Adapting for Success
Traversing the Challenges of the Virtual Classroom BY DR. SANDRA FORTNER WITH DR. JOHN HANES | SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
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arch 11, 2020, is a day that may forever live in people’s minds worldwide. That’s when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic impacting all educational programs—private and public schools, church school programs such as Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, and higher education. Schools closed, opened up, closed again, and often utilized alternate formats such as virtual learning, hybrid models, and asynchronous learning. Students missed days, weeks, and months of learning. Many suffered from impeded social skill development. This concern for children’s spiritual, academic, and affective development, coupled with parental and adult-learner needs for support, has required educational leaders to analyze, evaluate, and create ways to meet the diverse needs across the academic spectrum. The Learning Challenges We’ve Faced With the onset of virtual learning, teachers and students alike received training on operating online programs to facilitate teaching and learning. Some larger school districts, churches, and private schools provided Chromebooks and laptops to students and teachers to support the initiative. Others could not. Some students used their cell phones to participate in virtual learning. Teachers received training on the technological aspects of online learning, but few were instructed in effective teaching strategies emphasizing learning styles to promote knowledge and address students’ diverse needs. Typically, the online programs addressed auditory, visual, and tactile [small motor control] means of learning. Still, they 12
could not guarantee kinesthetic or hands-on [large motor control] activities that would have students engage with the content and experience. Learning Styles: A Place for Kinesthetic Learning in the Virtual World Kinesthetic learning was a method Jesus promoted with His New Testament teachings. More than lecturing as a means to help His listeners learn, Jesus also offered instructions and called for learners to do what He said. For example, He modeled ministry, healing, and care for His disciples and then sent them out to do it, closing the loop by reporting back when they finished their assignment (Luke 9:1–6, 10). Jesus’ teaching demanded the application of their learning. Though teachers could guide students to replicate the intended learner outcomes, such as multiplying 2-digits by 2-digits, they could not do this for every subject or concept before assigning work for a grade. Students need to engage with the content before being assessed for its mastery. Teachers could not guarantee that their pupils could apply the instruction to the real world because of pandemic restrictions and sometimes monetary requirements. For example, not all parents were working from home. Planning both on their part and the part of teachers required ingenuity. Some teachers had students gather objects in the home, with parental consent, to complete a hands-on experience with the teacher’s guidance. Such action took detailed planning and know-how. Also, it restricted what materials could be used apart from adult assistance.
