Northern Ireland

Tom Hesketh: Necessity is the mother of invention?

As we stare into another period of disruption to normal schooling, questioning of assumptions is rife within education
As we stare into another period of disruption to normal schooling, questioning of assumptions is rife within education As we stare into another period of disruption to normal schooling, questioning of assumptions is rife within education

DESPITE having a catastrophic impact on virtually every aspect of our lives Covid has created a context within which many assumptions on which modern living are predicated have been called into question.

As we stare into another period of disruption to normal schooling this questioning of assumptions is rife within education.

As A World Economic Forum Report in May put it: "The world of education is threatened and is at a juncture. One path leads back to where things were before the Covid-19 crisis, a system that by and large has been in place for the last 200 years. The other path concentrates on much more improvement in education."

As educators and policy makers we have a choice. Once Covid is `defeated' do we return to things as they were or do we seize the opportunity to think afresh and innovate.

The Future of Schooling has long been a topic for policy makers and scenario builders as societies struggle to effect a greater fit between the needs of the individual, the economy and society and all at a time when the relationships between all three have been changing rapidly.

Since 2002, bodies such as the OECD and World Economic Forum have sought to sketch out the future directions that schooling systems need to take if the twin goals of efficacy and affordability from the public purse are to be met.

Interestingly the Covid crisis creates an unexpected and accelerated move into some of the key areas where future systems need to be personalised and self-paced learning; home learning and as a key underpinning requirement for the first two shifts, more e-learning platforms.

As a community of educators there is a need to find ways to collect and consolidate the learning, both positive and negative, coming out of this enforced experimentation.

What has months of enforced home-learning taught us? Are children motivated to learn this way? Have they the skills to self-manage their own learning? Have they the skills to self-assess? What facilitation do they need from teachers in terms of curriculum planning and learning pathways? How much of this is dependent on digital learning platforms? How can such platforms best be accessed? How can the needs of the disadvantaged be met? What is the role of the parent/guardian in home learning in terms of motivation, assessment, and regulation of children's learning?

As for teachers and school staff? What have been the key lessons of moving in an accelerated way to remote learning? How much of this was anchored in conventional worksheets/paper-based resources and how much in online platforms?

Given that there was much reliance on the latter will this creative engagement with online, facilitate an accelerated shift by our teachers towards hybrid forms of learning and a dramatic break with the concept that most learning can only happen within the physical campus of the school?

Our pupils have developed skills of self-managed and self-paced learning. How can teachers accommodate these new skills in their work with pupils in classroom settings? Have the experiences of learning during lockdown generated a critical reappraisal of teaching methods and the achievement of a new relationship between teacher and pupil in the learning process based on pupil learning autonomy and teacher as guide and mentor?

Lockdown introduced many of our pupils to new forms of learning. Lockdown also introduced our teachers to new forms of assessment. These experiences have the potential to breathe new insights into what has long been the holy grail for deep learning advocates namely personalised learning.

Can we capture the key lessons for pupils and teachers alike coming out of the lockdown period to more clearly define how the shift towards personalised and deep learning can be accelerated?

Of course, the lockdown does not require everything to be re-evaluated. Our children returned to school with unprecedented levels of enthusiasm. The value of schools, teachers and learning has never been more highly felt.

We have been reminded of just how fundamental schooling is for our children's rounded development - cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual and social.

The advocates of de-schooling have been sent well and truly packing. However, what will be the legacy of this huge groundswell of support for our schools? Can we use it to transform as much as replicate all the existing positives?

There is a danger that much of the soul searching around the Covid crisis will be how might the schooling system respond better should another pandemic come our way. However, this would be a too limited analysis of what we have had to do and may well be nugatory - since a pandemic may not come our way for another generation, even 100 years. Much better therefore to focus the learning from this Covid period on the more fundamental question of what kind of learning is required for 2020 and beyond.

I believe that we can answer this fundamental question with greater clarity than ever before because of the ongoing Covid experiences and the experimentation that is being forced upon us.

Necessity really can be the mother of invention.

:: Dr Tom Hesketh is the former director of the Regional Training Unit and previous chair of departmental working groups on school development planning, pupil self-esteem and leadership.