Reflections on the Pandemic: Coming Back Stronger
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on our teaching practice in ways that few instructors could have imagined in early 2020. For many, it was our first experience of online teaching or learning. The efficacy of online instruction has long been established when it is carefully planned and implemented (Swan, 2003). Many researchers, however, refer to the response to the pandemic as emergency remote teaching, as opposed to online learning, since it lacked the planning, instructional design and teacher-training that are typical of effective online courses (e.g., Hodges et al., 2021).
Many have noted that, given the sudden nature of the emergency, coupled with the burdens of having to adapt to an unfamiliar mode of instruction, there was little opportunity for systematic professional training in online teaching and course design (e.g., Taylor, 2020). Emergency remote teaching continues to be particularly challenging for instructors who espouse collaborative learning and learner agency. By their very nature, widely used tools such as video conferencing tools (VCT) and learning management systems (LMS) “box in” learners by being teacher-centered, and top-down (Godwin-Jones, 2012). Breakout rooms in VCT have particular classroom management demands. A sense of community, which is critical to student motivation, facilitating interaction and increasing participation, is much harder to build and maintain among learners who have never met face-to-face. Classroom materials, which were designed for use in in-person classrooms have had to be substantially adapted. It is no wonder that teachers long to return to the pre-pandemic status quo.
This session focuses on our experiences of emergency remote teaching, and poses the question of whether we have had a chance yet to reflect, and look forward to the future. How will this experience of teaching online or in a hybrid environment affect our individual teaching practice post-pandemic?
Starting from the assertion that many of us have developed a new range of Information and Technology Communication (ITC) skills, we will examine ways in which, when we return to full-time face-to-face instruction, we can repurpose the materials, and methods we developed during our period of remote teaching to provide more differentiated instruction to our learners. Carol Ann Tomlinson (Tomlinson et al., 2003) defines differentiated instruction as a strategy in which teachers “proactivity modify” their teaching practice, methods of assessment, materials, and student assignments “to maximize the learning opportunity for each student in the classroom”. Using my own experience, and the materials I developed for my own integrated skills classes as a departure point, we will explore how we can 1.) scaffold learners more individually, 2.) to assess progress more efficiently in order to provide more effective individual remediation, and 3.) to encourage learner agency.
This session will focus more on practice rather than research. My hope is that we will come away with a sense of how we have developed professionally during this emergency, and a desire not to return to our pre-pandemic teaching practice, but to build on our new skills to become more effective instructors.
References
Hodges, B., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., & Bond, M. (2020). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency....
Godwin-Jones, R. (2012). Emerging technologies: challenging hegemonies in online learning. Language, Learning & Technology 16(2). pp. 4–13. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279543344_Emerging_technologies....
Swan, K. (2003). Learning effectiveness: what the research tells us. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds) Elements of Quality Online Education, Practice and Direction. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for Online Education, 13-45. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen-Swan-3/publication/237590499_....
Tabor, J. W. (2021) Chaos: Exploring an engaging online model for rapid application during the pandemic. Education Tech Research and Development, 69. pp. 97–100 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09878-y.
Tomlinson, C., Brighton, C., Hertberg, H., Callahan, C., Moon, R., Brimijoin, K., Conover, L., & Reynolds, T. (2003). Differentiating instruction in response to student readiness, interest, and learning profile in academically diverse classrooms: A review of literature. Journal for the Education of the Gifted. 27(2-3), pp. 119–145. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/016235320302700203.
