learning Visible

Before we discuss some insights and practical ideas based on the work of John Hattie, let me share a recent experience with you. I was invited by Gallery Teachers to deliver another masterclass (you can find the first one here) and the topic they suggested was making thinking visible. I embraced it and thought of connecting it to making learning visible. I must say I was quite happy with the result (which you can find here) especially because I had a wonderful panelist who, the amazing Neil Harris, who not only helped me think of quite relevant questions but also delivered a brilliant masterclass on assessment of, for, and as learning (which you can find here). If you’re happy with only the Q&A, you can find them below

Now let’s get down to business, shall we? If we assume that learning requires memory and attention and that deep learning takes place upon reflection, we can suggest that thinking precedes learning in many classroom contexts (sure there are types of learning that differ but let’s focus on this one). So we need to understand how to “see” our students thinking to make sure they’re on the right track toward their learning outcomes.

Project Zero by Harvard offers us incredible insights on how we can see our students thinking through a series of questions grouped under what they call thinking routines. If you visit their website, you’re bound to find lots of different routines and resources to help you make your students thinking more visible. I’ll focus on only three here and give you some practical examples:

1. SEE-THINK-WONDER
2. CLAIM-SUPPORT-QUESTION
3. I used to think… Now I think

The first routine can be used to introduce a new topic. Learners might look at a prompt (an image, a video, a short paragraph, a word, a diagram) and start brainstorming things like:

I think it’s a… I believe we can used it for… I think it has to do with… I suppose it’s connected to…

Then they started reflecting on the things they cannot immediately see but would like to know:

I wonder if it can… I wonder where it can be used… I wonder how it can be used in a sentence…

The second routine may help you revise or practice a topic with your students. Think about a lesson in which you’d like to ask them about the past perfect tense. You might ask them to claim something about it like The past perfect tense is used for a situation that happened in the past. You can then ask them to support that claim by providing an example. They might say something like I had studied for our test. Then you could question their example by pointing out that you can’t really understande the difference between that and I studied for our test. You’d be encouraging them to think deeper and refine their answer. They might (and probably should) be the ones who question their own claims from time to time. That state of inquiry could lead them to self-directed study based on their curiosity and willingness to learn more about a particular subject.

Routine 3 is about contrasting what you thought you knew with what you believe you know now. That’s a great routine for you to reflect on how deep your learning is. You might want to use it with your students to revise materials, to encourage them to use new chunks, to help them think of errors they made in the past and use the correct forms, and to get them to self-assess.

How does all of that connect with Making Learning Visible? If we look at John Hattie’s list of things that impact learning based on the effect sizes of over 1000 meta-anlyses (remember the claims of lack of scientific rigor over his analysis), we’ll see teacher efficacy, student expectations, response to intervention, student efficacy, teacher clarity, and feedback (to mention only a few).

To give you more to reflect on now that you’re preparing for your school’s next term, we can focus on feeback (also supported by the works of Yeager and Dweck (2020) and student efficacy (discussed in the vast literature left by the late Albert Bandura (1984). A few simple strategies to make sure you help your students learn more based on everything discussed above are:

1. Work with portfolios and e-portfolios. That way you’ll be able to follow your students work throughout the semester (you can use Jamboard, Padlet, Flipgrid or Canva);
2. In remote classes, make sure your students have a “virtual space” to work in so that you can see them doing the things you asked (it can also be Jamboard or Padlet – Google Slides work too);
3. Help them set their own deadlines and reflect on their work frequently. This allows you to guide them and give lots of feedback;
4. Feedback is the key really. Be specific. Tell them what was just right, what could’ve been better, what was not good, and how they can make it better;
5. Give students the opportunity to choose the layout/format of their work. As you’ll see below, not everything needs to be written;
6. Spend some time working on study skills, goal setting, project management, metacognition and any tool that might help them develop their self-efficacy;
7. Use low-stakes tests (pop quizzes on Kahoot for instance) to help them remember and reflect on the things they’re learning;
8. Include peer assessment as much as you can. A fresh look from their colleagues can provide excellent insights;

Here’s my take on it: having worked with students from different levels, I believe AFL does make learning more visible. I can give a few examples from my own groups. I’m a guest lecturer of Language and Cognition at PUC-PR and my students don’t have any tests. They do have to share an e-portfolio and work on a final project for my subject. Their mission is to design a product based on the discussions we had in class (referencing the authors and texts we worked with.

One of my groups decided to create a podcast on managing emotions!

Another group made an amazing infographic about emotional intelligence

One of my students built her dream school based on the principles we discussed on The Sims! How incredible is that?

Conclusion

Learning is a complex phenomenon that cannot be easily measured, especially when we use conventional methods that basically turn everything students produce into numbers. However, we must be able to synthetize what students can do now when compared to when they started their course. I truly believe we can shift things if we start thinking about assessment for learning. That means we’ll pay a lot more attention to each of our learners’ individual paths rather than a snapshot of their learning experience captured on a test. If we do not obsess with a single format or a one-size-fits-all approach, we might get impressive work from our students (perhaps a podcast, an infographic, or a 3D model of a whole school!)

We can certainly benefit from from Project Zero’s Thinking Routines and Hattie’s Making Learning Visible (not without criticism). They offer some insightful and practical ideas of what makes learning happen and how we can “see” it happening before our eyes.

Remember that we need to be more empirical and that means looking for the evidence that our students are actually learning something. If we manage to do that, I believe that assessment can become a more functional aspect of learning as it will not simply get students ready to perform well that day, when they take the test, and get over it. Learning is not about getting your test results with barely any feedback on them, a few times during the semester and be done with it. It needs to be the foundation of learning in an ever-adjusting process of trying things out, getting feedback, trying again, keeping a record, and making slow but consistent improvements over time. Then it might stick with us for the rest of our lives.

References

Bandura, A. (1984). Recycling misconceptions of perceived self-efficacy. Cognitive therapy and research, 8(3), 231-255.

Bjork, Elizabeth & Bjork, Robert. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society. 56-64.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.

Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2020). What can be learned from growth mindset controversies?. American Psychologist, 75(9), 1269.

I once heard someone say that it is during times of pain and suffering that we learn the best lessons. I tend to disagree a little because I’d rather believe that:

I said I disagree a little because I can’t really agree completely with the statement above. First because it’s outdated. It should read “A smart person…”. Secondly because many times we need to make the mistakes ourselves so that we can actually learn. At other times, we might not learn at all from our mistakes and those of others and we can be doomed to repeat them. We could also claim that moments of joy, success or bliss are the ones that teach us the best lessons.

The big question is: How can we learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others? The first step might be related to recognizing the mistake. This can be hard if we have no one to point that out or a basic reference, a yardstick. But for both our mistakes and those of others, once we’re passed the recognition stage, we can start the one that maybe matters the most: reflection. Reflection requires us to question our own biases and try to understand why we do the things we do and what we can change to do better the next time.

A powerful way to learn from the mistakes of others and reflect on how to do things differently is to pick up a History book. If you’re more of a documentary kind of person, there are many options as well. I love documentaries, but I can’t get enough of books. As a matter of fact, one of the most interesting books I read last year was 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari. In it, Harari discusses some of the broad themes (or big issues) that have made humanity what it is, some of the dilemmas we face, and what we can expect in the future. He talks about community, fake news, Artificial Intelligence, politics, war, education, religion, science, you name it. A quite illustrative quote of his book goes like:

Harari does have a point and this excerpt seems to suggest something we’ve been sort of aware of for some time but we also seem to deny this reality, feel powerless about it or at least be OK with it. When I say “we”, I’m referring to education and all of its stakeholders. At the same time, the apparent paradox never ceases to amuse me. If we’re becoming ever more tech-savvy, why was it such an enormous challenge for educators to adapt to the new pandemic reality and integrate digital tools into the learning process? What is missing in this puzzle?

So, is there anything we can do to learn from the mistakes that we’ve been making in the last decades? Can we learn anything from the mistakes we made in 2020 while trying to make sure our kids and teens had access to (quality) education? What about English teaching and Bilingual programs? What are some of the valuable lessons we can take from not just our recent mistakes but also from the mistakes of others who seem to be a ahead of the curve when compared to us?

The pupose of this blog post, the very first of 2021, is by no means to provide you with the ultimate list of immutable lessons that will prevent us from ever making mistakes again. Errors and mistakes are important since they often come to us as learning opportunities. My goal here is to point out 21 reflections shared by me and some of the people I follow, colleagues, and peers I admire. I won’t elaborate too much on each lesson, though. I hope you add your own layers to them and share them with your peers so that we can keep learning because I’ll promise you one thing: we won’t stop getting things wrong.

1. Teachers cannot be replaced by technology (at least not yet and not entirely). The human factor – including physical presence – should be a fundamental part of the teaching-learning process, particularly for young learners
2. Teachers are the most valuable asset any school has. That also means that promoting a culture of professional development is always an important pillar and one of the best investments managers can make
3. Using technology for the sake of technology probably works more as a distraction or simply to provide fun than something that might promote effective learning outcomes. If you can’t teach it, don’t tech it
4. We still need to better integrate digital technologies into schools, though. There’s a visible gap that needs addressing. Either the school does not have the required structure or the teachers do not use (or do not know how to use) the tech they have as they could. It may as well be both
5. We need to look at schools as resource centers that are not too open (free) nor too closed (restricting) or monotonous. They need spaces for creative thinking, hands-on activities, trial and error, and rooms where they can use computers, coding, robotics and other things. Preferably integrated spaces with flexible seating arrangements
6. Student-centered approaches allow schools to focus on providing the resources for students’ needs instead of obsessing with content-driven curricula. Content is not such a rare commodity anymore
7. The teachings of Loris Malaguzzi, Emmi Pikler, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, and Paulo Freie are more relevant than ever. Autonomy, guided and self-discovery, play, curiosity, social interaction, artistic expression, empathy, differentiation and personalization, as well as love of nature need to be at the heart of the learning process
8. Flipped Classroom and Project-Based Learning need to gain more space and help schools look at subjects in a more interdisciplinary (or even transdisciplinary) way
9. Blended Learning and more customizable learning environments/experiences are on the rise for good now. That means schools and teachers will have to create and curate content for students to have options when they’re studying asynchronously
10. There’s no reason to believe that new drastic transitions won’t happen anymore. Schools should expect sudden changes and need to be better prepared for situations like COVID-19 in the future. Managers, teachers, and families have to devise contigency plans. A successful contigency plan has to be more based on the HOW rather than the WHAT. Protocols, processes, and methodologies need to be set in motion quickly so that the school ecosystem can adapt as painlessly as possible
11. The interactions between education stakeholders have a powerful impact on students’ mental states and, thus, on their learning capabilities. Families, teachers, managers, and students need to understand each other’s roles and realize that their attitudes and behaviors towards learning matter
12. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is as important as (or maybe even more than) learning content and skills. Without emotional regulation (self and co), and behavior management students cannot learn effectively
13. Educators’ mental health need to be addressed as well. Schools need to provide teachers with the opportunities to talk about their mental health and with qualified professionals who can help
14. Educators, students, families, and even policymakers should have a basic understanding of cognitive sciences so that they can make educational decisions based on how the brain and the mind learn. The Science of Learning and Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) should be part of pre and in-service training
15. Scientific and critical thinking must be at the foundation of teaching. Fake news, science deniers, authoritarian governments are on the rise because education has been failing entire generations that are easily grouped together on social media through algorithms and live in their own bubbles where their cognitive biases are reinforced
16. English language teaching has been changing and we should expect to see a rise on bilingual education. Therefore, ideas such English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and Content and Language Integrated Learnig (CLIL) should gain more momentum and ideologies such as native-speakerism should lose strength
17. As bilingual schools/programs grow, private language centers will have to adapt to survive. It might take a few years, but these private schools will lose more and more Young Learners and Teens in 2021
18. Private language centers should/can rethink how they teach (and attract) adult students as more and more professionals will look for solutions that prepare them for situational/conversational English with very little focus on exams
19. With many classes going remote due to the pandemic, private teachers, and smaller schools might be able to reach more students than ever (not considering the negative effects of the economy)
20. Big publishers should start rethinking the layout and content of ELT books so that they can adapt to the blended/remote learning scenario. Many schools may need fewer physical books and want to have the digitized version instead with short videos of every lesson
21. We will continue to make the same mistakes and maybe very little will change

I’m sorry if the last lesson isn’t that positive. When I look at people’s attitudes in 2020 regarding the pandemic, wearing masks, conspiracy theories about the vaccine, lockdowns and other situations brought to us because of COVID-19, I don’t see a lot of change. To be honest I see many of the same behaviors people had a century ago when the Spanish Flu hit the world and killed millions. The problem is that with all the amazing progress we have achieved in the last 100 years, we should expect people to act differently. We should expect people to pick up a History book and be more “intelligent”.

The big question then is: how intelligent are we as a species?

The man who said that, Stephen Hawking, was certainly intelligent. Having lived a functional life for many years with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), against all the odds of survival, and having contributed so much to science should suffice as evidence of his overwhelming intelligence. His book A Brief History of Time is one of my favorites because I’m fascinated by how the universe and nature work and because he had the phenomeal ability of writing about complex things in such an easy way (mostly through concrete examples of our daily lives).

In Hawkings’ book, he takes us on a journey from Ancient Greek to modern times and how our understanding of the cosmos has changed. He describes how before Copernicus, and Galileo the paradigm was that the earth was the center of the universe. Hawking points out how Sir Isaac Newton proposed his Law of Universal Gravitation in the 17th century and how we still use his formulas till this day. However, it was only in the 19th century that another brilliant scientist proposed something that would add to (and “correct”) Newton’s theories which would allow us to create incredible new technologies such as the GPS. This man was Albert Einstein and his proposition (referred to as General Relativity) changed Physics.

Newton knew, however, that all he was able to accomplish would not have been so if he hadn’t learned from the mistakes and the successes of others before him. He said:

We now know that Earth is not even in the center of our own galaxy, let alone the entire universe. We also know that our planet is basically a sphere with slightly flattened poles (not everyone seems to believe that, though). We also know that the fabric of space-time is warped by gravity and that there’s no absolute time. Time is relative. Building upon the knowledge left by others is how we move forward, how we make progress, how we adapt to change. We study, we learn, we compare, we think, we reflect, and we act. If we haven’t been able to adapt to change, we might not be that intelligent after all.

Our biggest challenge could be that the lack of change, real and profound change, in education. A change that has yet to take place. We might need a complete paradigm shift, not unlike the scientific method and how it works, to learn and implement important lessons from our mistakes and the mistakes of those who lived in different times.

I wonder if 100 years from now someone will write a list of reflections that resembles this one. I hope not. I hope humans in 2121 discuss other paradigms, like what physicists are doing now with Quantum Mechanics and particle accelerators, not whether the Earth is flat or not or if vaccines work. I hope the future educators look at this blog post as a historical account of less modern times and reflect on how they got where they are. I hope they get the same feeling I got when reading about these giants who came before us and did amazing things because they learned from people who had come before them.

I hope Einstein meant that we could be more intelligent collectively. I hope he meant that we would not run out of things to discover when he said:

Maybe he meant something else. Maybe I’m wrong about what he meant. I can tell you one thing, though. He was wrong about the universe being infinite. It took him many years to learn that lesson.

May we learn from mistakes and change our mindsets

That’s my hope for 2021. Happy New Year!

What would you change/add to my list? Let me know

The coronavirus pandemic, with all the suffering and fear caused in the population, has been keeping kids and teens away from their schools and forcing the entire school ecosystem to rethink long-held educational practices on a never-before-seen scale. How is this affecting education and stakeholders’ relationship with one another?

According to psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, we can look at human development as a series of relationships that take place in and are affected by not only the immediate surroundings, but also outer circles, which represent incrementally more distant environments or contexts that form an ecological system.

What happens in all those concentric circles can impact what happens on the individual level. We could say that on the microsystem level, schools and homes have been directly affected by mass media reports of COVID-19, which belong to the exosystem level and by shared cultural values and beliefs of how we should deal with the pandemic (on the macrosystem level).

For our analysis, let’s focus on the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem levels. They respectively refer to the level of the student’s immediate surroundings (school and family), the level where these surroundings communicate, and the level where the student is not inserted, such as family workplace.

First let’s think about the context of each stakeholder directly affected by the lack of face-to-face classes:

Children and adolescents: This group has been forced into confinement right in the middle of motor, socioemotional, and cognitive development. Many are frustrated with the demands, suffering with anxiety and confused about what is really happening. Some of them need to deal with loss and grief due to the death toll of this crisis.

Parents: Many parents have forcibly transitioned to remote working and need to cope with the demands of their jobs while juggling with the needs of their family. Suddenly, parents are required to to be present more than ever to support their children during online classes and when carrying out their activities.

Teachers: To keep the course up and running and, especially, the contact with the children, teachers have been working harder than ever and around the clock to incorporate new skills (such as recording videos and teaching remotely) and to create high quality lessons and materials that help keep the children engaged and allow them to work as independently as possible

School managers: From putting together entire CPD programs on online teaching overnight and purchasing digital tools/services to solving financial problems due to the high dropout rates, managers have been struggling to keep their doors open and their staff

Bear in mind that I am not even considering so many others who have lost their jobs, do not have good quality internet access and do not even have more than one or two digital devices at home. For these, the reality is a million times harsher.

This incredibly tense scenario can become the perfect storm in many educational settings. It is perfectly natural and expected that everyone feels under enormous pressure. The problem is when this pressure is neglected or poorly managed and the fundamental role of education is undermined. What is missing in this ecosystem sustained by a delicate balance of stakeholders’ needs and expectations?

Everyone needs to have patience and empathy

UNESCO has set up a COVID-19 Global Monitoring page that has been collecting data on a daily basis about school closure since mid-February. From the third week of March until today, hundreds of millions of the world’s students have been away from their schools. From April to the beginning of June, 1 billion or more children and teenagers were out of their schools. In April, specifically, 1.5 billion students, which corresponds to 90% of enrollments in the world, were affected by school closure. This means that the entire ecosystem had to mobilize resources and create procedures overnight to meet a huge demand that did not exist before.

What does this mean in practical terms? It means that a very large number of teachers had to learn to use online tools to make content available asynchronously (which normally means prerecording things), in addition to time to connect with their students synchronously. This is quite the challenge and requires huge amounts of energy and hard work from everyone. Many do not feel comfortable in front of the camera and / or with the constant surveillance of families that often criticize some practices without any pedagogical or linguistic grounds. Remember that criticism has to be specific and constructive to help improve things. It is extremely exhausting to prepare for your work knowing that, regardless of how much effort you put into trying to achieve the best results, many will complain about aspects that are beyond your control.

The truth is that the pressure on schools with unattainable demands creates a harmful environment, which affects the mental health of everyone involved. Teachers are exhausted, families do not have time to help their children and often demand different solutions for the school (some want more activities, others want less study, some want bilingual classes given almost exclusively in the student’s first language (L1), others want greater exposure to English ). At the same time, managers try to offer what is possible and children and adolescents suffer from mental confusion, excessive demands and lack of social contact and affection.

We must adjust expectations

It is worth remembering that what we are experiencing is best described as remote emergency teaching than anything else. Although many of us have been teaching online for more than 5 months, there was no structure for this demand and no one had been properly trained. A substantial change and transition to this type of teaching demands time and investment. Therefore, much of what schools and teachers are doing is what is currently feasible and possible withing our human capabilities. That means we need to reflect on what is achievable, desirable and what isn’t.

Since I work as a bilingual program mentor, here are some practical examples of questions and demands stakeholders might have based on my experience:

1. The school should keep the same workload as the face-to-face classes because parents continue to pay the same.

In fact, we need to understand that remote teaching is not the same and, therefore, cannot replicate much of what happens inside the classroom. A face-to-face class has moments of classroom management, sharing and interaction with colleagues, games and movement. All of this takes time. Dynamic activities engage children and are difficult and sometimes impossible to reproduce remotely. In addition, very long videos and / or recorded classes are exhausting and ineffective for children and adolescents. Neuroscience shows that the brains of children and adolescents have difficulty in controlling their impulses, their focus and their emotions. On the other hand, maintance of the schools’ facilities is very costly and schools are saving money in that regard. Nevertheless, as I mentioned before, most schools are struggling with financial problems because of excessive dropout levels particulaly concerning Very Young Learners

2. Families find teachers’ teaching skills below the required levels

This topic is extremely sensitive and demands great caution. Many parents, with the best intentions, end up judging the quality of teachers negatively due to several factors. They confuse pronunciation with accent, use specific and punctual factors they do not know much about to criticize teaching skills and generalize to the whole class. Does this mean that teachers are exempt from failure? Of course not. Just like any professional in any field, there are aspects of English teaching professionals, chiefly in a bilingual program, that require practice and improvement. There are teachers who have a lot to learn and others who have learned a lot about a certain subject or competency. However, it is necessary to discuss in community, involving all stakeholders, what is possible to do now. Would a sudden change (such as replacing a teacher) be the best solution in a time of difficulties like this? Is what families demand really supported by pedagogical and scientific theories and practices that concern English Language Learning and bilingualism? We need to understand that professional development (teaching skills and linguistics) is a process and that we have to encourage the professional and not disqualify them, especially at this time.

3. The technical quality of the lessons is low

Children born in the 2000s belong to Generation Z and those born from 2010 to Generation Alpha. Unlike adults born in the 70s and 80s (and until the early 90s), digital technology is part of everyday life and works as body extensions of kids and teens in these new generations. Devices such as cell phones, tablets and things such as internet access, videos and video games create one of the foundations of children’s reality in kindergarten and elementary school. In this context, it is natural for children to judge videos created by teachers as low quality materials. Dissatisfaction often comes from themselves or may reflect the projections of their parents. Remember that many teachers do not have cutting-edge video recording equipment. Many don’t know how to work with image editing and audio capturing. Most teachers do not even have a proper microphone, tripod or support for the camera, an adequate space for recording, with silence and good lighting, among many other things.

Everyone needs to understand and facilitate the process

How long does a 10-minute video produced by a teacher need to get to the platform on which the child can access? Between recording and re-recording, interrupting because of noise and resuming filming, editing, rendering the video, uploading to the drive, sending it to the coordinator or mentor for feedback, getting back with comments, having to redo some parts and repeat all process to finally share the link on the platform, add the description and purpose of the video, the average time spent for a video of this size can be 6 to 15 times more than the video itself. That means countless hours of work at the end of the day.

This issue is a practical example of how often people are unaware of the different steps required in the process when they simply focus on the final product. Let’s understand other frequently asked questions about the processes of an English Language class or a bilingual program:

1. Teachers need to speak L1 so that parents understand and can help their children

The central purpose of a bilingual program is to offer greater exposure to the additional language (English, in our case) so that students are immersed in that language. This means a higher workload compared to regular English classes and that the main means of communication during classes is English. When parents demand that teachers use more L1 than English, they end up interfering negatively with the most fundamental pillar of the program. It is essential to understand that students should not be helped at every step of the learning process. Many parents are frustrated when their children say they don’t understand anything and think their intervention will help. The cost of this “aid” can be quality reduction and loss of purpose of a bilingual program. Ultimately, even though there are difficulties along the way, children acquire the additional language naturally and incrementally.

2. Children are not learning anything or making progress

Both the process of acquiring and learning a language takes time. Years according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Younger children in Early Years Education need to review the content countless times to consolidate knowledge in the brain. Lesson that may seem extremely repetitive and playful have a clear pedagogical purpose based on academic studies and references in education. For those who wish to understand a little more of the theoretical-scientific basis, I recommend doing research about the concepts proposed by Jean Piaget, Loris Malaguzzi, Maria Montessori, Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner. An example of a common misconception is the perception that the child cannot produce the words orally, hence, the child is not learning. Lack of oral production does not mean the child wasn’t able to understand the words uttered by the teacher or the grammatical structures utilized. Demonstrating comprehension, intention and action during the lesson is evidence that shows teachers that children are on the right track.

3. All classes should be synchronous (live classes)

Synchronous classes have their purpose and should have their space. It is the moment in which teachers are able to establish a greater emotional bond with children, ensure more interaction and respond more effectively to the demands and stimuli provided by students in real time. However, synchronous classes do not allow several equally important features to take place. Synchronous classes depend a lot on the quality of the connection, which usually means lower video and audio resolution, they require greater proximity to the teacher’s screen, which can make difficult for the teacher to create playful scenarios and to use body language effectively. Synchronous lessons also promote a great sense of sameness. With asynchronous classes, teachers can edit videos, add effects, shoot in different places in the house and use objects more easily, they can better fit their entire body on the screen (instead of just the shoulders, neck and head, as in synchronous class) and can use lots of body language to convey meaning. The recorded lessons give more flexibility to everyone involved. If students, for whatever reason, are unable to attend at a certain time, it is possible to attend classes at another time. It is also possible to pause and review as many times as necessary, which creates an important feature of differentiation and individualization. Ideally, both synchronous and asynchronous lessons should be combined.

How can the stakeholders of this delicate ecosystem work together?

After the issues raised above, after all, what is the role of the family, students, managers, and teachers? I believe it is about learning and conciliation. The understanding that every stakeholder’s involvement is essential for the success of the school ecosystem needs to be focus. Family can and should demand certain things from schools and teachers, but those demands should be grounded and take into consideration the role they play in the learning process of their children. What does that mean?

Families, do not criticize everything that schools are offering without knowing exactly how the processes work. Talk in a friendly and constructive way to managers and, especially, teachers to reach a consensus. Make your demands to help and remember everyone’s moment and monumental effort.
Do not interfere too much with your children’s class. Remember that they need to build knowledge and create more autonomy. Do not give them answers during the lessons! The important thing is not to get it right always, but to learn.

Managers and teachers, understand the role of synchronous (live) and also asynchronous (recorded) classes. Both moments are important. Learn more about active methodologies, playfulness, bilingualism, CLIL, emotional intelligence, mindfulness and design thinking. These concepts can give you broader view of what modern teaching encompasses.

Students, be helpful and patient. We understand how much you’re suffering and we want this to be over soon. Remember that just because you do not like a lesson or you feel that it is not “fun” enough for you, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to study and respect your teachers. Not everything is fun in life and you need to learn how to deal with frustration and responsibility.

The moment is challenging and causing a lot of suffering, no doubt. However, despite all possible damage to education (and they will exist), perhaps we should focus on the how and why of education rather than the what. Instead of demanding the replication of outdated educational models, based on a particular perception of what teaching English as a whole should be, stakeholders can take advantage of this open wound to study more what successful educational systems do, which pedagogical perspectives they propose, what approach, methodology and techniques they favor.

Everyone needs to understand the reason for the longer exposure to the additional language, the role teaching in the additional language instead of abou it and the place of routines and playfulness in the learning process of children and so on. If our focus is always on content and how much of it was lost in this period, we will lose the opportunity to rethink the form and rationale of education. We will lose the opportunity to rethink the place of ethics, emotional intelligence, learning to learn, developing competencies that are necessary for the job market and, above all, promoting a healthy relationship between body and mind.

Remember the following: content changes with an impressive speed and is increasingly available on different media and platforms. What is in short supply is not the content, but rather what to do with this content to transform it into knowledge, which generates skills, which, over time, will create competencies. The most noble product of education is the possibility of transforming the individual and their ability to adapt to challenges that don’t even exist yet. Education in my country is flawed and has produced very low results in national and international rankings. With the fracture exposed in our educational system, now is the time for unity and conciliation between parents, managers, students and teachers. We need to rethink our relationship, understand the complexities and defend our most precious asset if we are to survive the pandemic with as little damage as possible and, in fact, begin to transform education.

My final message is that, as Urie Bronfenbrenner suggests, the links and impact caused by each of the circles in the ecologic systems theory can have lasting effects on the individual level of human development. I don’t want to be a hypocrite and claim that everything will be OK. I see teachers suffering to cope with the new demands, managers pushing for schools to reopen out of desperation, children suffering psychological and physical abuse at home and families trying to make ends meeting without a job. But as stakeholders of this ecosystem, we must come together and do our best to minimize the negative consequences that might only arise many years in the future. Our kids and teens need to be spared of traumas that can scar them for life. Let’s all take reflect on our roles, rethink our attitudes and hope for the best.

Download the PDF of my session about this topic for SBS