Early lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic

Malcolm Nicolson and Pascale Hertay

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic has led to a period of intense innovation and re-thinking of educational practices, as well as sheer hard work. Much has been shared online around changing practices as colleagues across Asia, and then Italy and Spain, adapted and accommodated as the situation changed. In this article we don’t intend to repeat the detailed thinking around online and blended pedagogy as described in many forums, but will look at the crisis from a leadership perspective and consider school readiness for crisis, in addition to ways in which schools and organisations can

Figure 1: Prior to the emergence of Covid-19, did your school have an emergency plan in place to ensure continuity of learning? respond in the short- and long-term.

The thinking in this article is based around data collected in a survey we conducted in April 2020 which was fi rst presented at the ECIS digital leadership conference. The survey of school leaders provides indicative data from 62 respondents, which enables us through this article to: • consider insights on how international schools responded in the short-term to the Covid-19 challenges; • provide tips to help in developing or improving online learning (strategic, technological and pedagogical); and • identify lessons learned or changes that we have implemented that could become the ‘new normal’ or ‘new possible’ in bringing about a positive impact on student learning.

Crisis Planning

As can be seen in Figure 1, prior to Covid-19 a relatively small number of schools had formal planning in place to prepare for an event such as a pandemic, terror attack or natural disaster.

According to PWC (2020), it is good practice to put in place a cross-functional response team that has the authority to make decisions and keep leadership informed. Schools are advised to convene groups that bring together leaders and other staff who would be responsible for a crisis plan, response efforts, and health and safety matters in order to close gaps, and to formalise the crisis plan. PWC recommends that schools create an operations centre that coordinates communications and key messages with all stakeholders. As seen from the data we collected, many schools have a plan, but are yet to formalise it. It is time to re-visit these crisis plans to ensure that they are formalised and fi t for purpose.

Being away from our schools physically

The Save the Children report of 2015 highlights the way in which children see education as one of their most important needs, especially in a time of crisis. Children feel safe and protected at school, and they feel better at school. Save the Children note that education “is the key to their future, their protection, their happiness and their health – and it cannot be delayed”. This Covid pandemic means that many children have missed school, and will almost certainly continue to attend only partially for months or years to come. How harmful is it to students if they miss long periods of school? Sundstrom and Blackmore (2020) discuss students in Christchurch, New Zealand who missed school for several weeks after the 2011 earthquakes. Students’ results didn’t drop,

Figure 3: What was/is the impact of Online Learning on the ability to learn for the following group of students

and many final performances actually went up. According to John Hattie (2020), a similar phenomenon was observed after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

To be relevant, education needs to reinvent itself constantly and adapt to new environments, climates and eras of thought. The challenge at this time of Covid has been that schools had just a few days to turn the whole system around to enable students to continue their learning from home. According to Hattie (2020) it seems that success in such a situation comes from the teacher’s ability to focus on the essential ‘what has to be learned’ instead of wading through a dense curriculum. This is in line with the ‘less is more’ approach presented in this article as top advice for successful implementation.

However, one question not covered in our survey is the fear felt by parents. Anecdotal evidence from conversations with school leaders confirms a resounding view that parents fear that their children will stop learning when they are at home. This is not new. It is also generally the response encountered when we confirm to parents that their child can learn but needs more time, or when children join a school where the cut-off date is different than in their country of origin. Parents feel that their child is being placed ‘a year behind’. The message from Hattie (2020) is clear: “let’s not get stressed about it ... the recovery will be reasonably quick”.

This demonstrates the need to spend more time in explaining educational thinking to parents, as stressed by Hattie (2020): “Engage with parents to realize we as educators have unique skills and expertise (and are happy to share them), and not get upset if students are not spending 5-6 hours every day in the belief that school at home is but a mirror of the typical school day.”

This thinking may support school leaders who are now dealing with claims for reimbursement of fees because schools didn’t provide the normal schooling, or because following government measures students attend school physically only one or two days per week: “It is not the time in class, but what we do in the time we have, that matters” (Hattie, 2020).

Implementing online learning

Many schools adapted very quickly to a new learning environment, having already had systems in place. Others had to adapt new systems quickly, while others were able to watch and learn from colleagues further east. The survey asked school leaders to rank which areas were the most challenging, for example teacher readiness, technology, student motivation and so on. Interestingly the challenge that emerged in our data was success in terms of support from school governance. School leaders felt that teachers were not ready, but that students were prepared and adapted quickly. They reported that the most successful challenge was around governance, with over 60% saying this was no challenge at all. This is an aspect to consider when developing or revising our crisis management plans. How do we continue to ensure buy-in and support from school governance? How do we support teachers in adapting to changing situations? How important is the style, frequency and manner of communication?

There will be few surprises for readers on viewing the data in Figure 2. We were curious to explore the impact of the change to online learning on students at different ages. We expected that online learning would be more challenging for younger learners, and the data bears that out: the older the students, the better able they were to adapt.

We were also curious to think about students with diverse learning needs. We can see that this environment is challenging for younger learners, but how about those students receiving support for English as an Additional Language (EAL) or for special needs? 

Figure 4: To what extent do you believe your school has succeeded in providing quality learning in an online environment? 50 Responses

In Figure 3 we see clear implications for our online learning delivery. Younger learners, EAL and special needs students have found this online experience more difficult. This may come as no surprise, but what have schools been able to do in order to support these students? What are the best practices that can help all students?

We can see in Figure 4 that schools feel that they have done a good job in providing quality learning in the online environment. Schools have worked out their own unique blends of synchronous and asynchronous teaching, they have established pastoral protocols and have devised ways in which to provide personal and timely feedback to students.

“Create as many opportunities for social interaction, not just between you and the student, but using technology for students to work, share, interact, and learn together, as you so often do in the regular classroom. Learning at home need not be a lonely activity, with the only or even primary resource the parent.”

Hattie, 2020

Advice for implementing online learning

School leaders who responded to the survey were good enough to provide tips for other schools, summarised as follows: • Assess what you can do and don’t try to replicate everything about school • Communicate clearly, with regular updates and using various ways • Be a good listener • Feedback through survey but also directly face-to-face with parents • Well-being for all stakeholders • Less is more! (content, timing, ...) Start simple, grow into it, enhance it • Adapt planning: not an automatic transfer from what we do in class; differentiate for age levels, individual needs; use varied and appropriate input • Consistency emerges as being of huge importance • Teaching in real-time or not: create a balance according to student age, needs and time in front of screen • Balance types of screen time and nonscreen time • Review assessment and how to gather evidence of learning • Have appropriate technology in place, devices and access for teachers; choose your platforms (not too many) • Train the teachers and facilitate collaboration • Key is to constantly review and be prepared to adapt plans and direction

Preparing for the ‘new possible’

Many of the school leaders we surveyed in April 2020 view this crisis as an opportunity, demonstrating an admirable growth mindset. Across the media we hear about the ‘new normal’, but in education we can think about it more as the ‘new possible’. What can we do with our learning from this crisis? How can we improve teaching and learning with what we have learned through Covid-19? School leaders who responded to the survey provided a number of thoughts, as summarised below. Do they match with your thoughts? To what extent will school leaders’ thinking have moved on since April 2020? Does the early Covid thinking match what we now know several months later? • Creation and revision of emergency plans: school-wide and per student • Possibility to use online learning in other situations • Embedded use of online learning platform that works for the context, and consistent use of it • Improved teacher confidence and skills in using technology for in-class and remote learning • Heightened levels of collaboration, and more effective • Importance of sense of community • Increased focus on quality learning experiences (select what to focus on and make it count), formative assessment strategies and quality feedback • New teaching strategies. Renewed focus on flipped learning techniques, especially useful with content-heavy courses • Importance of supporting students in developing skills to be self-regulating learners • Self-management of emotions and balance: students appreciating screen and non-screen time • Assessment focus: more authentic, plus use of ePortfolios as part of metacognition • Importance of relationships in any medium • Support parents in ways they understand; learning better, they can be appropriately involved: ongoing communication and collaboration

The lengthy transition phase into the ‘new possible’ means that teachers will have to target what they will cover in the school setting and what will continue through online/distance learning. This implies greater tailoring to the needs of students, and what they can do from home or not. The lessons learned from full-time online will help to prioritise for the future hybrid/blended approach. As suggested by Hattie (2020), teachers should “Worry more about subjects in which parents have the least skill, and about subjects and tasks where parents make kids skill and drill and lose the thrill”. This reinforces the idea introduced by Martin Skelton at various International Primary Curriculum conferences over many years in asking us to question our practice with students: “are they busy, or are they busy learning?” This has been repeated often: now is the time to take it seriously!

Although, as demonstrated by the survey results, it was even more difficult to support children with special needs or EAL through this period, a tailored approach seems to work very well for them; indeed many students have been able to flourish at a level not reached when immersed in a physical classroom.

Big challenges to come

Hattie (2020) provides some practical suggestions for the way forward using what we have learned during the Covid-19 pandemic. He believes that teachers need to make sure that students learning at home are engaged in useful tasks, not just projects that keep them busy with boring repetition. Teachers can use technology for diagnosis and share assessment rubrics before students begin tasks, and evaluate progress as is normal practice in the physical classroom – building formative assessment opportunities into the activities:

“Create as many opportunities for social interaction, not just between you and the student, but using technology for students to work, share, interact, and learn together, as you so often do in the regular classroom. Learning at home need not be a lonely activity, with the only or even primary resource the parent.” (Hattie, 2020)

If possible, teachers could use social media and have students send questions, share ideas and discuss what they know, do not know, and want to know. Students in some cases may be more likely to engage in this way on social media.

Educators must use this pandemic as an opportunity to learn about learning, and share stories of success of teachers and students learning from this crisis, paying particular attention to students with diverse needs. They should discover how to develop collective efficacy among teachers and school leaders, and use this experience to learn how to best work with all students.

This article has hopefully provided food for thought, or maybe provided affirmation that your thinking and planning is ‘good enough’ or even world-leading. The data and discussion highlighted here takes the discussion above the detailed tips and tricks of what has been learned in terms of online learning and crisis management, and looks more at the role of school leadership. Finally, we turn to the leadership from Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) and set some challenges for them. Beyond algorithms and issues around awarding grades, will they show leadership around pedagogy and the role of assessment? We have seen innovation at school level; we now need to see direction and innovation from the curriculum providers/exam boards. • How can CAIE/IB support schools in changing pedagogy? • How will changing pedagogy impact curriculum? • CAIE/IB have responsibility for providing high stakes qualifications that offer access to universities. Their decisions to cancel external exams inevitably mirrored that of the UK, and it certainly can’t have been an easy decision to make. How can CAIE/IB ensure the reliability of assessment for the cohort of May 2020? • More importantly, for years schools have been asking for more valid ways of evaluating skills, knowledge and understanding, with perhaps greater emphasis on continuous assessment and portfolios. Will CAIE/IB consider quick and innovative changes to assessment methodologies? The discussion will continue. Can the providers/exam boards keep up with school adaptability and innovation? ◆

Pascale Hertay is Head of School at BEPS International School, Brussels ✉ p.hertay@beps.com

Malcolm Nicolson is Director of Erimus Education. ✉ malcolm@erimused.com

References • Hattie J (2020) Visible Learning Effect Sizes When Schools Are Closed: What Matters and What Does Not https://opsoa.org/application/files/2215/8689/0389/Infuences-during-Corona-JH-article.pdf • PWC (2020) PWC’s COVID navigator https://www.pwcresearch.com/uc/COVID-19Navigator/ospe.php?qb • Save the Children (2015) Times of emergency and crisis: they want and education https://www. savethechildren.org/content/dam/global/reports/education-and-child-protection/what-children-want.pdf • Sundstrom K and Blackmore R (16 April 2020) Does missing a term due to Covid-19 really matter? What happened to student results after the Christchurch quake? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-17/willmissing-school-due-to-covid-19-matter-for-school-students/12154266