Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Journal of the World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education Vol. 4 Issue 1
JOURNAL OF THE
WORLD FEDERATION OF
ASSOCIATIONS FOR TEACHER
EDUCATION
Mission: to build a global community of teacher educators and to promote trans-
national collaboration, support, and research and development in teacher education
Learning, Teaching and Teacher Education in a Global Pandemic
March 2021 ISSN Volume 4, Issue 1
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITOR’S COLUMN………….………………….…………………………….……….…........2
Guest Editor: Dr. Jenene Burke………………………………………………………………….4
SIXTH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE……………………………………………………………..6
Paul Paese, WFATE President; Elizabeth Ward, co-chair; Debby Shulsky, co-chair
LEARNING, TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION IN A
PANDEMIC……………………………………………………………………………………..10
Jenene Burke
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES DURING A PANDEMIC……………….……19
Shelley Kokorudz
SHARING FEELINGS, SOLUTIONS, AND MOVING FORWARD DURING COVID-19….31
Lois Paretti, Linda F. Quinn, Anna Maria Behuniak, Jane McCarthy
TEACHING AND LEARNING UNDER COVID-19 IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND
HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF CATALONIA AND SPAIN…………………………43
Josep Gallifa. Carme Amorós.Mireia Montané
LEARING IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: CHILDREN’S ART AND
CREATIVITY WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS………………………………………………56
Maxine Cooper
#CIENCIA_CONFINADA: MAKING SCIENCE IN LOCKDOWN……………………………66
Elena Gayán, Fina Guitart, Núria López and Julio Pérez.
PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF STEM TEACHERS: ONE HBCUs
APPROACH TO THE RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND TRAINING OF SCIENCE
AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER CANDIDATES DURING COVID-19..………………….73
Samantha L. Strachan, Salam Khan
SHARED LEADERSHIP: A ROAD MAP TO STUDENT SUCCESS FOR
SCHOOL AND DISTRICT LEADERS…………………………………………………………82
Rodney T. Harrelson, Gregory R. VanHorn, Pamela M VanHorn,
PEDAGOGY AND 21st CENTURY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: TEACHING
DURING A PANDEMIC AND IMPROVING AN OUTDATED MODEL……………………89
Martí Teixidó
“WHEN WE THOUGHT WE HAD ALL THE ANSWERS...”: The Binomi.
online 3.0 Technopedagogical Project, online and remote teaching………………………...…100
Maria de Montserrat Oliveras Ballús
2
CONNECTING TEACHER EDUCATORS ACROSS THE WORLD IN THE WAKE OF A
PANDEMIC……………………………………………………………………..……………..120
Jenene Burke, Federation University Australia, WFATE President Elect
3
Editor’s Column: Please read – lots of information included!
On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak as a ‘Public Health Emergency of
International Concern‘ and it was finally characterized as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020.
As the pandemic has swept across the globe, every aspect of our lives has been permeated,
resulting in political, social, and economic upheaval. Governments across the world have
responded to the global pandemic in discrete ways and these responses have caused dramatic but
different effects on the way people have conducted their daily lives, influencing health, work,
commerce, travel, socializing and schooling. As we manage within the crisis, and start to emerge
from it, our lives and societies are destined to be changed forever.
Dr. Jenene Burke, President-Elect of WFATE, agreed to guest edit this issue of the Journal of the
World Federation of Associations for Teacher Education. The first article sets the stage for the
remainder of the issue and the concluding article wraps it up and looks to the future. WFATE is
so appreciative of her work and the insights each article brings to the issues of a pandemic and
teacher education at all levels.
The next big news is that the 6th Biennial Conference of the World Federation of Associations
for Teacher Education will be held from 12-14 November 2021 and it will be a virtual (on-line)
conference. The call for papers is on the WFATE website (https://www/worldfate.org) and is
open now. We will work hard to make the conference accessible to all areas of the world. We
owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Elizabeth Ward and Dr. Debby Shulsky (co-chairs of the
conference) and Dr. Paul Paese (President of WFATE) for their work on switching to on-line and
generating the themes and subthemes. The description follows the Editor’s Column. All accepted
papers are eligible for publication in the Proceedings which are published as an issue of the
Journal of the World Federation of Associations for Teacher Education
Also, we plan to bring our Research Development Groups (RDG) together virtually at the
conference. The four approved RDGs are listed on the website and at least two possible groups
are under development. If you are interested in developing an RDG, please contact me at
The next issue of the Journal is an open themed issue.
NON-THEMATIC ISSUE
CALL FOR PAPERS
Journal of the World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education
The general theme is Innovation in Teacher Education within a Global Context. Please consider
the journal as you develop research reports, issue papers, action projects, and other formats . We
also include a Research Notes section for short papers that describe unique methodologies,
special topics, and other similar efforts. Possible topics include:
1. Multiculturalism and Multilingualism
2. Technology and Mobile Learning for Pedagogical Innovations in Teacher Education
4
3. International - Local Teacher Education Networking Models for Knowledge Building
4. Teacher Education Curriculum and School Curriculum
5. School-University-Educational Administrations Partnerships for Creative Initiatives in
Teacher Education
6. A Distributed Leadership for School Innovation Management
7. Monitoring and Evaluating Innovations in Teacher Education
8. Change for Innovation in Teacher
9. Initial and Ongoing Teacher Education for Innovation
10. Health, Sport, Physical and Plastic Arts Education (circus, dance and theater)
11. Supporting STEM Education through Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
12. Strategies for Overcoming Inertia in Teacher Education
13. Disability Studies, Inclusion and Social Justice in Teacher Education
14. Innovation in Teacher Training for Early Childhood Education
15. Social Sciences Teacher Education for a New Era
NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS:
The Journal of the World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education is an electronic
educational research and development journal. All articles are peer-reviewed. We publish
articles focusing on empirically driven research in major areas of education, carefully developed
issue analyses, and clearly focused development articles.
To be reviewed, manuscripts must conform to the publication guidelines available on the
website. The WFATE journal does not have a copy editor. Thus, authors are responsible for
ensuring that their submissions meet the specified criteria. Since the Journal of the World
Federation of Associations of Teacher Education is an electronic journal, special formatting
guidelines must be followed to ensure the readability of the paper by reviewers using a wide
range of word-processing software. In addition, the guidelines ensure the accurate rendering of
the article on our Web site, irrespective of readers' platforms and systems, should it be accepted
for publication. Articles of approximately 5,000 to 8,000 words are preferred.
Articles must be submitted no later than July 30, 2021. Please send the word document to
With Thanks to Dr. Jenene Burke and all of our authors:
Ann Converse Shelly
Executive Secretary, WFATE
5
World Federation of Associations for Teacher Education (WFATE) Journal -
special edition.
Learning, Teaching and Teacher Education in a Global Pandemic
Guest Editor:
Dr Jenene Burke is the President-elect of the World Federation of Associations for Teacher
Education (WFATE). She is an Associate Professor of Education, Learning and Teaching
and the Deputy Dean of the School of Education at Federation University Australia. She leads
the WFATE Inclusion and Social Justice in Teacher Education in Global Contexts Research
Development Group.
As a researcher, Jenene is best known for her world-class research into play spaces as inclusive
environments for children and their families.
Jenene has a secondary teaching background and 20 years’ experience in Higher Education as a
teacher educator. Her learning and teaching interests centre on educational responses to student
diversity, with respect to inclusive education and disability studies in education. She is a
recipient of an Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions
to Student Learning, in 2013 in the Australian Awards for University Teaching, and was
awarded the sole 2012 Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Ballarat Vice-
Chancellor’s Award for Contributions to Student Learning.
6
WORLD FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION
SIXTH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE November 12-14 2021
Rescheduled due to COVID-19 Pandemic
Theme: Social Justice in Education: Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion, and
Interculturalism in our Global Society
Paul Paese, WFATE President
Elizabeth Ward, co-chair
Debby Shulsky, co-chair
Social Justice in Education: Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion, and Interculturalism in our Global
Society explores the creation of a welcoming and engaging learning environment, examining the
promotion and evolutionary advancement of a comprehensive culture and environmental climate
throughout resilient learning communities. As suggested by Nicky Morgan, MP, the Secretary of
State for Education (United Kingdom Department for Education, 2016):
Education has the power to transform lives and, for me, is a matter of social justice –
extending opportunity to every child, wherever they live and whatever their background.
Good schools and a well-educated population make our country stronger, fairer, wealthier
and more secure, and higher standards in the classroom mean better life chances for
everyone. Investing in our education system is an investment in the future of our nation.
(p. 3)
The conference theme, Social Justice in Education: Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion, and
Interculturalism in our Global Society, serves as a call to teacher educators to lead the way
towards modeling and celebrating the transformation of lives through a civilized, educated
society that embraces understandings around social justice. Reveling in diversity, inclusion and
interculturalism is reflected through the following five strands that relate to the conference
theme.
The call for papers will open April 1, 2021. Peer review of proposals will be on a rolling basis.
The call will close July 1, 2021
Registration for the virtual, on-line conference will begin July 1, 2021 (early registration open
until September 15).
SEE THE WEBSITE (https://www.worldfate.org) for proposal forms. Registration will also be
through the website.
Social Justice in Education: Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion, and Interculturalism in our Global
Society explores the creation of an inclusive learning environment that welcomes all learners, all
educators and all from within the community. The ability of learning to transform the lives of
people through opportunity aligns with emphasizing an investment in humanity’s future.
7
Every child, and every adult, deserves the opportunity to live within a civilized society, with
education acting as the instrument of social justice and basis of our culture. Embracing
educational excellence also reflects the understanding, engagement and responsiveness around
social justice in education.
The conference theme, Social Justice in Education: Celebrating Diversity, Inclusion, and
Interculturalism in our Global Society, serves as a call to teacher educators to lead the way
towards modeling and celebrating the transformation of lives through a civilized, educated
society that embraces understandings around social justice. Reveling in diversity, inclusion and
interculturalism is reflected through the following three strands that relate to the conference
theme.
Embedded within each strand is the engagement of differentiated understandings around
innumerable areas of subject matter expertise, research, and scholarly understandings that clearly
articulate and embed teacher education engagement through:
• knowledge base acquisition.
• coursework experiences.
• field-based engagement; and,
• policy development and influence
STRAND I: Celebrating Diversity
The celebration of each person’s gifts, talents, history and experiences from the past, the present
and future-leaning understandings highlights the celebration of diversity within the instructional
environment as well as a humanist understanding of engagement.
Social justice pedagogy embraces the celebration of diversity, while including the ability to
model and actively engage within new understandings that are supported by the community
culture. In addition, the potentially transformative power of social justice throughout the
educational landscape is an imperative aim for the development of a justice oriented global
community. Presenters are encouraged to consider the following, possible questions as guides for
proposal development within this strand:
• How are teacher education programs promoting and implementing social justice
pedagogy in transformative ways?
• In what ways are programs and candidates grounded in social justice pedagogy
challenging or altering inequitable systems?
• How are policy constraints impacting social justice practices being addressed by teacher
education?
• What are the societal implications of power and influence upon the educational system?
8
STRAND II: Honoring Inclusion
Maintaining and fulfilling the obligations around inclusion is integrally important towards
honoring, understanding, and implementing the tenets of social justice. Moving forward
inclusionary understandings and respect around race, gender, religion, socio-economic status,
cognitive ability, physical abilities, and experiential engagement are imperative considerations
towards welcoming all persons into the educational process. As such, creative instructional
practices and spaces highlight the opportunity towards honoring inclusion. Presenters are
encouraged to consider the following, possible questions as guides for proposal development
within this strand:
• In what ways might inclusion be honored?
• What does “honoring inclusion” look like, within different spaces?
• How do we support anti-oppressive actions?
• What is the understanding of contextualization of principles and ethics in teacher
education?
STRAND III: Embracing Interculturalism in a Global Society
With the recognition of a global society becoming an ever-present concept, the ability to
embrace interculturalism is not only appropriate but necessary to the development of citizens of
an increasing more globalized society. With physical borders fading, cross-cultural engagement
and understanding are vital to the development of a global society grounded in respect,
intercultural exchange, and multi-national discourse.
Transformative abilities associated with embracing interculturalism in a global society intersect
with the engaged politics of education that hopes for and supports the promotion of social justice
in education. As such, presenters are encouraged to consider the following, possible questions as
guides for proposal development within this strand:
• What does critically oriented multicultural education and critically oriented intercultural
education look like in teacher education?
• How does global citizenship education support interculturalism?
• How can programs of education integrate meaningful intercultural experiences within
their curricula?
• How do we navigate resistance to the ideas of interculturalism and the teaching practices
that support it?
REFERENCES
Applebaum, B. (2018). The Importance of Understanding Discourse in Social Justice Education:
The Truth and Nothing But the Truth?. Philosophy of Education Archive, 1-14.
Bamber, P., Lewin, D., & White, M. (2018). (Dis-) Locating the transformative dimension of
global citizenship education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(2), 204-230.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220272.2017.1328077 Retrieved from
https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/60778/
9
Carlson, D., & Apple, M. W. (2018). Power/knowledge/pedagogy: The meaning of democratic
education in unsettling times. New York: Routledge.
Duncan-Andrade & Morrell (2008). Critical pedagogy: Possibilities for moving from theory to
practice in urban schools. New York: Peter Lang.
Giroux, H. (1992). Language, difference, and curriculum theory: Beyond the politics of clarity.
Theory into Practice, 31(3), 219-227.
Giroux, H. (2018). Pedagogy and the politics of hope: Theory, culture, and schooling: A critical
reader. Routledge.
O’Neil, J. (1978, Winter). Merleau-Ponty’s criticism of Marxist Scientism. Canadian Journal of
Political and Social Theory 2(1), p. 45.
Sehr, D.T. (1997). Education for Public Democracy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Shanton, K. (2011). Memory, knowledge and epistemic competence. Review of Philosophy and
Psychology 2(1), p. 89-104.
Smith, E. (2018). Key Issues in Education and Social Justice (2nd edition). London: Sage
Publications Ltd. Retrieved from https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-
binaries/93444_Smith_ch_1.pdf
Sosa, E., (2007, January). A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297023.001.0001
United Kingdom Department for Education. (2016 March 17). Educational excellence
everywhere. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/educational-
excellence-everywhere
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSAL FORM CAN BE FOUND ON THE WorldFATE
WEBSITE: https://www.worldfate.org.
10
LEARNING, TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION IN A PANDEMIC
Jenene Burke
School of Education, Mt Helen Campus, Federation University Australia
ABSTRACT:
On 31 December 2019, a pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was reported
to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in China (WHO, 2020a). This disease,
later identified as a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (WHO,
2021), was eventually given the name COVID-19 (WHO, 2020c, 2021a). On 30 January 2020,
the WHO characterized the outbreak as a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’
(WHO, 2020b) and it was finally declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020d).
11
LEARNING, TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION IN A PANDEMIC
Declaration of a pandemic
On 31 December 2019, a pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan, China was reported
to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in China (WHO, 2020a). This disease,
later identified as a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (WHO,
2021), was eventually given the name COVID-19 (WHO, 2020c, 2021a). On 30 January 2020,
the WHO characterized the outbreak as a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’
(WHO, 2020b) and it was finally declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020d). At the
time, the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was reported as
stating:
All countries must strike a fine balance between protecting health, minimizing economic
and social disruption, and respecting human rights….This is not just a public health
crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector – so every sector and every individual must
be involved in the fight. I have said from the beginning that countries must take a whole-
of-government, whole-of-society approach, built around a comprehensive strategy to
prevent infections, save lives and minimize impact (WHO, 2020d).
The meaning of those words is now becoming fully appreciated. As the pandemic has swept
across the globe, every aspect of our lives has been permeated, resulting in political, social and
economic upheaval. Governments across the world have responded to the pandemic in discrete
ways and these responses have caused dramatic, but often different, effects on the ways people
have been able to conduct their daily lives. As we manage within the crisis, and start to emerge
from it, our lives and societies are destined to be changed forever.
The papers in this collection
School closures implemented early in 2020 to contain the spread of COVID-19 were considered
to be placing “unprecedented challenges on governments to ensure learning continuity, and on
leaders, students, caregivers and parents” (Chang & Yano, 2020). As time has passed, pandemic
conditions have created an environment in which governments and school systems, and
educators in general, have sought ways to cope with their changed circumstances and been
forced to rethink how to support their students and their families and student learning with the
resources at their disposal.
This special edition of the Journal of the World Federation of Associations for Teacher
Education (WFATE) offers a collection of scholarly papers and academic research drawn from
the WFATE community from countries such as Spain, the USA, Canada and Australia. The
analysis that follows draws partially on the papers presented in this issue – Volume 4, Issue 1.
In this publication we look beyond our own borders in an attempt to discern the impact of
COVID-19 on education across the world. In regard to schools and student learning, which by
extension impacts on teacher education and its knowledge base, we also examine the direct
impact on teacher education. Finally, we consider how teacher education organizations such as
WFATE might meet the needs of the teacher education community in realizing established
mission statements and aims (Burke, Volume 4, Issue 1). While we might expect a gloomy
12
outcome from the changed circumstances brought about by a global pandemic, the papers in this
special edition reinforce the ingenuity and resourcefulness of teachers and teacher educators and
their ability to adapt swiftly and creatively to find ways to teach and support students in their
learning.
Disruption to learning on a global scale
The worldwide outlook, however, is ominous. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has published a global monitoring map (2021a) which shows
the status of school closures and openings during the pandemic. UNESCO estimated that more
than half the students in the world (around 800 million students) faced “significant disruptions”
to their education. An examination of 80 countries by UNESCO identified school lockdowns
from full closuresi in 31 countries to reduced or part-time academic schedules in another 48
countries (UNESCO, 2020b), equating to two-thirds of an academic year lost (on average
worldwide) due to COVID-19 full or partial school closures (Giannini, 2021; UNESCO, 2021b).
This learning loss may be less of a problem than it appears on the surface. Sundstrom and
Blackmore (2020) draw on experience from Christchurch, New Zealand, and other significant
events where children have lost blocks of time in attendance at school due to school closures.
These authors provide evidence of children’s ability to make up lost time quickly and effectively
when they do eventually return to school.
Stefania Giannini, who is the Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO, expressed her
concern that the implications of COVID-19 were already far-reaching and that the pandemic has
“laid bare and deepened inequalities in education” (2021b). Giannini bases this statement on
UNESCO estimates that close to 500 million children worldwide will miss out on opportunities
for remote learning and that, due to the economic impact of the pandemic, an estimated 24
million children and youth will not return to school (UNESCO, 2021b). Significant school
attrition has also been predicted in Australian schools (Baker, 2020) and chronic absenteeism and
reduced learning time have been identified as a concern in the USA (Garcia & Weiss, 2020).
As well as identifying the adverse consequences of school closures (2020b), UNESCO identified
10 “recommendations to ensure that learning remains uninterrupted” (2020a). The advice is as
follows:
1. Examine the readiness and choose the most relevant tools.
2. Ensure inclusion of the distance learning programmes.
3. Protect data privacy and data security.
4. Prioritize solutions to address psychosocial challenges before teaching.
5. Plan the study schedule of the distance learning programmes.
6. Provide support to teachers and parents on the use of digital tools.
7. Blend appropriate approaches and limit the number of applications and platforms.
8. Develop distance learning rules and monitor students’ learning process.
9. Define the duration of distance learning units based on students’ self-regulation skills.
10. Create communities and enhance connection. (UNESCO, 2020a)
UNESCO monitoring shows that mass school shutdowns were prevalent across the board in
March and April of 2020 and that by May 2020 schools were beginning to partially open. At the
13
time of writing in early March 2021 approximately 200 million students are still experiencing
school closures in 26 countries, while nearly 700 million students are in schools that are partially
open (2021a). This also means that many more countries have found ways to fully open their
schools in 2021.
In Brazil, Cruz, Maciel, Clozato, Serpa, Navaux, Meneses, Abdalah, & Diener (2020) identified
issues associated with school closures, that included the economic impacts on families when
parents cannot work because they are supervising their children, and on the “industries
associated with school attendance” (e.g., transport, clothing, food); and the increased potential
for exposure to others while at school, as young people tend to be asymptomatic while carrying
high viral loads. These researchers pointed out that “in-person classes are often hard to replace
with online learning, especially in developing countries and for impoverished families, due to
lower availability of broadband Internet and fast laptop computers with cameras” (p. 3).
UNESCO’s long list of identified potential adverse consequences of school closures include
“interrupted learning; poor nutrition; confusion and stress for teachers; parents unprepared for
distance and home schooling; challenges creating, maintaining and improving distance learning;
gaps in childcare; high economic cost; unintended strain on health-care systems; increased
pressure on school and school systems that remain open; rise in [student] drop-out rates;
increased exposure [particularly for girls and young women] to violence and exploitation; social
isolation; and challenges measuring and validating learning”. (UNESCO, 2020b). Partial school
openings in some countries enable vulnerable children to access a place of safety for targeted
small group learning with peers and healthy meals and shelter (Drane, Vernon, & O’Shea, 2020;
UNESCO, 2020c).
Having identified that global inequities present more sharply in developing countries, they are
also pervasive in vast or remote locations. Australia, for example, has close to four million
school children, and the challenges for schools, according to National Centre for Student Equity
in Higher Education, are “the risk of long-term educational disengagement, digital exclusion,
poor technology management and increased psychosocial challenges” (Drane, Vernon, &
O’Shea, 2020, p. 3). Many students face disadvantage in home learning during the pandemic due
to identified ‘divides’. These divides include the “material divide” – lack of basic resources that
support home learning; the “digital divide” – lack of ICT resources and knowledge; the “skills
and dispositions divide” – differences in students’ personal preparedness for remote learning; the
“parental support divide” – where some parents struggle to manage their children’s learning from
home, and the “adjustments divide” – where individual student’s educational adjustments do not
fit well into remote learning arrangements (Lamb, Maire, Boeke, Noble, Pilcher, & Macklin,
2020, p. 3). This disadvantage during the pandemic is compounded by the fact that children from
low socio-economic circumstances already face negative learning outcomes (Lamb et al., 2020;
UNESCO, 2020b).
Children’s vulnerability can be categorised as social and educational (Masters, Taylor-Guy,
Fraillon, & Chase, 2020). Those considered socially vulnerable are often also educationally
vulnerable (Masters et al., 2020; UNESCO, 2020b). Groups of children in Australia who are
considered more vulnerable in are “those who live in poverty, often characterized by low
socioeconomic status, those with a disability or additional learning needs, students in rural or
remote parts of Australia, and those who are indigenous” (Lamb et al., 2020, p. 1).
14
Cruz et al., (2020) raised their concerns about the impact of reopening schools in Brazil after a
period of closure. They report that children are the least likely to be impacted by being infected,
but they can “act as infection vectors, causing massive spreads to more sensitive people, such as
their family and teachers” (p. 11). The favoured strategy identified by Cruz and colleagues
mathematical and computer simulation modelling was to reopen schools only after a vaccination
campaign was introduced.
Teacher Education voices from around the globe
Amid concerns that during the pandemic children’s learning has been seriously impacted (Cruz
et al., 2020; Garcia & Weiss, 2020; Giannini, 2021; Strachan & Khan, Volume 4, Issue 1;
UNESCO, 2020b, 2021b) it has been necessary to turn our attention to what we are able to do in
the face of imposed restrictions. Digital technologies have made many things possible, that were
previously unachievable, and in some cases inconceivable. While many people have had access
to PCs and smart devices for a number of years, their ability to use them while maintaining
physical distance from others has become much more important and urgent.
Terminology that begs clarification here is the type of learning that takes place using digital
technology. As explained by Masters et al., (2020), online learning is “an approach that typically
provides anytime, anywhere access to resources”, and remote teaching is “an approach which
acts as a direct replacement for face-to-face teaching” (p. 2). According to Masters and
colleagues, in remote teaching “teachers use video technology, or similar, to interact with
students in real-time and rely on students having set schedules” (2020, p. 2).
Teixidó (Volume 4, Issue 1) identifies the potential of 20th century pedagogy, when transferred
to the learning context of a pandemic with access to 21st century technology. Mass
communication and digital technologies enable new ways of learning and teaching that have
been exacerbated by the pandemic and are different to how digital technology has been used in a
classroom. Teixidó proposes an enhanced model of learning where 20th century pedagogy can be
integrated with 21st century technology to cater for remote learning contexts.
Oliveras (Volume 4, Issue 1) notes the sudden movement of our pedagogical boundaries and
explores personalised learning as the “online psychoeducational process” and the potential
realised in remote teaching context through the Technopedagogical Project Binomi.online 3.0.
The uniqueness of individual students is embraced, offering each learner the prospect of learning
how to think, to know, and how to use their knowledge.
Gallifa, Amorós & Montané (Volume 4, Issue 1) describe how the pandemic crisis has presented
opportunities to transform education and play a role in the development of Initial Teacher
Education using technology for knowledge building, through the Knowledge Building
International Project (KBIP), in a collaboration within a cluster of eight schools and two
universities in Catalonia, Spain. We can read also of the impact of the pandemic on the Spanish
population, and how these impacts were met with creative strategies that displayed empathy and
deep concern for the wellbeing and welfare of the community at large.
The utilization of digital technology to support children’s learning is not confined to schools.
Cooper (Volume 4, Issue 1) reports on an ethnographic study which examined a small group of
15
children and families/carers in Melbourne, Australia, who celebrated 2020 Children’s Day by
“making art and connecting with new friends online” using a web-based video conferencing tool.
In previous years the activities have been conducted in one physical space for the children
attending the event, together with their parents or carers. Cooper was able to demonstrate how
the children and the teacher artists thrived and learned together, exploring new spaces and their
creativity, using innovative remote technological communicate means through art making.
Gayán, Guitart, López and Pérez, (Volume 4, Issue 1) explain the genesis of #ciència_confinada,
a project of the Centre de Recursos Pedagògics Específics de Suport a la Innovació i la Recerca
Educativa (CESIRE), from the Department of Education in the Catalan government in Spain.
The project grew out of necessity during the pandemic to support student learning in Science.
The learning materials, available online, allow students to apply Science in authentic situations
to facilitate their learning.
The impact on institutions that deliver teacher education has been significant and the experiences
of teacher educators are likely to vary across the world. Like schools, teacher education has been
pressed with little time for preparation and planning to find ways to prepare preservice teachers
for a changing educational landscape (Kokorudz, Volume 4, Issue 1; Paretti, Quinn, Behuniak &
McCarthy, Volume 4, Issue 1; Strachan & Khan, Volume 4, Issue 1).
As schools in some countries have also moved to remote learning, preservice teacher practicums
have been disrupted. Kokorudz (Volume 4, Issue 1) examines this disruption in detail in the
Canadian initial teacher education context by examining the day-to-day experiences of a
graduating group of preservice teachers in a study that examined the implications of a global
pandemic on in the future preparation and certification of teachers. According to the preservice
teachers, their students lacked significant engagement in online learning during lockdown.
Preservice teachers used pedagogies such as individualised student learning plans to “gauge the
impact of home learning on students with diverse learning needs”.
Paretti, Quinn, Behuniak and McCarthy (Volume 4, Issue 1) examined what happened when
field experiences for preservice teachers moved to an online format in a university in Nevada,
USA. An array of strategies was quickly put in place using materials delivered remotely
University supervisors and preservice teachers shared their challenges, concerns, modes of
communication and the lessons they learned, as revealed in the paper.
As well as engaging in online learning, preservice teachers also learnt new ways to deliver
remote teaching, particularly using resources their students had access to at home (Gayán et al:
Paretti et al.; Strachan & Khan, Volume 4, Issue 1). Preservice teachers also learned about
student diversity and equity associated with a global pandemic, particularly in regard to Maths
and Science teaching (Kokorudz; Strachan & Khan, Volume 4, Issue 1).
Strachan and Khan (Volume 4, Issue 1) provide an overview of how the global pandemic
impacted the AAMU Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program in Alabama, USA has worked to
recruit, retain, and train science and mathematics teacher candidates.
Effective school leadership becomes important in times of crisis. Harrelson, VanHorn and
VanHorn, (Volume 4, Issue 1) reinforce the importance of shared leadership practices. School
and district leaders needed to use the collective knowledge, expertise and experience to make
16
informed decisions and implement new models of learning including remote, hybrid and
traditional face-to-face learning.
Finally, Burke (Volume 4, Issue 1) shares her thoughts on how an international organisation,
such as WFATE, that has relied on bringing teacher educators together from across the globe,
might prosper in times of pandemic. The concept of digital dispersions as dimensions of digital
teams is used to interrogate the challenges and possibilities. Burke concludes that available
technologies can be employed in new ways to achieve established goals.
Conclusion
As we, as teacher educators, gaze beyond our own countries and begin to take stock of the
impact of COVID-19 on education across the world, it becomes apparent that the full
repercussions of the pandemic will not be fully realized or identified for many years to come.
The projections, broadly construed, across the globe are not promising, and many students are
expected to face a variety of potential negative outcomes. What is becoming clearer though is the
capacity for teachers to be responsive, adaptive, creative, and supportive to their students,
applying imagination, resourcefulness and creativity to their educational contexts. The potential
for positive pedagogical change in a short time span has never been more possible.
References
Baker, J. (2020, April 12). The kids who will never return to school after COVID-19. Sydney
Morning Herald. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from: https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-
kids-who-will-never-return-to-school-after-covid-19-20200411-p54j0e.html
Chang, G.C., & Yano, S. (2020, March 24). How are countries addressing the Covid-19
challenges in Education? A snapshot of policy measures. World Education Blog.
Retrieved March 2, 2021 from: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/03/24/how-
are-countries-addressing-the-covid-19-challenges-in-education-a-snapshot-of-policy-
measures/
Cruz, E., Maciel, J., Clozato, C., Serpa, M., Navaux, P., Meneses, E., Abdalah, M., & Diener, M.
(2020). The impact of reopening schools during COVID-19: A case study of Sao Paulo,
Brazil.
Drane, C., Vernon, L., & O’Shea, S. (2020). The impact of ‘learning at home’ on the educational
outcomes of vulnerable children in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Literature
Review prepared by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, Curtin
University, Australia.
Garcia, E. & Weiss, E. (2020a, Sept 10). COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S.
education policy: Lessons from pre-pandemic research to inform relief, recovery, and
rebuilding. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
https://files.epi.org/pdf/205622.pdf
Giannini, S. (2021, Jan 25). Time to roll out education’s recovery package. World Education
Blog. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
17
https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/time-to-roll-out-educations-
recovery-package/
Lamb, S., Maire, Q., Boeke, E., Noble, K., Pilcher, S., & Macklin, S. (2020). Impact of learning
from home on educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. Australian Government,
Department of Education, Skills and Employment. Retrieved March 1, 2021 from:
https://www.vu.edu.au/mitchell-institute/schooling/impact-of-learning-from-home-for-
disadvantaged-children
Masters, G. N., Taylor-Guy, P., Fraillon, J., & Chase, A. (2020). Ministerial Briefing Paper on
Evidence of the Likely Impact on Educational Outcomes of Vulnerable Children
Learning at Home during COVID-19. Australian Government Department of Education,
Skills and Employment. https://research.acer.edu.au/learning_processes/24
Sundstrom, S, & Blackmore, R. (2020. April 17). Does missing a term due to COVID-19 really
matter? What happened to student results after the Christchurch quake. ABC News
[Internet]. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-
17/will-missing-school-due-to-covid-19-matter-for-school-students/12154266
UNESCO, (2020a). 10 recommendations to ensure that learning remains uninterrupted.
Retrieved February 1, 2021 from: https://en.unesco.org/news/covid-19-10-
recommendations-plan-distance-learning-solutions
UNESCO (2020b.) Adverse consequences of school closure. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/consequences
UNESCO. (2020c). Three ways to plan for equity during the school closures. Retrieved February
1, 2021 from: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/three-ways-to-plan-
for-equity-during-the-coronavirus-school-closures/
UNESCO. (2021a). Education: From disruption to recovery. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
UNESCO, (2021b). UNESCO figures show two thirds of an academic year lost on average
worldwide due to Covid-19 school closures. Retrieved Mar 3, 2021 from:
https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-figures-show-two-thirds-academic-year-lost-average-
worldwide-due-covid-19-school
WHO. (2020a, Jan 5). Pneumonia of unknown cause – China. Disease outbreak news. Retrieved
February 1, 2021 from: https://www.who.int/csr/don/05-january-2020-pneumonia-of-
unkown-cause-china/en/
WHO. (2020b, Jan 30). Statement on the second meeting of the International Health Regulations
(2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Retrieved February 1, 2021 from: https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-
on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-
committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)
18
WHO..(2020c, Feb 11). Novel Coronavirus(2019-nCoV) Situation Report – 22. Highlights.
Retrieved February 1, 2021 from: https://www.who.int/docs/default-
source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200211-sitrep-22-ncov.pdf?sfvrsn=fb6d49b1_2
WHO. (2020d, Mar 11). WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on
COVID-19 - 11 March 2020. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-
remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020
WHO. (2021). Technical Guidance. Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus
that causes it. Retrieved February 1, 2021 from:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-
the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it
1 Countries categorised as ‘Closed due to 19-COVID’ includes national enrolment figures at pre-primary,
primary, secondary and tertiary levels as reported in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Data base.
http://data.uis.unesco.org/#
19
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES DURING A PANDEMIC
Shelley Kokorudz, Brandon University
ABSTRACT
This research evaluated the experiences of pre-service teachers during their final practicum
placement when COVID-19 arrived in the province of Manitoba, Canada, forcing a suspension
of face-to-face learning and the eventual closure of all schools. A survey was used to collect
data on the day-to-day experiences of this graduating group of pre-service teachers and to
understand the implications that a Global pandemic may have on faculties of education in the
future preparation and certification of teachers. Data collected from participating pre-service
teachers indicated a need to review current faculty curricula and its mode of delivery. As the
pandemic maintains its grip on society, future reform and evolution in public schools will almost
certainly become a reality (Government of Manitoba, 2020). Post-secondary institutions must
also be ready to adjust pedagogy and program requirements to ensure that perspective
educators are prepared to meet potential K-12 curricula reforms and delivery of education. Pre-
service teacher respondents to this survey offered valuable feedback that could guide discussions
around future provincial and national reform in education.
20
PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES DURING A PANDEMIC
Introduction
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In
March of 2020, COVID-19 made its presence on the Canadian prairies. As most schools in
Manitoba were planning for spring graduation ceremonies, pre-service teachers and faculty in the
Faculty of Education at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada were preparing for final
practicum placements which would finalize the graduation requirements for a promising new
group of emerging teachers. Political leaders in the province scrambled to formulate health and
education plans to slow the spread of the Global pandemic. In the absence of a cure or
vaccination for the disease, health measures to contain the virus such as social isolation,
reduction of economic activities, creation of home offices, and a move to remote classroom
learning (Cruz, Clozato, Serpa, Navaux, Meneses, Abdalah, & Diener, 2020) were imposed by
the province. By the end of March, schools were closed, and face-to-face learning in Manitoba
schools was suspended. The decision to educate children from their homes via various on-line
platforms was made in an effort to slow the infection spread of the highly contagious coronavirus
and to reduce the stress that was being placed on the health care system due to the presence of
the highly contagious, and sometimes deadly, virus. Due to the presence of the highly
contagious, and sometimes deadly virus, it became clear that the inexperience of parents,
students and teachers in online instruction was going to be a substantial challenge in the ongoing
education of children (Kuhfeld, Soland, Tarsawa, Johnson, Ruzek, & Liu, 2020).
This school closure also posed an enormous challenge to the university’s faculty administration
to ensure that graduating pre-service teachers would meet the required contact hours in the field
to graduate and achieve provincial certification. The inability to provide a final practicum within
a school (due to school closures) for pre-service teachers meant that the graduation and
certification of the cohort of education students may be at risk. However, faculty administration
devised a plan to keep teacher candidates connected to their teacher mentors in the online
delivery of K-12 curricula. This unprecedented process for practicum completion became an
experiment of sorts, one for which students and mentors had no experience or preparation.
However, it did provide an opportunity for educators to learn more about and plan for the future
of education as some doubt whether the world will return to ‘normal’.
Educators have adapted and adjusted to the reality of COVID-19. In November 2020, the
Government of Manitoba (2020) announced a multimillion- dollar funding package to establish a
remote learning support centre. In the report, the education minister stated, “COVID 19 has
changed a lot about our lives, and some of the greatest impacts have been on how we teach,
learn, and deliver education” (p. 30). The minister also announced three additional professional
development days for school divisions “so that schools can focus on collaborative planning as
they shift and adapt to remote learning” (p. 30). This substantial commitment to support the
changes that stem primarily from current digital platforms being utilized in Manitoba schools is
an indication of continued reform within the system. With a multimillion-dollar commitment to
training teachers in online pedagogies, virtual teaching and learning will undoubtedly remain on
the horizon for future educational implementation. As the province, and perhaps the nation, focus
on a new way to school children, the question of how this new reality impacts the future of
21
education reform is raised. What can be learned from the experiences and opinions of the
graduating cohort in this study to influence the delivery of teacher preparation programs at a
post-secondary level? This study is relevant to education decisions made in the province of
Manitoba and other Canadian provinces that have similar curriculum outcomes. In addition, the
study may have international appeal where post-COVID education reform is occurring.
Purpose
The purpose of the research was to gain knowledge about the practicum experiences,
responsibilities, and tasks of a graduating cohort of pre-service teachers at the onset of COVID-
19. This cohort, along with their mentoring teachers, made radical pedagogical adjustments as
schools moved to online platforms to deliver curriculum to K-12 students. Their experiences and
reflections provided valuable data towards the (re)thinking of teacher education programs and
provided some insight into inevitable changes that could emerge onto education landscapes
across the nation’s provinces. The researcher also probed participants on their interactions with
students who had individualized learning plans to gauge the impact of home learning on students
with diverse learning needs. Human research ethics approval (File Number 22657) was attained
from Brandon University Research Ethics Committee (BUREC).
The Survey
The survey, consisting of 21 questions, was posted to Survey Monkey, an online website that
allowed participants to post their responses anonymously and confidentially. However, for the
purpose of this article, not all questions were included in the review of the responses. The
researcher chose to focus on questions that pertained specifically to the day-to-day teaching tasks
of pre-service teachers as they completed their final practicum. The final question probed the
opinions of participants for potential curricula improvements that could be implemented into
teacher preparation programs. Eight focus questions were selected:
Please indicate all alternative options that were made available to children as they continued their
education from home.
How effective were the plans for home learning in your practicum?
Did your students have adequate technology resources such as computers, hand-held devices,
etc.? And how adequate was their access to Internet?
How satisfied were you with the ability to create positive relationships with your students during
the home learning portion of your practicum?
How engaged were your students learning from home?
How effective were your teaching/learning experiences with students who had special needs or
may have had an Individual Education Plan (IEP)?
22
Please list any ideas that might have improved the teaching/learning experiences that you had
during the closure of schools.
What type of courses would you suggest in the education of pre-service teachers to be prepared
for unexpected changes in learning such as the home learning that occurred because of the
pandemic?
A deadline for responses was included to expedite a timely response to the survey. Following the
closure of the survey, several pre-service teachers contacted the researcher via email to provide
an account of their final practicum experiences. These email respondents expressed regret for not
responding to the survey in a timely manner but wanted to provide comments that they felt were
noteworthy. Given the challenges that were being experienced during the unprecedented events
associated with COVID-19, the researcher made the choice to include the comments submitted
through email correspondence, merging the email submissions into the online survey data.
The Respondents
A total of 91 pre-service teachers completed their final practicum placements and were invited to
participate in the survey. The survey link and invitation to participate in the study were emailed
to the potential respondents through the field experience office at the Faculty of Education.
Fifteen pre-service teachers responded to the on-line survey, and 11 pre-service teachers
submitted email comments after the survey response deadline expired. Of the 26 pre-service
teachers that responded, 54% were from the early years cohort (Kindergarten to Grade 6), 20%
were from the middle years cohort (Grade 7-8), and 23% represented the senior years cohort
(Grade 9-12).
Findings
Question #1
The first question required the respondents to indicate all alternative options that were made
available to children as they continued their education from home. A summary of responses is
shown in Table 1. The table indicates the percentage of times a learning option was chosen for
home learning by students who were in pre-service teachers’ classrooms.
Table 1 Alternative Options for Home Learning Listed by Respondents
Home Learning Option Percentage
Zoom Meetings 33
Microsoft Team Meetings 67
Moodle 0
Phone Meetings 27
E-mail 60
Hard copy assignments picked up and returned to school 80
Other (Google Classroom, Classroom Dojo, Office 365) 40
Recorded video lessons to be uploaded online 25
23
The most notable option for the continuation of learning was the choice to access hard copy
assignments with physical drop points to provide students with assignments and retrieve them for
evaluation purposes. Microsoft Team meetings appeared to be the preferred choice for virtual
meetings, while email became an important means for communication. The data also indicated
that a variety of online platforms were used for online supports. Participants did not express
reasons for choosing the various platforms.
Question #2
The second question posed to pre-service teachers was, “How effective were the home learning
plans in your practicum?” Table 2 reflects the responses submitted.
Table 2 Effectiveness of Home Learning Plans Expressed by Respondents
Level of Effectiveness Percentage of Responses
Very Effective 20
Somewhat Effective 60
Not Effective 20
The responses from the second question indicated that home learning plans were only somewhat
effective, while 20% said they were not effective. These low ratings may be reflective of the very
little preparation time for pre-service teachers and their mentors to adequately implement home-
learning plans for their students. The decision to close schools and begin learning from home
was made with short notice from government leaders after realizing that a return to school posed
too great a risk for the transmission of the virus within the general population of citizens.
Question #3
The third question asked the respondents to rate their opinions of the adequateness of
technological resources such as computers and hand-held devices to which students had access.
Respondents were also asked to rate the adequateness of Internet access. Table 3 is a summary of
the responses.
Table 3 Adequateness of Internet Access and Technological Resources
Level of Adequateness Access to Internet
(Percentage)
Access to Technological
Resources (Percentage)
Adequate 33.3 20
Somewhat Adequate 53.3 46.67
Not Adequate at All 13.3 33.3
Pre-service teacher responses indicated that access to the Internet was slightly better than access
to technological resources such as computers. Although 53.3% indicated they felt that access to
the Internet was somewhat adequate, less than half felt the access to technological resources was
somewhat adequate. While 13.3% felt that access to the Internet was not adequate at all, a
24
marked increase to 33.3% of respondents felt that access to technological resources was not
adequate at all. If virtual learning is going to continue to be a part of the teaching and learning
landscape, equity regarding access to resources and Internet service will be a major consideration
in securing effective virtual learning experiences for all students.
Question 4
The fourth question asked, “How satisfied were you with the ability to create positive
relationships with your students during the home learning portion of your practicum?” Table 4
represents the levels of satisfaction expressed by the respondents.
Table 4 Satisfaction of Teacher/Student Relationships
Level of Satisfaction Percentage of Responses
Satisfied 6.7
Somewhat Satisfied 40
Not Satisfied 53.3
Question 4 focused on the teacher/student relationship during the respondents’ final practicum.
Relationship building with students is an important part of the teaching and learning process. As
teachers become more familiar with their students, they are able to plan appropriate and
authentic lessons that serve to keep children motivated in their learning (Cisero Durwin & Reese-
Weber, 2018). An overwhelming 53.3% of responses indicated that pre-service teachers were not
satisfied with the teacher/student relationships, 40% were somewhat satisfied, and only 6.7 were
satisfied. Relationship building between teachers and their students should remain a
consideration as online learning platforms become possible options for the future delivery of
curricula.
Question 5
The fifth question asked, “How engaged were your students learning from home?” Table 5
reflects the opinions of the respondents.
Table 5 Level of Engagement with Students
Level of Engagement with Students Percentage of Responses
Significantly Engaged 0
Somewhat Engaged 71.4
Not Engaged 28.6
Interestingly, none of the respondents indicated their students were significantly engaged in
learning from home. While 71.4% of the pre-service teachers felt their students were somewhat
engaged, 28.6% felt their students were not engaged at all. As decisions continue to be made for
future possibilities around home learning options, engagement and autonomy of students in their
learning must be considered. While it is somewhat troubling to think that many students are only
somewhat engaged or not engaged at all in home learning processes, it would be interesting to
25
gather the opinions of educators as they reflect on student engagement in regular face-to-face
classroom learning. Is it possible that some students who are not engaged in the traditional
spaces of classrooms continue these patterns in home learning experiences? Alternatively, is it
possible that students who were more engaged with home learning platforms may be less
engaged in face-to-face learning? A comparison of the degree of engagement in either learning
environments may provide further insight into learning preferences and may also contribute to
future reforms in education.
Question 6
The sixth question asked participants, “How effective were your teaching/learning experiences
with students who had specific learning needs or may have had an Individual Education Plan
(IEP)?” Table 6 indicates the level of effectiveness expressed by respondents.
Table 6 Effectiveness of Experiences with Specific Learning Needs
Level of Effectiveness Percentage of Responses
Significantly Effective 0
Somewhat Effective 50
Not Effective 50
The percentage of responses to the question of the effectiveness of teaching/learning experiences
with students who have diverse needs is rather alarming. Zero respondents indicated that they
felt the teaching/learning experiences of students with specific learning needs were significantly
effective. As advocates for students with disabilities have worked tirelessly to improve and
ensure an appropriate and quality education for children with disabilities in inclusive learning
spaces (Chu, Craig, Yeworiew, & Xu, 2020), a shift to virtual or other forms of home learning
will require careful consideration of the impacts the various learning platforms will have on
diverse learners.
Question 7
The seventh question asked participants to list any ideas that may have improved the
teaching/learning experiences during the school closure. The participants were not provided any
dropdown responses from which to select possible responses. The responses to this question
originated from their personal experiences as they pertained to their particular school
placements. A number of suggestions were offered by pre-service teacher participants which
included (a) providing parents with a weekly plan so they had clear expectations of the week’s
goals and objectives, (b) providing access to families for free WI-FI and ensure that all students
have access to laptops, either through small rental fees or at a reduced purchase price, (c)
eliminating Friday classes since were not well attended online, particularly as the weather got
warmer, (d) providing free mental health services to teachers, (e) providing on-line learning
training to students so they have a better understanding how to do school online, (f) reducing the
number of assignments required by students, and (f) providing more clarity to pre-service
teachers regarding their responsibilities during times of home learning.
26
Most of the responses are reflective of a system that had little time to prepare for a shift in
learning platforms from face-to-face classroom to home learning. Students and teachers had no
opportunity to become familiar with the processes of home learning. As a result, some families
were ill equipped to ensure that their children could participate in a virtual learning option. As
schools were being shut down in the province, many parents were also being asked to work from
home. Working Manitobans experienced a radical shift in how they were being expected to do
their jobs. Some respondents suggested that it was important to have planned meetings with
parents so that adjustments to the learning plans could occur based on the family’s personal
situations that may affect weekly learning.
The combination of parents working from home and students requiring access to technology and
the Internet to engage in their own learning caused difficulties. Even those families that chose to
pick up and deliver assignments using traditional learning materials were faced with the
challenges of finding the time to supervise children in their learning. Many parents were still
expected to either go to work as essential workers or work from home with children too young to
be responsible for their independent learning. Appropriate supervision for children’s learning
was not always possible. As education planners adapt to the new realities associated with a
global pandemic, careful consideration of these potential barricades is required.
Question 8
The eighth question asked was: “What type of courses would you suggest in the preparation of
pre-service teachers that may have helped you be more prepared for the unexpected changes to
your final placement?”
Responses included (a) self-care and mental health, (b) lesson planning for remote learning, (c)
evaluation and assessment for remote learning, (d) creative activities for remote learning, (e)
scheduling for remote learning, (f) ICT for educators to cover on-line platforms for learning such
as Moodle, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, (g) one counselling course for teachers to learn more
about counselling their students on a day-to-day basis, (h) one course in crisis management for
schools, (i) online learning methods, (j) education law course focusing on on-line learning
scenarios, and (k) a minimum of one practicum to be completed at a First Nations school.
The list of suggestions for courses in teacher education programs is an interesting combination of
learning that builds direct skills for on-line teaching and learning platforms and includes a course
in the self-care of teachers, as well as the inclusion of a course for teachers to assist students in
their own mental health. As public education in Manitoba continues to build supports
(Government of Manitoba, 2020) for virtual learning options, faculties of education should
consider how their own programs will facilitate the preparation of pre-service teachers to teach
virtually. The final suggestion highlights diverse culture differences that require consideration
for teaching and learning. In particular, schools continue to work to improve the education
experiences of Indigenous children and families by incorporating access to Indigenous cultural
programming (Milne & Wotherspoon, 2020). The respondent who suggested the requirement to
complete a practicum at a First Nations school added that the reserve school in this particular
placement had challenges that were specific to the culture. The respondent did not elaborate on
these challenges, but in response to The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)
27
that calls “attention to the damage induced by government policies and practices” (p. 34),
experience in Indigenous schools could provide an authentic space to learn more about the
cultural diversity associated with the teaching and learning preferences of Indigenous students
and their families.
Discussion of the Study
In this study, pre-service teachers reported on their experiences while completing their final
practicum placements during the onset of COVID-19. Despite the unprecedented move to remote
teaching and learning and the challenges associated with the mode of delivery, Lieberman (2020)
reported, “many teachers are seeing how online learning can make it easier to move students in
the same class at different paces and provide one-on-one feedback for struggling students, when
they’re not all in the same physical space” (p. 13).
World Bank Washington (2020) suggested that the crisis of COVID-19 could be turned into an
opportunity by not replicating the failures of pre-COVID systems, “but instead build toward
improved systems and accelerating learning for all students” (p. 5); what implications does this
have for faculties of education? Kirk and Mitchell (2020) reflected on the future of education for
medical students as well by reflecting and moving forward “with excitement regarding what has
worked, and have the courage to leave behind what has not” (p. 334). Burnette (2020) spoke
about the impact of an economic recession that will undoubtedly have effects on public
education funding and argued that, more than ever, advocates must stand firm in ensuring that
support for education is not reduced. One should also be concerned about the impact that
COVID-19 may have on the retention of teachers or the attraction of new teachers to the
profession. As COVID-19 is testing the limitations of the health care system, it is also placing
tremendous stress on educators. Lambert, Trott, and Baugh (2020) reported that one third of
teachers in the United States will leave the profession due to the increased health risks of
COVID-19, leaving a shortage in the system. Although Lambert et al. report hailed from an
American perspective, it is possible that Canadian educators may also be reconsidering their
commitment to the field of education. The combination of economic uncertainties, the risk of
contracting the virus and the unknown forms of delivery for future education equate to the
necessity of reimagining teacher education programs and finding ways to ensure adequate
numbers of education professionals.
In an Alberta study to learn more about teacher preparedness to accommodate student needs in
inclusive classrooms, Chu et al. (2020) argued for more support and training for educators “to
adequately address students’ diverse needs” (p. 222). Chu et al. conducted their study prior to the
arrival of COVID-19. When the virus forced school closures, advocates for students with
disabilities voiced concern (Corey, 2020) about the quality of education for students with
individual education plans (IEPs); would they be able to experience appropriate learning during
the vast changes that were occurring? The Alberta study highlighted the need for additional
training for educators when education was being conducted at a time that most people would
consider ‘normal’. A commitment to providing an appropriate and quality education for all
students through the lens of disability and the philosophy of inclusion is extremely important in
the efforts of advocates to ensure that the diversity among learners is considered in any planning
28
for future education reforms. The importance of meeting the needs of all learners must not
become overlooked as change becomes inevitable in education.
Limitations
One of the limitations of this study was the small sample of pre-service teacher respondents who
chose to respond to the survey. Only 15 of the total 91 respondents engaged in the survey. The
responses are somewhat limited to the experiences of a small sample of potential participants.
The second limitation of this study is the timing of the survey. The survey was completed by pre-
service teachers in the early onset of COVID-19 in the province. Little knowledge existed about
the virus. As the virus has maintained its presence in society, researchers have gained
considerable knowledge of the virus, and educators have had more time to plan for the safer
delivery of curricula to their students. The more time that passes, the more information is gained
to contribute to educational planning and policies for which the virus has had a direct impact.
However, the responses of the participants, combined with the continual adaptations being made
in Manitoba schools, do offer pertinent data to education faculties in their efforts to ensure
authentic programming for pre-service teachers. More research is needed to assess the
adjustments that educators are making in the teaching/learning processes as COVID-19 remains
a threat in society.
Implications of the Study and Future Directions for Research
The pandemic impacted public schools and post-secondary faculties of education without
warning, causing ripple effects that forced educators to deliver curricula to students in ways for
which they were unprepared. Feeling the pressure to keep students engaged in learning, school
leaders scrambled to provide suitable home learning options. If COVID-19 has taught educators
anything in all its chaos, it is that the system was not prepared for the extreme shift necessary to
maintain teaching and learning processes.
One implication drawn from this study is the need for more research into the impact of virtual
learning platforms on specific school-age groups, cultural groups and students with disabilities.
Levels of engagement of student learning is also an area that requires further understanding. If
future reform in education may include a choice in learning platforms, pertinent data reflecting
preferences for learning platforms across a diverse population of learners may be valuable. As
well, teachers should also be polled so that more can be known about teacher preferences
pertaining to learning platforms. These preferences may be useful as the education system
considers the option to teach and learn in a traditional face-to-face classroom or from an
alternative location through a virtual online platform.
The probability exists that even with the eradication of COVID-19 through medical
advancements, education may not return to its pre-coronavirus state (Lieberman, 2020). As such,
the second implication derived from this study is that faculties of education must engage in the
processes of reflecting on current programs and making changes that will best prepare future
educators for the reality of various modes of delivering curricula. Data from a larger sample of
pre-service teachers are necessary to better inform faculties of education in the provision of
29
appropriate learning platforms and courses that are authentic and effective. This study, coupled
with the recent literature confirming the future of virtual learning options, reinforce the need for
appropriate teacher preparation in the inevitable changes to pedagogical practice. Additionally,
as the province committed to investing in a virtual support learning centre, government must
commit to ensuring that all geographical locations have the infrastructure to support highspeed
Internet service. All students must also have access to appropriate technological equipment to
ensure equity through virtual learning platforms. Finally, a continued commitment to support
diverse learners with physical and learning disabilities must be established to protect their
fundamental human rights to a quality appropriate education (Chu et al., 2020).
REFERENCES
Burnette, D. (2020). Why the pandemic’s recession may fuel legal push for more K-12 aid.
Education Week, 40(11), 14.
Chu, M., Craig, H., Yeworiew, L., Xu, Y. (2020). Teachers’ preparedness to accommodate
student needs. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 35(3), 210-224.
Cisero Durwin, C. & Reese-Webber, M. (2018). Ed psych modules (3rd Ed.). Sage
Corey, M. (2020). Serving special needs students during COVID-19. Education Week, 39(33),
13.
Cruz, E., Maciel, J., Clozato, C., Serpa, M., Navaux, P., Meneses, E., Abdalah, M., & Diener, M.
2020, October 13). The impact of school reopening strategies during COVID-19: A case
study of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Cornell University. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2010.08426.pdf
Government of Manitoba (2020, November 13). Province announces $10 million for provincial
remote learning support centre. Government of Manitoba.
https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=49677&posted=2020-11-
09&fbclid=IwAR08neAxBCQFLctRqhIc7oR53L9mQzmFC6Pla5K8d5XE3c9RBBfDRx
Lv-ds
Kirk, L. & Mitchel., I. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education.
Medical Journal of Australia, 213(7), 334.
Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Tarasawa, B., Johnson, A., Ruzek, E. & Liu, J. (2020). Projecting the
potential impact of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement. Educational
Researcher, 49(8), 549-565.
Lambert, J., Trott, K., & Baugh, R. (2020). An analysis of K-12 school reopening and its impact
on teachers. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 11, 1-8.
Lieberman, M. (2020). Like it or not, K-12 schools are doing a digital leapfrog During COVID-
19; The move to remote learning revealed huge tech equity gaps. Education Week, 39(4),
13.
30
Milne, E., Wotherspoon, T. (2020). Schools as “really dangerous places” for Indigenous children
and youth: Schools, child welfare, and contemporary challenges to reconciliation.
Canadian Review of Sociology, 57(1), 34-52.
World Bank Washington. (2020). The COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education and Policy
Responses. World Bank.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Shelley Kokorudz is an Assistant Professor in Department of Educational Psychology & Student
Services in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada.
31
SHARING FEELINGS, SOLUTIONS, AND MOVING FORWARD DURING
COVID-19
Lois Paretti, Linda F. Quinn, Anna Maria Behuniak, Jane McCarthy
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
ABSTRACT:
March 2020, something called COVID-19, caused the world to come to an abrupt halt like
slamming on the brakes and coming to a dead stop in traffic. All educational institutions in
Nevada, USA closed. All schools in the Clark County School District closed (Las Vegas Review
Journal, March 2020). Shock and uncertainty reigned. Imagine that teacher education
candidates see becoming a licensed teacher but a grasp away. They are deeply involved in field
experiences; learning from mentor teachers and from interactions with the students. They are
beginning to understand the complex nature of teaching and learning. They appreciate the
opportunity to learn about teaching in someone else’s classroom. They are practicing newly
acquired skills in real-life situations. Suddenly, all school doors and classrooms are closed. So
how do they move forward in learning to teach?
32
SHARING FEELINGS, SOLUTIONS, AND MOVING FORWARD DURING
COVID-19
March 2020, something called COVID-19, caused the world to come to an abrupt halt like
slamming on the brakes and coming to a dead stop in traffic. All educational institutions in
Nevada, USA closed. All schools in the Clark County School District closed (Las Vegas Review
Journal, March 2020). Shock and uncertainty reigned. Imagine that teacher education candidates
see becoming a licensed teacher but a grasp away. They are deeply involved in field
experiences; learning from mentor teachers and from interactions with the students. They are
beginning to understand the complex nature of teaching and learning. They appreciate the
opportunity to learn about teaching in someone else’s classroom. They are practicing newly
acquired skills in real-life situations. Suddenly, all school doors and classrooms are closed. So
how do they move forward in learning to teach?
With no time for preparation, or guidance from previous circumstances there was a scramble to
create pathways to ensure the teacher education candidates would be able to successfully
complete their field experience courses. Knowing that students still had to be educated, teachers
still had to teach, and teacher candidates still had to have teaching experiences to learn their craft
caused professors, university field supervisors, mentor teachers and teacher education candidates
to take a deep breath and move forward. After an initial period of confusion and perhaps
discontent, virtual and face-to-face communication among all concerned were increased to
uncover ways the candidates could continue to benefit from interactions with students and
practice instructional methods. Brakes were released and wheels were back in motion.
Moving Forward
Literature on learning to teach strongly supports the act of practice in classrooms (Boyd et al.,
2008). Standard 8 of the Association of Teacher Educators Standards for Field Experiences in
Teacher Education (2015) focuses on teacher candidates having the opportunity to routinely
reflect upon and throughout their field experiences. What happens when field experiences move
to an online format?
Teacher educators and site-facilitators (university supervisors) brainstormed ways to make
connections among candidates, mentors, and assigned groups of students. The teacher candidates
are placed in cohorts at a partnership school site, and the role of the site facilitator is to coach and
mentor both the teacher candidate and the teacher who serves as a mentor to the candidate. Site-
facilitators contacted the candidates to reassure them, offer support, and work at expediting
connections with mentors and students. Candidates assumed leadership roles and created
innovative ways to continue interacting with their K-12 students. University faculty provided
optional activities to supplement or replace the teacher candidates’ classroom experiences such
as reading journal articles and writing reflections, watching and critiquing videos of their peers
and on the teaching channel and YouTube. Virtual teaching was supported by the local school
district as approximately 200,000 chrome books and nearly 50,000 additional devices were
distributed to schools and individuals. Museums, zoos and libraries added to the resources for
teachers, teacher education candidates and students to help expand opportunities for teaching and
learning.
33
Teacher education candidates learned new methods for teaching remotely. They met virtually
two or three times per week with students specifically to answer the students’ questions about
online learning. Some of the virtual, shared time with students was used for socialization, so
students could talk about what they were doing and how the shutdown of school was affecting
them. Older and younger siblings were invited to join these virtual meetings. Teacher candidates
also developed lessons and projects for students to complete independently using materials they
had at home through activities such as scavenger hunts, and recording readings to share with one
another.
Candidates’ experiences during this time of virtual teaching and learning ranged from joy at their
successes, to worries about reaching all of their students, and to the challenges of communicating
complex concepts virtually. Student teachers were the candidates with the greatest concerns,
wondering, and worrying whether they would be able to complete the necessary requirements for
graduation and licensure. We are in the process of seeking ethics approval for the study and
have submitted an application to the Internal Review Board.
The Data
In order to learn from these unexpected concerns and innovations, the university supervisors and
the teacher education candidates were asked to respond to four questions about their challenges,
concerns, modes of communication and lessons learned. Their insight and compassion during
unprecedented times were expressed thoughtfully and with candor in their own words. The
responses were collected, reviewed and summarized by the authors. Representative quotes were
selected for inclusion in this paper.
Questions to the Site-facilitators
1. During spring 2020 when schools closed and the practicum students and student teachers
had to complete their field experiences virtually, what were some of the biggest
challenges you faced as a site-facilitator?
2. In what ways did you interact with your candidates?
3. What were your candidates’ biggest concerns and what suggestions did you provide to
alleviate these concerns?
4. What is something you learned during this semester that you will use in the future?
1. Site-facilitators’ Responses to the Challenges
Many challenges emerged. This was a new arena for the site facilitators. In the face to face
setting, they were able to meet with the teacher candidates as a whole group; provide immediate
feedback during lessons; and speak with each candidate on a one to one basis. Now they had to
create meaningful tasks for their students as a replacement for their face to face observations, and
figure out ways mentors and the candidates could continue to provide instruction for all students
even though some did not have access to technology or the Internet. Some site facilitators were
challenged by not being able to see their students in the physical classroom environment:
34
I really enjoy seeing them teach in the learning environment and interacting with the
students. I also think that by going to the schools I get to see the school culture that each
teacher works in (A.P., 2020).
Even though there were challenges, it was comforting to know that, as one site facilitator put it:
I assured the mentors that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students
[candidates] were ready to help and I sent suggestions of things students
[candidates]could create that the mentor could send out to their students. I sent the same
suggestion to the students [candidates] and told them to offer to help in any way they
could. After an adjustment period, distance learning activities took hold and many
mentors appreciated the offer and made requests of the students [candidates] (K.H.,
2020).
Other challenges the site-facilitators faced included but were not limited to:
“Trying to answer their questions often not knowing the answers myself either”, and
“Helping students [candidates] through the unknowns as we figured out what would
count for satisfying licensure requirements (G.M-B., 2020).
Helping student teachers figure out ways they could participate in distance
learning. The mentor teachers were still figuring this out from their perspective and were
participating in eLearning to varying degrees. Another challenge the mentors and student
teachers faced was continuing distance learning for students who did not have access to
technology (J.H., 2020).
I felt it was difficult to build the relationships needed to build strong teachers,
especially the student teachers. They were looking for new jobs and guidance. Of
course, being sick didn’t help. We didn’t share as many ideas, and conversation seemed
limited (S.A., 2020).
The biggest challenges were making a transition from face to face vs virtual
instruction. My group responded remarkably. Their adaptability to the situation was, in
most instances, very swift. The biggest challenge and concern were the fulfillment of
hours” (D.S., 2020).
One of my biggest challenges was to make sure each mentor realized they still had a
responsibility for their UNLV practicum student. I wanted them to know the UNLV
students could be of help to them rather than an additional burden. At the start, mentors
were certainly in shock about how to proceed (K.H., 2020).
2. Site-facilitators Responses on Ways They Interacted with Their Candidates
Site facilitators relied on technological tools to keep the lines of communication open with their
candidates. Virtual meetings were held, phone calls were made, and texts and emails helped
connect them with their students
35
Students’ [candidates’] weekly reflections provided insights to their struggles, their questions,
and their feelings.
“Most of my productive interactions with my students [candidates] resulted from their
weekly reflections. The information that I received in their weekly reflections helped me to be
more specific in the kind of help I could offer. It also helped me pair students [candidates] up
who had similar struggles and/or successes (R.W., 2020).
“We had virtual meetings, and they did call, text, or email. The spontaneity of ideas was
limited, as individual conversations regarding common goals were missing.” (S.A.,
2020).
“I set up WebEx meetings every Monday, so students could attend and ask questions if
they wanted to.” (G.M.B., 2020).
Using a variety of communication strategies, the site facilitators gained insight into the
challenges and needs of the candidates they were working with and were able to coach them
successfully.
3. Site-facilitators Attempts to Alleviate Teacher Candidates Concerns
As the site facilitators wrestled with new concerns, they also made sure they addressed the
concerns their candidates were facing. They received concerns from the teacher candidates
ranging from having difficulty in not being able to join Google Classroom to how they were
going to be able to meet their required hours of field experience and fulfill licensure criteria, and
to how were they supposed to learn about teaching if they were not in the classroom? The
expectations of many mentors were different, so the ability of the teacher candidates to interact
with students and staff varied.
One of the biggest concerns from the teacher candidates was the students’ lack of and access to
technology.
They were concerned with adherence to strict conventional classroom conditions and
norms. All of my students [candidates] began the transition to distance education by
simply taking their classroom lessons and putting them online. They slowly began to
adapt instruction to the online format but struggled with knowing whether their students
were truly engaged. By the end of the semester they began to build richer activities
designed to keep students engaged while they were working on their own (R.W., 2020).
Virtual meetings were held with mentors, teacher candidates, and site facilitators to discuss
oncerns and come up with solutions. Two mentors created narrated videos coupled with Power
Point presentations on topics such as data, the first few weeks of school, differentiated
instruction, and classroom management. A second companion Power Point with additional links
and videos was also provided by the mentors. Flexibility with deadlines and providing additional
support whenever needed also helped ease concerns.
They wanted to be sure that they would still be able to complete their required field
experience hours as well as be prepared to have their own classroom in the fall. To
36
alleviate those fears, we had a collaborative virtual meeting with the school administrator,
the mentors, the students, and me, to address the tasks, lessons, and future meetings that
the students would engage in to complete their hours. We also continued our weekly
meetings virtually, and I added a second weekly meeting that was focused on specific
topics that the students had wanted to know more about (A.M.B., 2020).
I gave them supplemental assignments such as reading and responding to education
related articles, watching and giving feedback to other student videos, writing lesson
plans, creating video lessons and screencast lessons, and participating as much as
possible in the online forum with their mentor teachers (T.T., 2020).
4. What Site-facilitators Learned that they will use in the Future
Site facilitators learned “how to roll with the punches and just make the technology work
regardless of the circumstances.” Dendrites were growing as they learned about new technology
and programs as well as ways to use them to support their students, and the biggest takeaway
was “becoming more aware of the need for life/work balance” (G.M.B., 2020).
Terms and experiences like adaptability, creativity, perseverance, communication,
adjustment and frustration, all played a big part of their learning experience. I don’t
believe any of us (supervisors, mentors or student teachers) have ever experienced a
similar situation. This experience will truly better prepare these student teachers for the
“unknown” future (D.S., 2020).
I learned more about virtual learning and technology. For an old codger like me, that
was a huge learning curve. I confirmed that person-to-person learning is much more
powerful than technology, especially with elementary students. They love their teachers
and they need personal relationships (S.A., 2020).
“I think our students [candidates] need constant reassurance that we were there for them.
I tried to act like I was not worried about anything, and that they were doing fine---which
they were” (K.K., 2020).
I learned a few things to do in the future. Research and become familiar with
additional technology options that can be used in virtual meetings such as interactive
whiteboards or even breakout rooms. The second thing I would do would be to have the
students be part of their virtual lesson so I could provide immediate feedback (A.M.B.,
2020).
“Despite early trepidation, I was impressed with my group’s adaptability and
perseverance. I believe this horrific pandemic has provided a major learning experience
for my student teachers” (D.S., 2020).
“I learned that although classroom experience is essential, preservice teachers can hone in
on their teaching by writing detailed lesson plans and creating video lessons. I advised
several students [candidates] to implement a Flipped Classroom approach” (T.T., 2020).
37
I would make sure my students [candidates] understood that establishing a sense of
learning community and making a personal connection with students is more crucial now
than ever. I would also make sure they understood that there is so much more to on-line
learning than taking material you've provided in class and putting it online. I’d help them
adapt their lessons for an online format, choose content carefully and then build
meaningful and rich activities that keep students engaged while they are working on their
own (R.W., 2020).
I decided to add some "lists" for my students [candidates] to do for "Bonus hours"
when they were bogged down reflecting on the assigned articles. Their lists told me
some very personal and poignant things about themselves and their lives that I would
have never known. They seemed to open up about many goals, and things from their
pasts that they needed to work on. I really felt a part of their lives, and I told them some
of my teaching experiences that went along with what they shared. I always felt I got to
know my students as I visited them once a week in their schools, but we never got to the
level we got to this semester. They would say, "You probably don't know this about
me..." and then shared about their lives, their families, and their early school years and
where they grew up. The lists were my favorite part of each day of grading and often I
laughed out loud or shed a tear.” (R.B., 2020).
I learned about myself that I do not like just grading assigned work. The part I like
about being a Site Facilitator is that I can get out to the schools, visit with the P1 students,
chat with the school office staff, and see the mentors and students in action. I sat at my
computer for hours, planning my next snack and break. We all did what we needed to do
to make this semester successful (R.B., 2020).
I liked having students interact more with the Acclaim videos. I usually have a couple of
seminars where we watch Acclaim videos but having them view and comment on each
other's videos from home were also beneficial” (J.H., 2020).
After the initial shock of schools being shuttered, the site facilitators pressed forward to find
solutions to the challenges their students and mentors were facing and ways to alleviate their
concerns. Though this was something that they had never experienced before, the site facilitators
had positive takeaways that they could use in the future.
Questions to the Teacher Education Candidates
1. During spring 2020 when schools closed and you had to complete your field experiences
virtually, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
2. In what ways did you interact with your students, mentor and site facilitator?
3. What were your biggest concerns and what suggestions did you receive to alleviate these
concerns?
4. What is something you learned during this spring semester that you will use in the
future?
1. Teacher Education Candidates’ Responses to their Biggest Challenges
38
Teacher candidates faced challenges ranging from technology issues to missing their students
and concerns about their students’ well-being. These challenges tugged at their heart strings in so
many different ways.
As one candidate stated:
The biggest challenge I faced was not being able to communicate with my students face-
to-face. It was hard not being able to see their growth and to see their smiling faces every
day. I missed being in the classroom so much and it made me realize how much I really
do love being a teacher and being in the classroom” (S.J., 2020).
And another:
I knew my students wouldn’t have access to a stable food supply let alone technology to
complete any online work I assigned. The hurdle of me learning how to distance teach
was something I caught onto quickly, I was just more so worried about the safety and
well-being of my students” (M.C., 2020).
Some concerns had to do with delivering lessons.
Internet connectivity was not always reliable for teachers or students (J.N., 2020).
Determining what my role would be in relation to my mentor in continuing to be a
positive educator who is able to help the students complete their work (D.M., 2020).
Perhaps the biggest challenge was recording lessons without my students (E.L., 2020).
2. Ways the Candidates Interacted with Their Students, Mentors, and Site Facilitator
As with the site facilitators, the teacher candidates still had to interact with their students,
mentors, and site facilitators. They problem-solved this dilemma in a variety of ways. They
utilized similar technological tools to keep their lines of communication open. G Suite
applications, texts and phone calls, emails, and virtual meetings became the mainstay for staying
connected.
I interacted with my mentor teacher through text, phone calls, email, and the same G
Suite applications as my students” (A.C., 2020). “I attended virtual meetings with her
(my mentor). We coordinated on the learning material often via text or email. We would
also spend one-on-one time after each Google Meets to discuss what went right, what
went wrong, and what we could do better next time” (J.N., 2020).
3. Teacher Candidates’ Biggest Concerns and Suggestions They Were Given to Alleviate
Them
Teacher candidates often felt at a loss. They had many questions and concerns about their
students, their practice and what would be expected of them in the final weeks of the semester.
39
Student safety and nourishment became priorities. As one teacher candidate shared: “I was
concerned whether or not my students would have food and a safe home environment. Prior to
the closure, school was able to be their safe haven and also provide them with consistent meals”
(M.C., 2020).
Student learning was also on the forefront of the teacher candidates’ minds. Students who were
already behind might not be able to graduate. Some suggestions were to teach lessons over video
calls.
The students were happy to see me teach and participated in the lesson. It wasn't the
same as in person teaching at all, and I know they would have learned so much more if it
was in person. I'm glad I was still able to teach them a lesson and that they were able to
learn from it (I did a Kahoot with them at the end to see what they learned.) Overall, it
made me realize how much being in the classroom really does make a difference in the
lives of students” (J.D., 2020).
My biggest concerns were that students who were behind may not graduate and may lack
a sense of urgency sitting at home. The multiple methods of contact, along with myself
and my mentor's efforts, alleviated some of these concerns. It was still hard to get some
students to respond” (D.M., 2020).
Concerns about their own course requirements were also shared.
My greatest concern was how we would get the remaining practicum hours done with
school not taking place in the classroom, but once my mentor and I came up with a way
to accomplish remote learning, the preparation hours and collaboration hours added up
quickly (J.N., 2020).
4. What Teacher Candidates Learned from Teaching Remotely and how they would use
this Knowledge in the Future
Reflection was key to the teacher candidates as they looked to the future. Comments focused on
being ready for whatever happens in the future and being positive. They mentioned being sure to
“Always have a plan, but always stay flexible” “...whether it is in person or online instruction,
have a schedule/plan set out” (J.N., 2020).
“Organize your goals and lessons for whatever might come your way. Even if one thing
fails you will have another thing scheduled/planned right after that, keep moving
forward” (V.H., 2020).
Now knowing that “I must be ready for any adversity and be able to adapt accordingly.
Helping the students understand that life can throw us curve balls and to not give up is
important at any time, but especially during these times “(D.M., 2020).
Having the life skills of flexibility, patience, perseverance, and initiative were noted. “I've
also learned to be more flexible and more communicative with families” (E.L., 2020).
40
I learned that patience is important. So many things were unknown this semester.
There was a point where we didn't even know if we would be able to finish our student
teaching hours, which was a terrible feeling. I have learned that things aren't perfect and
that sometimes we have to be patient and wait things out, even though it may be difficult.
This will help me in the future as a teacher because I may have a student who I will try to
help and they may give up easily, but I know that patience will be key. Not giving up and
trying my best to stay positive will make things work (S.J., 2020).
I learned that I need to take the initiative to complete the Google Certification training
that provides instruction on how to use all of the G Suite applications to their full
potential so that I can be prepared to teach in any form/method when the new school year
starts (A.C., 2020).
I will start the year off (if we go back traditionally) by implementing blended learning.
One disadvantage I had during the spring semester was the fact that I hadn’t prepared my
students to learn online. I will be immediately starting with Google Classroom in the
future (M.C., 2020).
How to be flexible when teaching. You can have the best lesson plan ready to go and
all it takes is a split-second decision to completely derail that lesson plan. You need to be
ready to go with the flow as things change. I also learned many helpful tips on how to
create successful virtual lessons and videos to help students and engage with them online
(M.C., 2020).
Conclusions
Teacher education has a long and complicated history. Preparation of teachers has vastly
improved since colonial times, when anyone could be a teacher since the only qualification was
that they had been a student, to the present, when one must meet rigorous requirements for
permanent teacher certification.
With continued uncertainty, one notion has become quite clear. It is essential that teacher
preparation programs must include preparation methods to teach virtually. Forced out of familiar
comfort zones, innovation to prepare teachers for the future is necessary. Effective practitioners
need skills that are applicable for teaching and learning in both real and virtual classrooms. The
delivery system has changed (Marzano, 2017).
Is it possible that what was done in the past to prepare teachers is still viable today? In the past
and the present, experience in classrooms has been viewed as the cornerstone to learning to
teach. If teaching is indeed a complex practice, and not something that individuals will naturally
develop on their own, then teacher educators must develop new approaches for preparing
ordinary people in an extraordinarily brief amount of time, to be prepared for the challenge.”
(Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009, p. 289).
As the 2019-2020 school year ended, site facilitators, mentors and teacher candidates
breathed a sigh of relief. They had made it. Everyone looked forward to the new school year and
41
getting back into the brick-and-mortar classrooms again. Since the teacher candidates had half a
semester working with students in face-to-face classes, they felt confident that they would be
able to return to the classrooms. Site facilitators, too, looked forward to being able to work with
their assigned student teachers and practicum students in a face-to-face environment. However,
as the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year neared, returning to face-to-face teaching
appeared to not be an option for all teachers and students. Again, educators were scrambling for
ways to be effective in virtual classrooms. Teacher candidates had to become familiar with the
programs that their mentors would be using, and site facilitators had to figure out ways to
continue to support their students via ‘Zoom’ or ‘Google Meet’ classrooms rather than face to
face settings. Teaching remotely will continue to challenge all educators and may, in time, offer
unknown benefits in preparing candidates to teach.
Twenty-five years ago, Wideen (1995) noted that the radical reconceptualization of
teacher education was a must if the activity as we know it is to survive. The task of teacher
education is to seek and apply the best methods of preparing teachers and to ensure that rigorous
professional training, aligned to standards, is implemented (Johnson et al. 2018). The future of
our children demands it.
REFERENCES
Association of Teacher Educators. (2015). Standards for field experiences in teacher education
https://www.ate1.org/resources/Documents/Standards/Revised%20ATE%20Field%20Ex
perience%20StandardsII.pdf
Boyd, D., Grossman, P. L., Hammerness, K., Lankford, R. H., Loeb, S., McDonald, M.,
Reininger, M., Ronfeldt, M., & Wyckoff, J. (2008). Surveying the landscape of teacher
education in New York City: Constrained variation and the challenge of innovation.
Educational valuation and Policy Analysis, 30(4), 319–343.
https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373708322737
Grossman, Pam, Hammerness, Karen & McDonald, Morva (2009) Redefining teaching, re‐
imagining teacher education, Teachers and Teaching, 15:2, 273-289, doi:
10.1080/13540600902875340
Johnson, James A., Musial, Diann., Hall, Gene E., & Gollnick, Donna M. (2018). Foundations of
American Education: Becoming Effective Teachers in Challenging Times (17th ed.). New
York: Pearson.
Marzano, R. J. (2017) The new art and science of teaching. Solution Tree Press:
Solutiontree.com.
Wideen, M.F. (1995). Teacher Education at the Crossroads. In M. F. Wideen, & P. Grimmett.
(Eds.). Changing Times in Teacher Education, (pp. 1-16). London: Falmer Press.
42
Authors:
Lois Paretti, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; [email protected]
Linda F. Quinn, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; [email protected]
Anna Maria Behuniak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; [email protected]
Jane McCarthy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected]
43
TEACHING AND LEARNING UNDER COVID-19 IN THE
EDUCATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF
CATALONIA AND SPAIN
Josep Gallifa.
FPCEE Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University. Barcelona
Carme Amorós.
Societat Catalana de Pedagogia. Institut d’Estudis Catalans
Mireia Montané.
Col·legi Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de Catalunya
ABSTRACT
This article presents a description of the situation faced by the schools and universities of
Catalonia and Spain under the pandemic waves of COVID-19. The point of view comes from a
network of eight schools and two universities that cooperate in an international project of
educational innovation using technology for knowledge building, the Knowledge Building
International Project (KBIP). The paper also contains a presentation of the different lessons
learned and learning acquired from the disruptive lived crisis. These lessons, and the learning
from them, have the potential to change mentalities about education towards more holistic or
integral approaches that will prospectively influence teacher education.
44
TEACHING AND LEARNING UNDER COVID-19 IN THE
EDUCATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS OF
CATALONIA AND SPAIN
Introduction
As is well known, the coronavirus has led to a global pandemic known as COVID-19. At the
time of writing this paper in December 2020, more than 40 million people have been diagnosed
and infected all over the world, out of which more than a million have died. In Spain alone, there
have been more than 1 000 000 cases diagnosed and more than 35 000 deaths. Unfortunately, the
daily numbers have kept increasing. This pandemic has been terrible and caused diverse crises:
personal (suffering, sickness, death), economic (devastation of companies in some sectors),
social (people of poor neighborhoods have been more exposed), psychological (solitude, sadness,
anxiety), among others (Escolà-Gascon, et al., 2020). This, as far as we know, unprecedented
critical situation, with lockdown periods, has caused understandable fear. All of these variables
have impacted educational and higher education systems all over the world, and, of course, in
Catalonia and Spain, one of the worst affected regions of the planet.
The coronavirus crisis has reflected the weaknesses of our health, social, cultural, and political
organizations. At the onset of the pandemic, there were frequent discussions between politicians,
a lack of trust in the official figures, an inability to make quick decisions, and dictation of erratic
norms forbidding and allowing social behaviors. These actions have helped to create a situation
of community distrust. All of this has impacted education.
In this paper we will present a view of teaching and learning during the COVID-19 crisis in the
Education and Higher Education systems of Catalonia and Spain. This view is derived from a
network of eight primary and secondary schools and two universities from Catalonia that
cooperate in an educational innovation: the Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP).
This is a global project that involves schools and universities from countries all over the world,
led by the University of Toronto in Canada. The node of Catalonia is known as ‘Com Conèixer’.
We will present, from the perspective of that network, the evolution of education and higher
education systems under pandemic in our context. We will include a view, not only about the
schools and universities of the Catalan KBIP network but also about the general situation of
many schools and universities from our context. The purpose is to extract lessons and learning of
these crises to continue innovating in Education and Higher Education, and to be preparing the
post-pandemic times, having in mind teaching and learning in a global context, and teacher
education.
The First Wave: Reactive Education Emergency
In response to the coronavirus crisis, in the second week of March, the government of Spain
decreed a precipitated lockdown that proposed closing schools and that all students of all levels
had to stay at home. In the beginning, it gave the impression that would be only for a few days.
Some of the schools didn’t start special activities, because they were thinking that in a few days
school activities could be resumed. Nevertheless, with the passing of the days, the educational
45
sector realized that the health crisis was more serious and deeper than expected and the
lockdown was continuing. Emergency solutions were implemented.
In the implementation of emergency teaching solutions, the situation of the schools was unequal.
Some schools changed quickly to online teaching, but others couldn’t do it because of different
kinds of situations and limitations. Although computer use is very generalized in secondary
schools, it isn’t in primary schools, and on the other hand, home wifi was not available in every
family. The creativity of many teachers was in jeopardy. They had to contact children and
families and make individual efforts to solve day-to-day problems. These efforts of teachers and
schools made possible emergency solutions to guarantee minimum work during that long period.
Regular teaching did not recover until the next school year.
The situation of the universities also varied. The general situation was that the faculty changed to
online teaching as an emergency solution. In this case, it was more effective than schools,
because computer use is generalized and, although wifi reception problems were an issue for
some, at least almost all the students could make contact online via mobile, which is a common
device owned by university students.
Some universities gave freedom to teachers to continue teaching the way they wanted: Online
recorded classes, on-line simultaneous classes - as they were in the classroom, facilitation to the
students, some materials to read, etc. In some cases, the university decided to continue classes
with the same schedule but teaching on-line. That solution, although not very innovative, helped
students to better organize their home schedules under lockdown. Every faculty was affected,
including those more enthusiastic about technology, and those more reluctant to introduce it. In
very few days all had moved to online teaching. The system had made a complete and incredible
change.
In this period all academic acts, international conferences, research meetings, etc. were affected
and had to be moved online or postponed.
Results and lessons from the first wave
Many crises have been interconnected: health crisis, economic crisis, a crisis of unemployment,
and political and social crises (Escolà-Gascon et al., 2020). Faced with a very difficult situation
for many, in general, teachers in schools and faculty in universities did a great job. Educational
administrators and government agents had to respond with unprecedented measures to adjust
institutions to the novelty of the situation. When the school year was over, much new learning
had taken place but many more learning had not been produced and had been left behind. The
responsiveness of educational systems and institutions was tested. This very uncommon situation
caused, as a general result, a reduction in the content learned. The home situation, especially in
the younger students, determined if they took more or less advantage of the situation.
Educationally, that break was not necessarily completely bad. The biggest opportunity to interact
inside the family, with parents that were often doing telework, allowed the reinforcement of
emotional bonds, which are important for developing self-esteem and basic trust (Salvà et al.,
2015). These elements are important to consolidate future motivation towards learning. On the
46
other hand, students had to be responsive to learning. There were weaknesses, but students had to
be self-engaged in learning. This caused, for sure, many good experiences, that can be built upon
them in the future. The opposite case was possible, too. The case where things became worse,
but in these cases the associated problems, for example at the familiar environment, were already
there.
New common problems appeared such as the need, in many cases, to cope with death or sickness
of known people. In some cases, grandparents died, or a close member of the family was
infected. These were hard situations to cope with. Other difficult situations were loneliness or not
having the possibility to visit family members. COVID-19 was a situation of high psychological
risk (Escolà-Gascón et al., 2020). Social networks had a role to play.
On the other hand, the country opened first of all bars and restaurants, then schools and
universities, which was a very clear symptom of what were the social priorities. Nevertheless,
after that period, people in the European summer took consciousness of the importance to safely
open the schools in September. Educational issues were debated in the media as never before.
After all, people started to recognize that schools and universities were a social priority.
Another issue was the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children of more vulnerable
environments. This is one aspect that deserves special attention. Teachers of schools in these
environments reported that between 30% and 40% of the children in these schools missed the
year. This meant for them a significant delay that has been difficult to recover. The Jaume Bofill
Foundation did a call to make an effort to have an enriching summer for the shortcomings and
inequalities of a considerable number of children, which in Catalonia was estimated at 300,000.
They were asking for support from the town-city councils, proposing that they should guarantee
80 hours of educational activities to vulnerable students in the summer. In many cases that call
was followed.
During this time, many summer camps, and leisure activities were offered, such as those
organized by the Pere Tarrés Foundation, who called for a solidarity campaign that no children
were left out of an enriching summer. The Schools of Peace of the Community of Sant’Egidio,
proposed a Summer School with young volunteers to help the children to recover the months of
school lost. They were based on Milani’s pedagogy in Barbiana, which showed that when there
is interest in the person, and children feel accepted and loved, their motivation to learn increases.
In those summer schools, every young volunteer took care of a child, providing summer books to
encourage them to not give up and to re-engage in the educational process. It is also very
important to highlight how, in addition to the benefits for children, these enriched leisure
activities were a first-rate training element also for the young people who organized and
participated in them. These days, hundreds of summer camps, leisure activities, and scout groups
were doing such activities all over Catalonia, intended to repair at least some of what the most
vulnerable children had lost during the COVID-19 school closures. It was a very good job.
Universities, and especially Teacher Education Colleges, have an educational mission.
Effectively, their mission is not just transmitting knowledge, but providing a more integral
education for young students. And that had to be maintained. For this reason, small group
seminars were organized online, which turned out to be a very enriching space in this situation of
47
confinement for students to share different experiences: fears, loneliness, sadness, difficult
situations nearby, etc. Seminars became a necessary reception structure in these times of anxiety
and worry. The universities carried out online tutorships and personal or vocational guidance
services. Perhaps the confinement situation helped to value personal contact. The psychological
counseling services were also playing a key role, providing emotional support to students who
required it. Some faculties of sports helped to organize a physical activity in confinement. The
service of pedagogical innovation through ICT was very active, for obvious reasons. However,
not only personal care services but all services continued to be offered electronically: the library
service, the Registrar’s Office service, the computer service, the guidance and pre-registration
services, etc. There had also to be organized online the information sessions for prospective
students of the next year. This was another difficulty for admission offices; to be present for
prospective students and their families online. Christian-inspired universities, in the network,
offered services of University Pastoral Care in an online mode, giving spiritual support to
students, their families, and the whole university community to support difficult times of
sickness and death. Dialogues in webinar format were organized with experts about the effects
of the confinement situation.
Universities are also participatory institutions. A key role was being played by the delegates of
the different studies, who were meeting frequently with academic administrations and were
talking to other students, to adapt and resolve the needs that arose in the different groups. The
organization of online exams was currently also managed and resolved. Students, on the other
hand, had also become experts in ‘Google meet’, ‘Zoom’, ‘MS Teams’, or ’Skype’, with digital
competence to self-organize for small group work, frequent at our Colleges of Education, and for
coordination of meetings. In general, there was a good commitment and co-responsibility in the
teamwork and the awareness of being part of an organized group.
One activity that was also fully affected was research. The laboratories and science parks of
colleagues who are in more experimental fields had to interrupt their work and had to pass to be
doing telework. Some laboratories also collaborated in coronavirus research. A procedure was
established to defend research projects and even doctoral theses were defended online!
It was a time that required a special dedication of people with service and management
responsibilities, which had been fundamental, starting with the rectors who participated in
coordination meetings with other universities, but also the teams, the boards of directors, the
deans, the directors, etc. Regulations were adopted, taking into account situations, talking with
students and families, changing protocols, and implementing teacher-training processes. And all
was done from the limitations of the situation of everyone being confined in their own home!
All these efforts and actions were aimed to preserve –and enrich if possible – the university life
of the essential protagonists of the university: the students. With all the difficulties, universities
were satisfied to have maintained the university spirit that sits above all the collaboration and
learning established between teachers and students, forming an academic community. In this
situation of confinement, it was working with solidarity and co-responsibility. We could not
change the external situation but could decide how, in an organized way, to respond. Despite the
problems, in general, faculty maintained the University spirit.
48
Second wave: Planned education and research under pandemic
The summer was expected to be coronavirus-free after all the efforts made with the strict
lockdown and the period of slowly returning from the confinement. Experts, politicians, and
people expected new waves might emerge in the autumn. But things didn't go that way. In June –
July new unpredicted waves were detected in Catalonia, and new selective quarantines were
imposed on the population. This prompt new appearance of the virus meant that schools and
universities prepared the beginning of the new academic year with the adaptation of spaces and
strict sanitary protocols. At the same time, during the summer, the media discussed daily the
beginning of school activity in September. A huge social consciousness raised big expectations.
The school and university administrators and teachers had to work hard during the summer to
adopt strict measures to protect the health of all as the priority. Teaching at schools and
universities was prepared with strict protocols. The spaces changed, and strict norms were
communicated to students and families: wearing of masks, maintaining a ‘social distance’, and
ventilation of the classrooms, frequent handwashing with hydro-alcohol, control of temperature
in some cases, and bubble groups. At the first symptom of one of the members, the PCR test and
quarantine for all the group members were applied. These measures were supervised by health
authorities and allowed the quick detection of cases. The year was initiated with relative
normality having to follow a quarantine of 2% of groups in the first two months.
Some universities adapted the classrooms to blended or mixed modalities of teaching and
learning. Classrooms were equipped with cameras and microphones, faculty taught in more
reduced groups, having half group in the classroom and the other half at home following the
classes online, but with the possibility of interacting and participating, and changing the half of
the group at the classroom in the next class. This guaranteed the minimum presence of half of the
groups while the other half was participating online. Students, in general, said that they valued
and preferred university attendance than online teaching.
Of course, schools and universities had ‘B plans’. Very soon some groups needed to quarantine.
Online teaching, ’survival kits’, had to be applied, as had been prepared.
The current health crisis highlighted the importance of research in the field of health sciences
and health professions. Society as a whole is becoming more aware than ever of the need to
invest in research. However, public opinion is not always aware of the relevance of research in
humanities (Gallifa, 2018b, 2018c.). Our Colleges of Education changed completely their
research priorities and adapted them to the situation.
The lockdown had some negative impacts on research. For example, one of our universities had
to host a European Conference at the end of June, had already selected the ‘abstracts’, and started
the registration. The Conference had to be postponed and in part was celebrated online. Another
activity affected was European projects in the framework of the 2020 Horizon. A group of our
universities, for example, was forming a European consortium with institutions from various
countries. However, as with most hospitals and companies in the healthcare sector, the work had
to be postponed because hospitals and companies changed priorities. For example, a
multinational company that collaborated with that consortium had to dedicate their time to
49
import medical supplies from China instead of applying for a research project, so this project was
also abandoned. But not all happenings were cancellations. The current crisis made it possible to
start or reorient new research projects related to the health crisis. In this sense, research groups
applied for special funds at the national or European level.
Another activity common in universities is knowledge transfer. These activities were also
altered. The Psychological Guidance Services had to take care of students and families in the
difficult situations caused by the crisis experience, listening, accompanying, guiding, helping
teachers to individualized responses to the various circumstances that arose. They were doing
external activity giving psychological support to members of health professions.
University researchers participated in some counseling activities, special publications or
webinars online, in aspects such as the following: Addictions to technology and video games,
care for the elderly, children's play, the relevance of family bonds, online psychological
assistance, teleworking, comprehensive training or even the mission of the university. All of
these topics are coronavirus affected or related. Faculty did all this confined at home! Despite
this difficult situation, there was a great deal of activity and response to the situation. The
confinement also activated research. In the health, economic and social crises we are living in,
alongside the necessary medical research, research in the humanities is also very necessary.
Researchers changed priorities. In the social sciences and education, the same happened.
Services adaptation was another of the features of these crises. In the second wave, it was
impossible to be infected inside the campuses. All the educational spaces had hydro-alcoholic gel
dispensers, arrows with directions, chairs allocated with space between them. All the services
were adapted: Libraries, Admission offices, Registrar’s offices, and computer services, of course.
All of the administration staff had to work hard to ensure everything was working under these
circumstances. Service quality is an important dimension of the overall quality of a university
(Gallifa & Batallé, 2010).
All through that the corona curve grew too much, especially among young people. New
confinement was decreed in the middle of October in Universities. Not at schools, because to
close schools could cause a big social associated problem with parents that work and do not have
the time nor economical resources to take care of children during business hours. Moreover,
children, unlike young students, don’t have a social activity after class, which was considered the
main cause of infection.
This was not an exciting time for administrative positions. When a protocol was decided,
different circumstances made it necessary to be adopting new protocols. Norms and more norms,
communication with families, attention to extreme cases for exceptions, were common and
stressful situations.
Lessons and learning from the new outbreaks and second waves
Despite the mentioned difficulties, there was deep learning from these situations which continue
to unfold. COVID-19 has been a kind of phenomenon that has caused a big life disruption. A
metaphor for this disruption is a big fire in the night with the blaze of flames illuminating some
50
dark rooms. Inside the rooms, there is dust and accumulated junk that we were not aware of.
Now, this natural catastrophe is making us aware of the accumulation of things. Now we are
more conscious of things that are disordered, or we don’t need, in all the rooms: economic,
cultural, professional, familiar, educational, even personal and spiritual. And now we can decide
to make conscious changes. We can clean, order, and prepare ourselves for the new day after the
fire is extinguished, and a new day starts.
Confrontation is very profound and gives all people involved in education opportunities to share
our common humanity. Consciousness about the environment and the need for sustainable
development, as is expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the Agenda 2030
(UN General Assembly, 2015). Acknowledgment of social issues that are associated causes of
suffering in these times, the need for protection of more fragile people: Ageing population, sick
people in hospitals, the need for an efficient National Health system, the need of state support for
unemployment associated with these crises. All of these issues are important and need to be
worked out at different educational levels. Education can be truly educative, not only
instructive, that means related to life, life in itself, as Dewey envisioned.
COVID-19 has presented a lot of opportunities to transform education. For instance, moving
from teaching in classrooms to teaching on-line. At the beginning reproducing synchronous
activities as an emergency, to a more planned approach, optimizing online apps to facilitate
processes that could be difficult to be reproduced in a face-to-face classroom. Nevertheless, it is
necessary “to determine the purpose innovation serves, especially in relation to providing
benefits for the learner” (Shelly et al., 2017, p. 9).
One example of innovation is the Knowledge Building International Project, the previously-
mentioned one that involves the eight schools and the universities of Catalonia that participate in
this international project of innovation centered on Knowledge Building using technology.
In the information societies in which we live, knowledge creation and use is a critical issue for
socioeconomic development. Distributed expertise and networked activities characterize the
emerging type of work (Järvelä, et al. 2001). This trend has been affecting the development of
educational methods. In this development, computers play an important role as tools for
restructuring teaching-learning processes to be better prepared for future challenges (Järvelä, et
al. 2001). “Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is one of the most promising
innovations to improve teaching and learning with the help of modern information and
communication technology” (Järvelä, et al. 2001, p. 365). Pedagogy, technology, content, and
context are four dimensions that have to be combined in an integrated approach of teaching with
technologies because they are interdependent (Harris, Mishra, & Koehler, 2009). All of this
became more crucial under COVID-19.
The Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP) is an international project initiated by
Canadian cognitive psychologists Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter (Scardamalia &
Bereiter, 2006, 2014). This approach combines the psychological constructivist principles of
knowledge building with the use of technology in a concrete platform, the Knowledge Forum,
which allows cooperative learning for knowledge creation. The Knowledge Forum facilitates a
51
higher-level representation or organization of ideas. The purpose of the project is to help children
to create knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2010).
The KBIP allows the connection between different networks of schools. The international
coordination of the different networks is done from the Institute for Knowledge Innovation and
Technology (IKIT), located at the University of Toronto, from where there is a continuous
improvement of the technological platform to support the construction of knowledge
(Knowledge Forum). Every year, different international face-to-face activities were organized,
such as the ‘Knowledge Building Summer Institute’, which this year also had to be postponed to
November and was celebrated online. This modality had greater organizational complexity but
also allowed the online participation of more attendees from different countries.
Figure 1.0. KB Knowledge communities around the world.
Source: https://kbip.co/en/where_we_are.html
In Catalonia, the node of Spain, eight schools and two universities cooperated, as has been
explained, in the international KBIP project, renamed with the Catalan acronym
“COMconèixer”. The network of the eight schools in Catalonia has the support of the “Col·legi
Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de Catalunya” (CDL), a
center for teacher professional development that offers different resources of Continuing
Education, and co-responsible for the organization of the Fourth WFATE Biannual Conference,
in Barcelona. Two evaluations of the ’COMconèixer’ experience had been completed (Consell
Superior d’Avaluació del Sistema Educatiu de Catalunya, 2006, 2015) in an ongoing process of
continuous improvement. In the situation of the pandemic, the creative use of technology
supposed that the KBIP project was more necessary than ever, because of the connection
between technology and cooperative knowledge building.
52
Another important lesson is about social inequities. These crises – health, economic, labor and
jobs, educational – affect diverse groups that live in our societies and are interrelated (Azkarraga
& Gallifa, 2016). Although the virus affects all humans the consequences of the pandemic and its
effects differ depending on the human group of belonging. More consciousness of the inequities
has to increase the educational predisposition to educate for equity.
Experts have stated that faculty members, and people in general, advanced very much in
acquiring digital competences in the COVID-19 lockdown (Gisbert & Prats, 2020). The new
school year, which began with a combination of face-to-face learning using digital resources, had
as an essential aim to be protecting the health of young people. It was a priority for teachers and
administrative and service staff, as it has learnt to live with the current limitations while
regaining some normalcy. "Blended learning", hybrid learning, or multimodal learning was
generalized. This kind of learning goes beyond taking online classes and tries to incorporate
various pedagogical techniques, some face-to-face, others online, to get the most out of
technology. That is why teachers were being quickly trained so that this new modality became a
reality from September in the universities. Also, some of the techniques that were applied came
to rest and transform some aspects of university teaching. If universities have to prepare young
people for their futures, they cannot miss some of these techniques and ways of learning and
working.
French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Boris Cyrulnik, known for his work on emotional bonds
and resilience, explains in a recent interview (Cyrulnik, 2020), how the screen, which improves
communication, also alters human relationships. Explains Cyrulnik, we already had less human
contact before the pandemic. When we communicate very continuously on-screen or applications
like Whatsapp, as young people do, says Cyrulnik, the human relationship is deteriorated and
damaged. “I have seen - he goes on - that 40% of young people do not answer their mobile phone
when they see their parents calling them, but say that they love them. They love them but there is
no longer any relationship with them” (Cyrulnik, 2020). It is a wake-up call from the expert in
emotional bonds on the emergence of screens in more and more aspects of our lives.
Cyrulnik (2020) is not pessimistic, as he also states in the same interview, that he believes that
after the pandemic there will be an explosion of relationships, associations, places of dialogue,
following the logic of this fundamental human need to establish personal bonds. Educational
professions have to be careful to know how to channel it. So it is unlikely that screens can
replace the face-to-face quality of relationships, although we need to keep their potential in mind.
In the meantime, we hope that this explosion of relationships to which Cyrulnik refers is delayed
a little bit, waiting for coronavirus to be well controlled!
Conclusion
The pandemic has affected education and universities, but also the general systems of values, and
was a potential situation to extract lessons and learning. This article explored the first and second
waves in Spain and their effects on the educational and university systems. Spain has been one of
the more affected countries. Nevertheless, that bad situation has been a learning opportunity.
Especially relevant will be to understand that all the dimensions are interrelated: The natural,
health, social, jobs, culture, technique, and even personal dimensions. All these situations
53
predispose towards holistic consciousness, which is the basis for holistic education (Gallifa,
2018), as well as for using new modalities for thinking about the problems of our world and
reality, as in integral thinking (Gallifa, 2019) a need for a more integral education in our
common world. It is a trend that has relevance and will play a role in the evolution of teacher
education.
REFERENCES
Azkarraga, J., & Gallifa, J. (2016). Mindfulness y transformación ecosocial. Revista
interuniversitaria de formación del profesorado, 87(30.3), 123-133.
Consell Superior d’Avaluació del Sistema Educatiu de Catalunya. (2006). Avaluació del projecte
COMconèixer. L'aprenentatge a través de comunitats virtuals. Documents. N. 8. Barcelona: Consell
Superior d’Avaluació, Generalitat de Catalunya.
Consell Superior d’Avaluació del Sistema Educatiu de Catalunya (2015). Avaluació del Projecte
COMconèixer 2014. Documents. N. 32. Barcelona: Consell Superior d’Avaluació, Generalitat de
Catalunya.
Cyrulnik, B. (2020). Après l'épidémie, il y aura une explosion de relations. L’Illustré. Retrieved from
https://www.illustre.ch/magazine/boris-cyrulnik-apres-lepidemie-y-aura-une-explosion-relations
Escolà-Gascón, A., Marín, F. X., Rusiñol, J., & Gallifa, J. (2020). Pseudoscientific beliefs and
psychopathological risks increase after COVID-19 social quarantine. Globalization and Health.
16(72). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00603-1
Gallifa, J. (2018). Holonic theory and holistic education. Journal of International Education and
Practice, 1(1), 36-46 DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jiep.v1i1.415
Gallifa, J. (2018b). Paradigms and methodologies for knowledge building. Review of Educational
Theory, 1(3), 70-81
Gallifa, J. (2018c). Research traditions in social sciences and their methodological rationales. Aloma,
Revista de Psicologia, Ciències de l’Eduació i de l’Esport, 36(2), 9-20.
Gallifa, J. (2019). Integral thinking and its application to integral education. Journal of International
Education and Practice, 2(1), 15-27 DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/jiep.v2i1.603
Gallifa, J., & Batallé, P. (2010). Student perceptions of service quality in a multi-campus higher
education system in Spain. Quality Assurance in Education, 18(2), 156-170.
Gisbert, M., & Prats, M. A. (2020). El coronavirus ha aumentado las competencias digitales de la
ciutadania. Educaweb. Retrieved from: https://www.educaweb.com/noticia/2020/09/16/coronavirus-
ha-aumentado-competencias-digitales-ciudadania-19299/
54
Harris, J., Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2009). Teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge
and learning activity types, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(4), 393-
416, DOI: 10.1080/15391523.2009.10782536
Järvelä, S., Hakkarainen, K. , Lehtinen, E., & Lipponen, L. (2001). Creating Computer-supported
Collaborative Learning (CSCL) culture in Finnish schools: Research perspectives on sociocognitive
effects. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 11
(4/5/6), 365-374.
Knowledge Building International Project (2020, December 20) Where we are. Schools participating in
the project. https://kbip.co/en/where_we_are.html
Salvà, A., Postigo, S., & Gallifa, J. (2015). Identidad y sentido. Nous. Boletín de Logoterapia y
Análisis Existencial, 19, 93-110.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K.
Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 97-118). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2010). A brief history of knowledge building. Canadian Journal of
Learning and Technology/La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie, 36(1), 1-16
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2014). Knowledge building and knowledge creation: Theory,
pedagogy and technology. In The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 397-417). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Shelly, A., Gallifa, J., Amorós, C., Lund, S. (2017). Syntesis document of the fourth biennial
international conference innovation in teacher education within a global context”. Journal of the
World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education, 1(3b), 6-11.
UN General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable
development. Report No. A/RES/70/1. Retrieved from:
https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcom
pact/A_RES_70_1_E.pdf
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Josep Gallifa is full professor at FPCEE Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University in Barcelona. He
conducts research on Higher Education and on Integral Development. E-mail is:
Carme Amorós. Societat Catalana de Pedagogia. Institut d’Estudis Catalans. She works in the
network of educational innovation Knowledge Building International Project (KBIP). E-mail is:
55
Mireia Montané. Col·legi Oficial de Doctors i Llicenciats en Filosofia i Lletres i en Ciències de
Catalunya. WFATE Past President. She coordinates the Knowledge Building International
Project (KBIP) in Catalonia. E-mail is: [email protected]
56
LEARING IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: CHILDREN’S ART AND
CREATIVITY WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Maxine Cooper
Adjunct Researcher, Federation University, Australia.
ABSTRACT:
A public health emergency of international concern was declared on 30 January 2020 by the
World Health Organisation. Then on 11 March 2020 it was characterised as a global pandemic.
This led to great political, social and economic upheaval with challenging medical and health
concerns worldwide. Learning, socialising, travelling, businesses and families and children
everywhere children have been affected in a myriad of ways and consequently the governments
in all countries have adopted different responses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect on the state of Victoria, Australia and the
city of Melbourne. Two waves of COVID restrictions in Melbourne have led to some of the very
strict sanctions that have affected families and people of all ages. Children and their learning
possibilities have been constrained with childcare centres and schools closed and children
required to stay at home. Travel was limited to 5 kilometres from home. People were confined to
their homes except for essential services. The lockdown was declared from 29 February 2020
and it was only eased when ‘Melbourne’s 25 km ‘ring of steel’ was ended on 9 November’
(Tsirtsakis 2020).
This paper is based on an ethnographic study which examined a small group of children and
families/carers who did a range of creative activities together on-line. The activity was a
celebration of 2020 Children’s Day and was funded by the Victorian Education Department.
Participants’ responses, including those from artists/performers, children, and family and carers
responses are documented and reflected upon. ‘Making art and connecting with new friends
online’ was the official title of the project. It was conducted using a web-based video
conferencing tool and it had a range of positive and not so positive elements that will be
reported.
Life is simple. Include. Be kind, help the world journey on. Why? Because you can make a
difference. You can start or continue a chain like others have done before you. Show your
emotions and be kind. That’s what matters most. Bringing things together it forms happiness, all
you have to do is work together and be kind. (Tartakover et al., 2015)
57
LEARNIG IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: CHILDREN’S ART AND
CREATIVITY WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Introduction
This article is a report about a creative art and learning project involving 5 artists/performers and
a number of children whose ages ranged from one child who was nearly 2 years old, one child
who was 4, another 6, another 7 years old and then there were two 11 year old children. For the
purposes of this paper we will focus on 5 of the artists and 6 of the children and their learning
and visual and emotional responses to these creative online activities. The children and the artists
came from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Drawing on
Bourdieu’s work on agency, habitus, and social and cultural capital, this qualitative research
explores how intercultural experiences contribute to the individual’s developing identity, sense
of agency and inclusion in a local and global context. Through this exploratory and ethnographic
study, we will examine how the children and the families/carers, and the artists experienced the
online activities in diverse and adventurous ways. The main focus is on the creative learnings of
the children and the artists involved and their feelings in this time of creativity in the pandemic.
Critical pedagogy principles have been applied in the research and participants were encouraged
to critically reflect on their personal and creative experiences and their personal journeys as they
explored their identities as artists and creative learners. Pseudonyms have been used throughout
for the children however, the artists have all agreed to have their names used in this research.
Art made by community members has something to say about culture, belonging, history
and how we know ourselves and each other and these things are not often represented in
public space. (Quadri, 2015, p. 386)
The context
The 2020 Children’s Week celebration in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia drew, in particular, on
the idea that children have human rights too. Article 15 of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child states that “Children have the right to meet with other children and young
people and to join groups and organisations, as long as this does not stop other people from
enjoying their rights” (UNICEF, 2021). Therefore, this project is based around the idea that all
children have the right to join beneficial groups and to make friends.
This paper begins with my reflections since the first cases of coronavirus were detected in
Melbourne, Australia, and the city was effectively shut down. The Premier of the State of
Victoria, Daniel Andrews, declared a state of emergency through two waves of the pandemic,
commencing in March 2020 and again in July 2020.
The Melbourne lockdown was, globally, one of the most severe of all responses to the pandemic,
after the first and the second COVID-19 waves swept through the city. At the time of writing
this paper in December 2020, Melbourne had survived over 7,000 cases, over 800 deaths and had
over 28 days of no new cases, and no active transmission so Victorians were celebrating what
was defined as ’the elimination of COVID-19 in the community.’ It is not called eradication yet.
58
However, since the first case was recorded on 25 January 2020, the people of Melbourne have
spent many months in isolation and lockdown and the diverse population of the city has suffered
in complex ways. For example, families and children have been challenged in their everyday
lives. Children were told to stay home from school and childcare and their learning was limited
in many ways. They were only able to spend time with friends and classmates using digital
technologies.
Just prior to the beginning of the pandemic, in November 2019, I visited a rural school in a
remote part Madyha Pradesh, India. While I was in this remote rural school I met with the
principal, the teachers and some of the students and I was very impressed with the wonderful
artwork that clearly inspired the children in their learning. So then, when I went into isolation
back in my home in Melbourne in March 2020, I started to think about painting and art again. I
had an art exhibition with some children and their artwork and was inspired to apply for a grant
when I saw that the Victorian Education Department was offering 2020 Children’s Week grants
to celebrate the rights of children. In July 2020 I submitted an application on behalf of The
Victorian Friends Centre Quakers Australia. The theme I developed was making art and
connecting with new friends. However, Melbourne as a city was then declared to be in a state of
emergency and businesses were locked down. We were all confined to our homes to try to
control the spread of COVID-19.
I then received an email to say that my application to Celebrate 2020 Children’s Day was
accepted for funding but, because of the strict COVID-19 regulations, I had to apply again doing
all the activities online. Therefore, I took some time to reapply with the new title which was
called ‘Connecting creatively with new friends online’. This paper is based on a report of the
activity that I conducted on 31 October 2020 from the courtyard and the children's room at the
Victorian Friends Centre in West Melbourne. These activities involved five artists and myself
offering a range of activities over Zoom, a web-based video conferencing tool that aimed to
inspire the children to think about documenting how they were kind to each other and how they
made new friends and what their feelings were in all this.
Research questions
In trying to be creative and to act positively on the numerous challenges happening in the
pandemic I decided to consider the following three research questions for this project:
Did the activities provided stimulate the children to learn and create new art works?
How can we encourage and stimulate the children’s creativity in times of pandemic stress? What were the main artistic and other outcomes of the 2020 Children’s Day activities at Friends
House in Melbourne?
Methodology
This research is based on a qualitative, mixed method research design grounded in the
interpretative tradition. A case study approach (Berg, 2007) is used where the narratives of the
participants are explored in some detail. How the participants interpret and negotiate the
challenges in their own contexts, exploring and developing ideas of creativity with their family
and friends, is the main focus of this project. The data was collected through listening, observing
59
the activities and analyzing the artistic products and reflections by myself and others of the
learnings involved. This is a form of narrative inquiry that goes back to the theoretical and
educational works of John Dewey. Narratives help explain the knowledge of relating people’s
experiences in common social contexts (Bruner, 1991). Toledano and Anderson, have written
that:
Because the narrative method places personal experience at the heart of research, the
epistemology of knowledge is knowledge about experience. Narrative epistemology can
this be viewed as the ways that individuals enact and represent their meanings and
understandings of their life worlds through their personal experiences (past, ongoing and
future). (Toledano & Anderson, 2017, p. 304)
Reflexiveness and practical thinking emerged from this process. This takes different forms at
different levels as we respond emotionally to lived experiences and practical reflections that
guide our future actions (Toledano et al, 2020). So, in this case tentative patterns of meaning
emerge, and this is what is being documented in this paper. New knowledge and better
understandings may emerge in this form of self-reflexive process. This is likely to involve
empathetic relationships established among individuals and, in this particular case, amongst
families and naming new friends. We need to understand and accept that there is nothing
standard about the journey of learning and creativity for children and that being with new friends
is a legitimate way of being and becoming in a time of pandemic crisis for children throughout
the world.
Data and analysis of the adults and the children involved in the activities
The data was collected through participant observation of the activities, recoding of the web-
based video conferencing activities. Also notes and observations of the children doing their
activities and the responses given by the children and the parents/carers and artists on the day of
the activity and in the days and weeks of physical isolation following the activity were used as
data.
Firstly, using the notes I made on the day and after watching video conference as it was recorded
on the day of Saturday 31 October 2020. Each of the invited artists presented over video
conference. The artists were:
Debbie Harman Qadri is an artist, and teacher who works with ceramics, mosaics, paints,
draws cartoons, and does public and community art. Debbie showed the children how to make
simple peg or stick dolls, as well as making a cardboard box she cut and turned inside out to
make a theatre for the peg dolls and also how to make other simple decorations for any type of
celebrations.
David Chandler is a magician and storyteller who loves performing for diverse groups, young
and old and everything in-between. He is an engaging performer who adores magic and wonder,
in whatever form it comes. On the day David video conferenced with the children and showed
them how to do magic with colorful scarves and little foam stars, he read them a story about
60
friends and family with beautiful illustrations and he got the children to do some singing with
their microphones switched off.
Anne Brown is a teacher and an artist and loves to do gardening, reading and thinking. On the
day over video conference Anne showed the children how to make simple pot plants out of glass
jars with soil and pebbles and then demonstrated how to plant some succulents in the pots so
they would last for many years.
Sharee Harper is an artist and botanist who specializes in plant usage of Aboriginal People in
South Eastern Australia for food, medicine, tools and fibre and makes children’s books. On 2020
Children’s Day Sharee demonstrated to the children how to write and draw a simple story book
about their family and friends and the activities the children liked to do with them. She showed
them some beautifully illustrated children’s books over video conference.
So, this report will include some of the outcomes of the activities conducted over Zoom on the
day and the feelings and reflections of the children and other participants involved.
The actual notes taken after observing the recording of the artists’ presentations of the day
reminded me how much fun that they were each having by learning about what they were doing.
The artists were challenged in different ways by the ways the cameras and the shadows from
their cameras meant sometimes they had to re-position themselves and admit they had made a
mistake, or had dropped something or couldn’t find something. David even joked that what
happened was ‘Zoom doing magic’. It was certainly challenging for me to make sure I was in
the camera as needed, and I didn’t stumble too much with my words and my actions when I had
to sit on small children’s chairs and move the computer around at times to be both seen and
heard when necessary. I do think the children enjoyed seeing the diverse range of adults
present, the way the adults showed they were still learning new things and the amazing variety of
creative activities presented in simple but stimulating ways.
Secondly, we will examine the children as they were involved on the day.
Miriam is a toddler who was one year and 11 months old on the day of the 2020 Children’s
Week Activity. She joined in all the activities and made a paper person and we stuck it on a
stick. She made a spoon person, put some soil and stones in glass jar and potted a plant and she
watched the video conferenced presentation with the magician, singer and storyteller, David for
most of the time. There were times when she was distracted by other people however, I was
surprised how involved she was with each activity. Since that time she has also made a small
pottery person that she called by her own name of Miriam and she made a little pottery dog
called after her pet Labrador dog that she loves as a part of her own family. She also drew a
picture of her daddy with a head, body and eyes and she did some circles with red paint and
black and white eyes which she calls Elmo, who is like her doll and the character on the
television program Sesame Street. So, she certainly sees her family as consisting of her mother,
father, her pet dog and her toys such as Elmo and her toy koala that she also draws pictures of
when she can. Mostly she draws dots and dashes and paints circles and eyes, and she calls the
shapes different types of animals like whales, dolphins and fishes. She does enjoy doing art,
making shapes with colors and various mediums and her approach to art has inspired me to learn
61
more about how little children can be creative with words, colors. dance movements and song
and making loud drumming noises.
Lorel is aged 7. She lives with her great grandma who is her carer. So, there are many
generations in her family and Lorel was thrilled to be able to make her first book as a follow up
to the Zoom meeting. The words and the pictures she drew in her book indicated what she does
in her everyday activities. The first page of her book has a picture of a child labelled ‘Me’, a
woman named Nan, a smaller girl labelled Violet and a woman called mum and a man called
dad. The second page of her book has a picture of two children playing on some swings with the
words ‘this is me and Violet we like to go to the swings’. The next page has a drawing of herself
holding a parcel and a woman who she indicates is her nan with the words ‘I like to go shopping
with nan.’ The next page is a simple drawing of a school and the words are ‘I like to go to school
and to see Miss M’. The next page is a drawing of a slide, a set of monkey bars and a frame
from a playground and the words are, ‘I like to go to the playground with mum.’ The last page is
a drawing of a house and a car and the words are ‘I like to see Shree.’ Sharee is the artist and
children’s book maker who was a participant of the online presentation on the 2020 Children’s
Day video conferenced program.
Sharee was able to give me her story about what Lorel was doing and thinking as she created her
book about her family. As Sharee explained Diana’s granddaughters are in her care:
Seven-year-old Lorel was inspired to do the book after my sharing the workshop event
with her and Diana. They couldn’t make it to the Zoom at that time but I talked about
what happened in the workshop that afternoon when I visited them and showed them the
book I’d produced. I gave a similar talk to Lorel and Diana, as I did during the Zoom,
about how to make a book and showed them the one I’d produced during the Zoom event
so … .it was inspired by that event. The only thing I added to the book was the staples.
Diana herself or Lorel, after I left their place, added my name to the end page with the
date - I think for the record. I asked for photos of the book to share with the workshop
organisers. From (my own understanding of fostering) experiences it is publishing kids
photos and names or where they live that is an issue. Lorel was so thrilled to have made
her first book and I saw and heard her read it to her mother on the phone when her
mother called her that afternoon. (Sharee, Artist)
As I responded to Sharee I could feel she and the child, Lorel, were really pleased with what they
had each done and that Lorel’s mum was thrilled about her daughter writing about her family in
such a caring way. Even though she does not live with her mum there is clearly a strong
emotional connection with Lorel and the various members of her family, her carers and her
friends. I found this a very moving experience of being and feeling to be a part of family and
making new friends myself as I got to know Sharee and Lorel through this project.
Danny is a six year old boy and his brother Jono is a four year old boy. Their grandmother, Jane
wrote:
62
My grandchildren were unfortunately not able to attend the Zoom art session offered by
Quakers so I took the material and ran an ‘in kitchen session’ over about an hour and a
half. I had two grandchildren present, a six year and a four year old boy.
Both boys were immediately interested with the wooden spoons, pegs and paper plates.
They began colouring in the spoons each using his favourite colour and while they
coloured they discussed sharing each other’s colours. Then the oldest suggested that he
could make stripes as well. After this they both began talking about how they had drawn
a lot during COVID lockdown and then talked about how difficult it had been because
Mummy and Daddy were very stressed about work. I let them chat on without speaking
much except for saying things like, "Are you ready to do the face yet?" (Jane, Carer)
They both became totally engrossed as they began drawing the faces. The older boy said,
“I am going to draw a shy face”. Of course, I asked, "Are you shy too?" and elicited a
long story about how he had become very shy during COVID because he had not been
able to see his friends. He also said he had got fat because he did not play footy. The
younger boy did not want to go without telling his story, so told me he was drawing a
brave face because he is much braver than his brother. (Jane, Carer)
As I read and reflected on these two children’s responses I was struck by the ways they described
their feelings and how they had missed their friends through the pandemic. It was also interesting
that the one who listened to his brother drawing a shy face, and admitting he was feeling shy,
then decided to draw a brave face as he felt he was braver than his brother. I was also struck by
the grandmother’s comments as Jane reported:
The art session was a great success and reminded me, a therapist, how powerful
projective identification can be. I have occasionally worked with children and often with
adults to offer them a projective screen. This simple arts activity was as successful as
many other projective techniques and heaps of fun. (Jane, Carer)
This comment and new learning I had about Jane’s work and thoughts as a therapist, particularly
in the ways she has observed the two boys and their projective identification of themselves as
shy and brave people, was inspiring for me to understand more about the ways the pandemic and
associated social isolation has affected families and friends. I am also glad that it seems it was a
fun and learning activity for this family as well as it was for me.
Elaine and Nola are two 11-year-old girls who were present in person on the day. They had
never met each other before so it was good to see them doing the creative activities together with
their face masks on. I did observe Elaine using her phones or checking her messages when she
decided that it was okay to be distracted for a moment of the time. They each reported that they
enjoyed painting their family and friends, they each made some succulents in a pot plant and
painted the ceramic pots.
Nola reported to her grandmother “I thought the day was really good, and I enjoyed making
things and being creative. I met another 11-year-old named Elaine and I enjoyed that.”
63
Elaine reported that she really enjoyed making a little mushroom from air dried clay and that
making the pot plant, painting the pots and potting the plants. She also liked doing the creative
activities with the other 11-year-old, her new friend, Nola, and with the little toddler, Miriam.
Claire was another young adult who was present on the day. She was there to make sure
everyone was safe and properly looked after. So, she kept her eyes on what was happening in the
garden courtyard area while I was concentrating on the video conferenced activities in the small
children’s room. From her written observations and comments on the day she noted that the
children who were participating came from very different socioeconomic and ethnic
backgrounds. They also seemed to come from different educational backgrounds and had lived
through quite different life experiences. I would argue that the children all had quite different
social and cultural capital and habitus (Bourdieu, 1990). The children used their unique forms of
creativity very differently. The used what materials they had in different ways. When the
children did relate with each other children at all they did it on their own terms using the spaces
thoughtfully.
Claire reported that the children who were present in person in the courtyard all seemed to bond
on the day and enjoy the activities together. As she stated it seemed that the art, they were doing
was universal in its appeal to them in but in different ways and with different meanings for them.
She also thought that it was something about the technology that we were all learning about
together and even though the total age range of children and artists ranged from 1 years and 11
months to over 70 years of age we were all learning new ways of being in and of the world today
in pandemic times. We were all being and becoming different people and would be living
different lives after the pandemic is overcome in whatever form that is likely to happen. These
were considered really mysterious times but also, we all seemed to be coping with the adventures
and the journey involved.
Reflections on the original research questions
The evidence provided by the children and their parents/carers indicates that the children all
gained some benefit and art outcomes from the day’s activities. Each of the children showed us
their works of art through photos of the original works on the day. Stick and peg people and
people and pets made from clay were provided to us to admire and be inspired by their
excitement of their work. So, the children were stimulated to learn and create new artworks and
to think about who their family and friends were and how they were kind and gentle with their
friends. The artworks were all original as I did not see any of the children copying others’ styles
of creativity although they did share the various materials used and they did talk about the
colours and shapes each other used. So, I would argue this was a successful few hours for the
children to learn new ways to be creative, to be with other children and to make new friends. The
children all also tried to explore new spaces and the new technological ways of communicating
with each other when they chose to work with others. So, each of the children were stimulated to
be creative in their own style in these times of pandemic stress. The main artistic outcomes of the
2020 Children’s Day activities at Friends House in Melbourne were little spoon people and peg
and stick people left in the gardens at the Friends centre. The children all now have their own
64
little pots with succulent plants in their homes and they have either drawings or small books or
pictures they produced about being kind and connecting with their family and friends online and
face to face.
Conclusions
We have all gained some insights into working with and learning from each other as children and
adults and artists. We are all artists in our own ways. It has been a learning adventure for most
of us and I do think the children involved were excited by being free to do the activities as they
wanted without a lot of strict rules or adult intervention and constraints. Biesta (2014) writes
movingly about the beautiful risks of education and my experience of this activity reminds me
that learning is always a challenge and a joy, a risk and one that is more a beginning and
learning that is more kaleidoscopic than linear. The children showed resilience, excitement, and
joy. They were thrilled by the new mediums they could try and seemed grateful to do something
a bit different, albeit for a short time on Zoom. Learning about how each of us cope and learn in
times of the pandemic has been and exciting and gratifying journey for most of us and we intend
to show the evolving artwork displayed at the Friends Centre over the next few months. We also
hope to be able to continue regular art with family and friends’ workshops and creative activities
with a range of materials and magical connections and new adventures.
Finally, I would like to finish with an excerpt from poem by Stephen Sondheim that summarizes
my learnings, feelings and responses from the day’s activities. We all will still struggle
somewhat with the sad parts of the pandemic, but there are joyful times as well. I have learnt lots
of new ways to listen to the children, to be with the children and enjoy my family and friends.
The poem is entitled ‘Children Will Listen’.
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see.
And learn.
Children may not obey,
But children will listen.
Children will look to you
For which way to turn.
To learn what to be.
Careful before you say,
“Listen to me.”
Children Will Listen. (Intrator & Scribner, 2003, p. 51).
REFERENCES
Berg, B. (2007). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Pearson Boston USA. ISBN 0-205-
48263-5
65
Biesta, G. (2014). The beautiful risk of education. Paradigm Publishers, Boulder Colorado. ISBN 978-1-
61205-026-3
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Polity Press. Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-7456-1015-3
Bruner, J. S. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18(1), 11-21.
Cooper, J. & Ryan, M. (2017). Collectively becoming a/r/tographic: mMking meaning with young
people. VIS – Revista do Programa de Pós-graduação em Arte da UnB V.16 nº2/julho-dezembro
de 2017, Brasília. ISSN- 1518-5494 e ISSN (versão eletrônica) – 2447-2484.
Cooper, M. & Stewart, J. (2018). Building a global network in teacher education: Professional reflections
on the expedition. Journal of the World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education. 2(2)
18.
Intrator, S. & Scribner, M. (2003). Teaching with Fire: Poetry that sustains the courage to teach. Jossey
Bass: San Francisco, USA.
Quadri, D. (2015). Memories in motion: Learning, process, history and art in public space. Australian
Journal of Adult Learning, 55(3), 379.
Tartakover, S., Ryan, M., & Alishek, A. (2015). Words and pictures. Footscray: College of Education,
Victoria University.
Toledarno, N. & Anderson, A. (2020). Theoretical reflections on narrative in action research. In Action
Research. 18(3), 302-318. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750317748439
Tsirtsakis, A. (2020, Nov 24). Ending the second wave: How did Victoria get to zero active cases?
newsGP. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/home
Victorian Government Commission for Children and Young People. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on
children and young people: Education. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/assets/COVID-Engagement/CCYP-Education-Snapshot-web.pdf
UNICEF, (2021). Children’s rights simplified. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
https://www.unicef.org.au/our-work/information-for-children/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-
child
Author Note
The author of this project received a grant of $970.00 from the Victorian Education Department
to do these activities to celebrate 2020 Children’s Day under the auspices of The Victorian
Friends Centre Quakers Australia, in West Melbourne.
Author Biography
Dr Maxine Cooper is an Adjunct Researcher at Federation University, Australia. Email is
66
#CIENCIA_CONFINADA: MAKING SCIENCE IN LOCKDOWN
Elena Gayán, Fina Guitart, Núria López and Julio Pérez.
CESIRE. Department of Education. Generalitat de Catalunya.
ABSTRACT:
In March 2020, the health situation caused by SARS-Cov-2 led to the closure of all schools and
education centers in Catalunya1; Students and teachers had to stay home, isolated and without
face-to-face contact for a period of time that was initially expected to be two weeks. The
situation lasted for successive periods of time and classes were started again, but only in some
centers and with some students during the last period of the northern hemisphere school year.
This unprecedented situation was marked by uncertainty, since decisions were made periodically
based on the state of the pandemic. In a progressive and diverse way, depending on the type of
centers, the online classes began in the best way that each center could respond to this new
situation. It was a new and unexpected state of affairs that no one was prepared for. How could
educational activities continue online? How could teachers communicate with students? Which
activities could continue and which ones would be impossible to develop? How would the
lockdown affect the learning process of the students?
1 http://ensenyament.gencat.cat/ca/actualitat/notes-premsa/nota-premsa/?id=383884
67
#CIENCIA_CONFINADA: MAKING SCIENCE IN LOCKDOWN
Introduction. Situation during the COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, the health situation caused by SARS-Cov-2 led to the closure of all schools and
education centers in Catalunya2; Students and teachers had to stay home, isolated and without
face-to-face contact for a period of time that was initially expected to be two weeks. The
situation lasted for successive periods of time and classes were started again, but only in some
centers and with some students during the last period of the northern hemisphere school year.
This unprecedented situation was marked by uncertainty, since decisions were made
periodically based on the state of the pandemic. In a progressive and diverse way, depending
on the type of centers, the online classes began in the best way that each center could respond
to this new situation. It was a new and unexpected state of affairs that no one was prepared for.
How could educational activities continue online? How could teachers communicate with
students? Which activities could continue and which ones would be impossible to develop? How
would the lockdown affect the learning process of the students?
These and many other questions were raised by the educational community. The staff of the
Centre de Recursos Pedagògics Específics de Suport a la Innovació i la Recerca Educativa
(CESIRE), from the Department of Education from the Catalan government in Spain, thought
that different ways of teaching and learning were necessary for this new situation.
CESIRE is a public educational service that aims to support educational innovation and
research. Its work focuses on the design and dissemination of activities and resources to
support teachers in their professional development and their role of improving the academic
results of students. CESIRE’s staff is composed of teachers with different backgrounds – for
example, mathematics, languages, sciences, technology, and arts – and different educational
levels including pre-primary, primary and secondary.
This is how initiatives such as Posa’t al dia or Socials a destemps, developed by social science
teachers, came to be. Other examples were the deliberation/discussion forum for technology
teachers Punt de tecnotrobada, or the campaign promoted by the mathematics department
called Mates per a emportar-se, and proposals to support teachers in the challenging task of
distance teaching were developed.
After wondering which could be the best way to help teachers and students in the new situation,
and based on their shared pedagogical background, and their specific knowledge on teaching
and learning activities and resources, CESIRE’s science teachers decided to look for and select
a set of didactic proposals, organized in reflexively and intentionally created home scenarios
which would be the structuring thread of a website called #ciència_confinada (Figure 1).
2 http://ensenyament.gencat.cat/ca/actualitat/notes-premsa/nota-premsa/?id=383884
68
Figure 1. Logo of the web.
What principles have we taken into account?
When CESIRE’s science teachers started thinking about the designing of the proposal, an
analysis of the new social situation was needed; isolation and distance between teachers and
students were the important characteristics of the new paradigm. The default way to interact
with each other was by online resources, which made challenging the use of regular lab
equipment. Students had only access to those instruments and tools available in their houses or
in the closest shops or supermarkets. No experimental equipment was available to them, and
they had no access to laboratory facilities.
Nevertheless, to get effective student involvement with science learning, working in context is a
recognized didactic approach (Gilbert et al. 2011; Izquierdo, 2004). If we are curious and
interested in asking relevant questions, we can find science everywhere. In the kitchen,
outdoors (balcony, terrace, garden…), in the corridor, in the living room… in all these places we
can look closely from a science perspective, and experiment or design questions about why,
how fast, how many … Teachers have to go along with their students, involving them in
activities based on conflicts or assignments related to relevant contexts and close to the real
world, which are very useful to promote deep and transferable knowledge (Aliberas et al, 2015;
Marchán-Carvajal & Sanmartí, 2015).
Also, Meinardo, Adúriz-Bravo, Morales and Bonana (2002) propose that scientific contents must
be treated in a spiral process to acquire a continuous resignification, that is, the advance in the
construction of scientific models is deeply related to its wider knowledge. Regardless of the
context, the type of questions and the depth of the answers given by students vary depending
on their knowledge of the topic, but all the possibilities are equally valid, if we attend only to the
scientific model used. This allows us to address the same working scenario to different
educational levels, as in some of the #ciència_confinada proposals.
It is also relevant to remark that the lockdown promoted the establishment of new relations
between members of the cohabitation unit and facilitated fresh ways to expand the social
construction of knowledge. As Kroll et al (2005) show, the learning process is most effective
when it takes place in the company of others but also by interacting with tools constructed by
others or interacting with the environment. When students are at school, these interactions
69
occur between students and teachers, and between the students themselves. In confinement,
interactions between these groups decreased and, therefore, the complicity of families had to be
promoted to maintain interactions which supported the learning process.
Parents, siblings, grandparents, and other cohabitants were able to play a new role in the
process of generating knowledge. This might also offer the opportunity to children and young
people to share more time with those closer to them as well as allowing them to ask questions,
communicate and share moments or new learning. As Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (1994)
said, "Like climbers, students climb learning peaks more easily when they do so as part of a
cooperative team." We need to engage relatives to be part of this team.
Finally, this new situation imposed by the lockdown might allow and promote an active
involvement of the family as a unit and other people close to students in their learning process,
and hopefully this will endure permanently.
What is the final product?
#ciència_confinada is organized from different spaces, scenarios, or elements from home, as a
virtual tour, and each tour is linked with different actions or possibilities (Figure 2). These
contexts will allow students to apply science in real world situations (King & Ritchie, 2012) as a
central structure for learning.
Figure 2. Spaces or scenarios of #CIÈNCIA_CONFINADA
70
- (#alacuina) #inthekitchen: An experimental lab to work on temperatures, solutions,
changes of state, nutrition...
- (#perlafinestra) #throughthewindow: A place to observe the closest environment and ask
ourselves about it.
- (#alsofa) #onthecouch: A space to reflect, discuss, to share and communicate as well as
a place to use digital devices with simulations, applets and audio-visual tools…
- (#alsprestatges) #ontheshelves: A shelf could be a surprising space of classification. It
promotes the search of patterns, arrangements, collections …
- (#pelpassadis) #downthecorridor: A suitable place for dynamic experimentation: running,
flying, throwing …
- (#alscalaixos) #inthedrawers: forgotten objects, scissors, paper, old photographs… you
never know what you will find when you open a drawer…
Each space collected different educational proposals whose design was based on the questions
or situations that would be generated in the space. The selected classroom activities and
resources, which appear in each proposal, are available on the internet. Figure 3 shows the
content of one space, and the structure of an educational proposal, with explanations and links
to the selected activities and resources.
Figure 3. An example of educational proposal belonging to the #perlafinestra
(#troughthewindow) space.
All educational proposals follow the same structure: next to the title, you will find the educational
levels suitable for the activity, and in the coloured box there is a list of the main topics related to
the proposal. These two aspects are needed so teachers can evaluate if the resources and
activity objectives are suitable for their needs.
71
In the rest of the document, you can find links to a collection of online resources which are
assembled under different topics, questions, or characteristics. They can be didactic units,
reports of scientific dissemination programs, mobile applications, teachers' blogs, videos,
experimental activities ...
The aim is that the teacher chooses, adapts and changes the activities and resources to make
them adequate to the context in the classroom. Many of the proposals deal with issues that can
be addressed by all educational levels, and the difference will prevail in the degree of depth.
Most of the #ciència_confinada activities have a common property: the solution or answer is not
defined at all, and the questions are open-ended. These kinds of activities promote
communication, not only between people working on the same topic but also, between students
of different groups, between them and their teachers, and also within the household. The
construction of scientific knowledge requires this kind of interaction to allow students to
compare, and contrast ideas which build and grow scientific models. These activities are also
good examples of how the scientific community works, exchanging and contrasting ideas, and
showing that the advance of science is dynamic and in constant change. Finally, some of the
proposals include references to citizen science projects to promote and increase collaboration
and social participation.
Results and dissemination
This project started because of the COVID-19 lockdown in Catalunya, but it has allowed us to
think carefully about different aspects related to the learning process of sciences.
We are increasingly seeing the need to start the learning process of the students with situations
that are close to them. In this way they can carefully observe the phenomena around them, ask
themselves why something happened, and look for the best possible answer with the help of
experimentation if needed.
The current health situation has affected us on many levels, but it has a deep impact in
education. We should use the new reality to spread between schools this way of learning
science, which makes science closer to students and brings the need to find answers to
understand what happens in the world.
#ciència_confinada is not a finished project. It was created with the aim to continuously include
new proposals, activities and resources that help students to observe their closest surroundings
with a curious look and an active attitude. CESIRE will continue including new proposals and
resources, but it also encourages other teachers to share activities and experiences. Other
activities that can be organised are building catapults, making balances, creating Chinese
shadows, looking at the night sky, scientific curiosities… Do you dare to participate?
References
72
Aliberas, J., Izquierdo, M., & Guitart, F. (2015). El context per aprendre química en el projecte
«Competències de pensament científic ESO 12-15». Educació Química EduQ, 20, 32–
39. doi: 10.2436/20.2003.02.149.
Gilbert, J.K., Bulte A.M.W. & Pilot, A. (2011). Concept development and transfer in context‐
based science education, International Journal of Science Education, 33(6), 817-837,
doi: 10.1080/09500693.2010.493185.
Izquierdo M. (2004). Un nuevo enfoque de la enseñanza de la química: Contextualizar y
modelizar. Anales de la Asociación Química Argentina, 92, 4-6.
Johnson D.W., Johnson R.T., & Holubec E.J. (1994). The new circles of learning: Cooperation
in the classroom and school ASCD. Virginia. USA.
King D., & Ritchie, S.M. (2012). Learning Science through real-world contexts. In: Fraser B.,
Tobin K., McRobbie C. (Eds.). Second International Handbook of Science Education.
Springer International Handbooks of Education, 24. Springer, Dordrecht.
Kroll, L. Cossey, R. Donahue, D., Galquera, T., la Boskey, V., Richert, A., & Tucker, P. (2005).
Teaching as principled practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Marchán-Carvajal, I., & Sanmartí, N. (2015). Criterios para el diseño de unidades didácticas
contextualizadas: Aplicación al aprendizaje de un modelo teórico para la estructura
atómica. Educación Química, 26(4), 267-274.
Meinardo, E., Adúriz-Bravo, A., Morales. L., & Bonana, L. (2002). El modelo de ciencia escolar.
Una propuesta de la didáctica de las ciencias naturales para articular la normativa
educacional y la realidad del aula. Revista de enseñanza de la física. 15(1), 13-21.
73
PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF STEM TEACHERS:
ONE HBCUs APPROACH TO THE RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND
TRAINING OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER
CANDIDATES DURING COVID-19
Samantha L. Strachan, Salam Khan
Alabama A&M University
ABSTRACT:
The shortage of science and mathematics teachers in school districts across the United States is
not a new problem. However, issues of teacher supply and demand in these academic areas may
worsen as the country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAMU Noyce Teacher
Scholarship Program, an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is focused
on helping to alleviate critical teacher shortages in Alabama, USA by recruiting and preparing
highly qualified science and mathematics teachers. This piece will provide an overview of how
the AAMU Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program works to recruit, retain, and train science and
mathematics teacher candidates, even in the face of a serious global pandemic.
74
PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF STEM TEACHERS:
ONE HBCUs APPROACH TO THE RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND
TRAINING OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER
CANDIDATES DURING COVID-19
Introduction
Alabama A&M University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), was awarded a
National Science Foundation (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship grant to support the
training of science and mathematics majors interested in becoming teachers. Alabama A&M
University’s Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (AAMU Noyce) is focused on the recruitment,
retention, and preparation of minority undergraduate biology, chemistry, physics, and
mathematics majors who, upon completion of their degrees, will teach in public secondary
schools in high-need school districts in the state of Alabama in the United States.
This piece will describe features of the AAMU Noyce Program, particularly how the program
focuses on the development of undergraduate science and mathematics majors as Noyce
scholars. Specifically, this piece will describe how AAMU Noyce seeks to transform the pipeline
for recruiting, training, and placing minority science and mathematics majors in classrooms as
teachers. Components of the program will be explored, and a discussion of how the program
focuses on meeting the needs of scholars, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be
expounded upon.
Now, more than ever, educator preparation programs across the United States of America must
“rise to the occasion” of producing qualified science and mathematics teachers. Amid calls for
diversifying the teaching profession (Carver-Thomas, 2018), barriers that prevent candidates of
color from fully participating in the profession have been discussed in research, specifically as it
relates to the recruitment, retention, and support of promising teacher candidates (Carver-
Thomas, 2018; Goe & Roth, 2019). AAMU Noyce has taken into consideration some of these
barriers and has implemented strategies and approaches to transform how science and
mathematics teachers are recruited, retained, and trained, even during a global pandemic.
Defining the Problem
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2020), school districts across the United States
continue to experience teacher shortages in the areas of science and mathematics. In the state of
Alabama, teacher shortages in science and mathematics remain consistent (U.S. Department of
Education, 2020). While the state has developed and implemented several initiatives to address
shortages across districts, a number of school districts in Alabama have reported their inability to
fill positions that require qualified science and mathematics teachers (Sell, 2019). The AAMU
Noyce Program seeks to help alleviate shortages by placing trained science and mathematics
students in the teaching profession, specifically to work in high-need school districts. The U.S.
Department of Education (2006) defines high-need local educational agencies, such as school
districts, as agencies that serve elementary or secondary schools in areas with the following
characteristics: 1) A high percentage of individuals from families with incomes below the
75
poverty line, 2) a high percentage of secondary school teachers not teaching in the content area
in which the teachers were trained to teach, and 3) a high teacher turnover rate.
The need for qualified science and mathematics teachers in U.S. classrooms is great. Data from
the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment,
revealed that students in the United States continue to underperform in relation to other countries
in science and mathematics (OECD, 2019). In addition, national performance data for U.S.
students in science and mathematics continue to raise alarms regarding student performances in
these two areas, specifically for the state of Alabama. For example, the Nation’s Report Card, as
published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2015, indicates that
students in Alabama performed statistically significantly lower than the national average score
on NAEP science and mathematics assessments. The assessments measured science and
mathematics performance for students in the 4th and 8th grades.
With a global pandemic that has lasted more than a year, there are growing concerns that the
COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted education. According to García and Weiss
(2020) of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the COVID-19 pandemic has impeded both
teaching and learning. As noted by the researchers:
The shutdown of schools, compounded by the associated public health and
economic crises, poses major challenges to our students and their teachers. Our
public education system was not built, nor prepared, to cope with a situation like
this—we lack the structures to sustain effective teaching and learning during the
shutdown and to provide the safety net supports that many children receive in
school. While we do not know the exact impacts, we do know that children’s
academic performance is deteriorating during the pandemic, along with their
progress on other developmental skills (p. 3).
The researchers went on to explain that the pandemic has also exacerbated inequities that have
prevailed in the education system. If left unchecked, the effects of the pandemic could be
devastating to an already overburdened system.
Educator preparation programs must prepare a cadre of teachers who can meet the unique
challenges of the educational system. Placing the best and brightest students in classrooms as
teachers is critical to improving the performance of students in public schools, even in the midst
of a global pandemic. The AAMU Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program has taken up the mantle
of training undergraduate science and mathematics students who will serve in high-needs public
school districts, specifically in the state of Alabama.
Overview of the AAMU Noyce Program
Alabama A&M University’s Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is housed in the university’s
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. The program recruits and prepares
undergraduate science (biology, chemistry, and physics) and mathematics students to become
science and mathematics secondary education teachers. Students enrolled in the program are
considered STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) majors and earn degrees in
76
their respective fields. To fulfill the requirements of becoming secondary teachers, students add
secondary education as a concentration to their degree plans. Upon completion of all degree
requirements, students graduate from their respective programs and apply for certification to
teach at the secondary level in Alabama (i.e. 6th grade – 12th grade). While the program is open to
students from a variety of backgrounds, AAMU Noyce has specifically concentrated its efforts
on recruiting, retaining, and preparing minority STEM scholars to become science and
mathematics teachers. STEM students who apply and meet initial program requirements are
interviewed. If officially accepted into the program, students are provided with scholarship funds
in the form of tuition and fees, room and board, books, and funding for teacher certification
examinations, as appropriate. Program participants are required to teach in a high-needs school
districts two years for every year that they receive financial support.
The AAMU Noyce Program has four specific goals. Each of the goals will be discussed to
examine programmatic approaches and procedures, and to describe the specific work that is
being done to ensure each program goal is met.
Goal 1: Improve STEM teacher recruitment and retention efforts through a program
focused on engaging STEM students who are interested in teaching.
The persistent nature of teacher shortages in the state of Alabama, particularly in the areas of
science and mathematics (U.S. Department of Education, 2017), requires that AAMU takes a
comprehensive approach to the recruitment of undergraduate STEM students in the teaching
pipeline. Therefore, undergraduate STEM students are recruited using a variety of methods.
To aid in program recruitment, AAMU Noyce has partnered with three neighboring community
colleges to place STEM students in the teaching pipeline early. Faculty and staff from the
community colleges help AAMU Noyce to connect with STEM students early on in their
academic careers. Students are provided with an overview of the program and are provided with
a direct connection to the AAMU Noyce team to ensure a smooth transition if they decide to
transfer from two-year institutions. Support of interested students begins with the assistance of
community college personnel who work with the program to provide students with important
information about the program.
During the summer, the program offers an intensive internship experience for STEM students.
The purpose of the summer internship is to introduce students to AAMU Noyce and to the
teaching profession. The summer internship primarily caters to first- and second-year students,
and students who hail from community colleges or are new to the university are also formally
introduced to the campus and specific STEM departments at the university. All interns are
provided with mentors, exposure to science and mathematics pedagogy, and are given a stipend
for their participation.
Other recruitment strategies include working directly with faculty in STEM departments who
recruit prospective candidates, advertising the program through email and public relations blasts
at Alabama A&M University and at the community colleges, and attending community college
and university recruitment events.
77
Once STEM scholars are accepted into the program and make the decision to begin their training
as teachers, they are provided with financial and academic support to ensure they are
successfully retained in the teaching pipeline. Approaches to retention will be discussed under
Goal 3.
Goal 2: Implement a challenging curriculum to ensure scholars are competent in content,
pedagogy, and cultural diversity.
All program participants are exposed to a rigorous comprehensive curriculum to ensure their
proficiency in science and mathematics content, their development of pedagogical skills, and
their abilities to demonstrate their knowledge of issues of equity and diversity in secondary
learning environments. Noyce scholars take a range of courses, including courses in their
teaching field, as well as methods courses that maximize proficiency in pedagogy and examining
issues of equity and diversity in school systems. Furthermore, students complete over 600 field
experience hours in diverse learning environments. These curricular experiences align with the
National Science Teacher Association’s (2020) Standards for Science Teacher Preparation and
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (2020) Standards for the Preparation of
Secondary Mathematics Teachers.
Knowledge and skill development in scholars are also supported by their participation in
monthly Noyce seminars during the academic year. All scholars are required to attend
informative seminars that seek to expose them to additional professional development outside of
the traditional curriculum. Monthly Noyce seminars include thematic topics focused on teaching
and learning in urban and rural high-needs schools in Alabama. Seminar speakers include school
district professionals, current secondary science and mathematics teachers, and university
faculty. Seminars serve as an additional opportunity to ensure that students are equipped to
handle the challenges of teaching in high-need learning environments.
Goal 3: Support program participants to ensure their success during their pre-service and
induction periods.
As noted by Lee (2017), teaching STEM subjects “is difficult to do well, even for veteran
teachers” (p. 1). Mentorship and support of science and mathematics teachers, including
prospective and in-service teachers, have been discussed as important aspects of teacher
development (Schneider, 2008; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2013).
A key feature of the AAMU Noyce Program includes participants being provided with
mentorship and support as they complete program requirements. To aid in retention of students,
Noyce scholars have access to a team of faculty members, including STEM and education
faculty, who provide scholars with guidance in their field, timely answering of questions,
assistance with solving issues that arise, support with navigating university processes and
procedures, and resources needed to be successful as a teacher in training. Scholars are also
encouraged to attend national and regional conferences in their field with faculty mentors, as
appropriate. Mentorship and support are also extended as Noyce scholars transition to serving as
in-service science and mathematics teachers.
78
Goal 4: Increase the pool of highly qualified science and mathematics teachers working in
high-need schools, including high-need rural schools in north Alabama.
Meeting the first three goals of the AAMU Noyce Program will allow the program to add
qualified minority science and mathematics teachers to the pool of highly qualified teachers in
the state. The AAMU Noyce Program seeks to recruit and prepare a total of 21 undergraduate
science and mathematics students to become teachers in north Alabama. Scholars receive
training that will prepare them for working in urban, suburban, and rural learning environments.
Currently, the program has eight (8) participants and is in the process of onboarding additional
candidates. Current program participants include five (5) biology candidates, two (2)
mathematics candidates, and one (1) chemistry candidate. All of the scholars identify as being
members of a minority group and have each committed to working as teachers upon completion
of their respective programs.
The COVID-19 Pandemic: Turning Challenges to Opportunities
Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, AAMU Noyce continues to rise to the challenge
of meeting program goals. For example, since all in-person events were discontinued, attending
in-person recruitment events was not possible. Instead, the AAMU Noyce team has made efforts
to attend and participate in a variety of online recruitment events and activities that target
traditional university students as well as science and mathematics students transferring from
community colleges. Furthermore, as a result of the pandemic, AAMU Noyce has boosted
outreach on virtual platforms, including increasing program marketing through email blasts,
increasing interactions with prospective candidates using virtual platforms such as Zoom, and
introducing prospective candidates to the program’s website, which includes follow up
discussions regarding program requirements. These approaches have allowed the Noyce team to
continue to market directly to a targeted audience of students, at both the university and
community college levels.
Retention and support activities have also been conducted differently due to the COVID-19
pandemic. All in-person meetings for current scholars were stopped, which lessened scholars’ in-
person interactions with the support team. Therefore, adjustments were made for the team to
meet with scholars using virtual platforms. Noyce scholars continued to attend scheduled
monthly seminars and were provided with necessary support from the AAMU Noyce team. In
some instances, issues or challenges that scholars encountered were able to be dealt with
immediately due to the nature of the university conducting business virtually as opposed to in
person.
In García and Weiss’ (2020) report, the researchers made the following sentiment: “The COVID-
19 pandemic is overwhelming the functioning and outcomes of education systems—some of
which were already stressed in many respects” (p. 3). While the researchers’ report discusses
lessons that have been learned thus far from educational research conducted on the impacts of
the pandemic on education, the AAMU Noyce program has implemented strategies to ensure
scholars are learning their own lessons about teaching, learning, and issues of equity and
79
diversity during a global pandemic. One major opportunity that has emerged from the pandemic
has been to expose candidates to key issues of concern in science and mathematics classrooms,
particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, while monthly seminars are
structured to expose candidates to a variety of educational contexts, important issues that have
arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed during seminars. Scholars are provided with
curricular experiences that are supported by current knowledge of issues that impact teaching
and learning in science and mathematics classrooms.
Despite the impact that the pandemic continues to have on the field of education, and teacher
education, AAMU Noyce continues its efforts in recruiting, training, and supporting science and
mathematics teacher candidates. The COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities as well as
challenges for the scholarship program. As such, lessons learned during the pandemic will help
the AAMU Noyce team identify the best ways to engage and prepare prospective science and
mathematics teachers.
Conclusion
The shortage of science and mathematics teachers across the nation will continue if educator
preparation programs are unable to produce highly qualified science and mathematics teachers
who can keep up with the demands of school systems. More recently, the shortage of teachers
across the United States has been described as “…a crisis exacerbated by the pandemic” (García
& Weiss, 2020, para. 1.), even as the lasting effects of the pandemic on education, and
specifically teacher education, has yet to be seen. The AAMU Noyce Scholarship Program is one
program that has taken up the mantle of preparing the next generation of science and
mathematics teachers in hopes of mitigating teacher shortages in science and mathematics that
are bound to come.
Acknowledgement
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under
Grant No. 1758505.
REFERENCES
Carver-Thomas, D. (2018). Diversifying the teaching profession: How to recruit and retain
teachers of color. Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://edworkingpapers.com/
sites/default/files/Diversifying_Teaching_Profession_REPORT_0.pdf
García, E. & Weiss, E. (2020). Policy solutions to deal with the nation’s teacher shortage—a
crisis made worse by COVID-19. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from
https://www.epi.org/blog/policy-solutions-to-deal-with-the-nations-teacher-shortage-a-
crisis-made-worse-by-covid-19/
García, E. & Weiss, E. (2020). COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S. education
policy: Lessons from pre-pandemic research to inform relief, recovery, and rebuilding.
Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://files.epi.org/pdf/205622.pdf
80
Goe, L., & Roth, A. (2019). Strategies for supporting educator preparation programs’ efforts to
attract, admit, support, and graduate teacher candidates from underrepresented groups
(Research Memorandum No. RM-19-03). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Lee, M. (2017). Pre-service teachers often lack effective coaching. 100Kin10. Retrieved from
https://grandchallenges.100kin10.org/assets/downloads/pre-service-teachers-often-lack-
effective-coaching/GrandChallengesWhitePapers_Lee.pdf
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (n.d.). The nation’s report card. Retrieved from
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2013). Teacher mentorship: A position of the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Retrieved from https://www.nctm.org/
uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/Position_Statements/Teacher%20Mentorship.pdf
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2020). Standards for the preparation of
Secondary mathematics teachers. Retrieved from https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/
Standards_and_Positions/NCTM_Secondary_2020_Final.pdf
National Science Teachers Association. (2020). 2020 NSTA/ASTE standards for science
teacher preparation. Retrieved from https://static.nsta.org/pdfs/2020NSTAStandards.pdf
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2019). Programme for
International Student Assessment: Science Performance. Retrieved from https://data.oecd.org/pisa/science-performance-pisa.htm
Schneider, R. (2008). Mentoring New Mentors: Learning to Mentor Preservice Science
Teachers. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 19, 113-116.
Sell, M. (2019, February 8). Alabama’s teacher shortages reach ‘crisis’ level. BirminghamWatch.
Retrieved from https://birminghamwatch.org/alabamas-teacher-shortages-reaches-crisis-
level/
U.S. Department of Education. (2006). 1998 Amendments to Higher Education Act of 1965.
Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea98/sec201.html
U.S. Department of Education. (2017). Teacher shortage areas: Nationwide listing 1990–1991
through 2017–2018. Retrieved from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/
ateachershortageareasreport2017-18.pdf
U.S. Department of Education. (2020). Teacher shortage areas. Retrieved from https://tsa.ed.
gov/#/home/
81
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Samantha L. Strachan is the Interim Chairperson of the Department of Teacher Education
and Leadership and Assistant Professor of Secondary Education at Alabama A&M University.
4900 Meridian Street North
212 Carver Complex North Hollins Wing
Normal, AL 35762
[email protected] (email)
256-372-4087 (office)
256-372-5526 (fax)
Dr. Salam Khan is Principal Investigator of the AAMU Noyce Scholarship Program and
Associate Professor of Mathematics at Alabama A&M University
4900 Meridian Street North
212 Carver Complex North Hollins Wing
Normal, AL 35762
[email protected] (email)
256-372- 4838 (office)
256-372-5931 (fax)
82
SHARED LEADERSHIP: A ROAD MAP TO STUDENT SUCCESS FOR SCHOOL AND
DISTRICT LEADERS
Rodney T. Harrelson, Ed.D., RTH Strategic Planning & Consulting, LLC
Gregory R. VanHorn, Ph.D., VanHorn Educational Consultants
Pamela M VanHorn, Ph.D., VanHorn Educational Consultants
ABSTRACT:
Even during a global pandemic, shared leadership is a crucial component in the success of
schools and districts. With all of the changes leaders are faced with, they must be more reliant
on teams to learn together, while implementing new strategies that best support the needs of
teachers and students. This article highlights research on shared leadership practices and
provides leaders recommendations for putting them into action regardless of the type of learning
model.
83
SHARED LEADERSHIP: A ROAD MAP TO STUDENT SUCCESS FOR SCHOOL AND
DISTRICT LEADERS
Leaders at all levels are continuously searching for programs and initiatives to increase the
success of their students, teachers, schools and/or districts. While there is no one-size-fits-all
solution, there are leadership practices that can be implemented that have a significant impact on
students’ and adults’ outcomes. Research and experience tell us leaders cannot do this work
alone and the idea of the lone super leader is largely a myth (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996;
Leithwood, & Seashore-Louis, 2012). School and district leaders need to use the collective
knowledge, expertise and experience of key members of their schools and districts to make more
informed decisions and drive initiatives. This is especially critical as school and district leaders
implement new models of education as a result of the global pandemic, including remote, hybrid
and traditional face-to-face learning. This article draws from the educational research on shared
leadership to outline several key practices that school and district leaders should consider
implementing as they navigate the ever-changing educational landscape.
Practice 1: Create Conditions that Build Trust and Psychological Safety
Trust and psychological safety serve as foundational elements in school and district success and
the currency of a leader’s influence. Shared leadership requires leaders to build trust and create
the conditions where it becomes safe to take risks without fear of being punished for making
mistakes. In an environment where everyone is a learner, particularly during the pandemic, it is
important for leaders to be more self-aware of the need for high levels of trust and spaces to
implement new strategies. To increase team effectiveness, leaders need to engage in trust-
building behaviors including establishing clear and consistent expectations, extending care to
others and demonstrating authenticity regardless of a specific educational model (Goddard,
Tschannen-Moran, & Hoy, 2001; Tschannen-Moran, 2014).
Why is building trust and creating psychological safety important for leaders?
When there are high levels of trust between the leader and teacher, there is an increased
willingness for collaboration and learning from one another. Higher levels of trust and
psychological safety within teams allow for a team’s willingness to take risks, share personal
experiences and be more creative (Edmondson, 2019; Tschannen-Moran, 2014). Teachers begin
holding both their colleagues and themselves accountable in a way that gets work done and
challenges all to work harder toward shared goals. Without trust, teachers are unlikely to take the
risks required to go beyond what is safe or make themselves vulnerable enough to aspire to
ambitious goals.
What does this look like in practice?
Leaders build trust through actions including listening, developing clarity through common
language, holding one-on-one conversations and forming collaborative inquiry teams (Eppinga,
et. al., 2018). Leaders also develop trust when they regularly participate as learners with their
teachers as they work toward common goals. Leaders and their teams should provide virtual and
face-to face check-ins that ask teachers the types of support they need to best meet the needs of
all students.
84
Practice 2: Lead with Empathy
Shared leadership requires each team member to work with people from diverse backgrounds
and experiences. Leaders must move beyond simply knowing how others feel; they must also
understand the perspectives of their staff. Extra effort and care is needed by leaders in spaces that
are not face-to face to ensure that all perspectives are truly heard. Being empathic to develop an
understanding where others are coming from is critical in the development of shared leadership
in all learning environments (Brown, 2018).
Why is the use of empathy important for leaders?
The awareness and acknowledgement of others’ emotions is an important and powerful
competency for a leader (Kellet et al., 2002). Putting ourselves in others' shoes as you are
listening to support them is critical in developing shared leadership and coaching your team to
improve performance. When leaders place listening as a priority, they increase the likelihood of
not missing opportunities for team learning and growth. By not prejudging or interrupting
contributions from colleagues and teams, they develop the conditions for shared leadership.
What does leading with empathy look like in practice?
Leading with empathy includes being socially-aware, recognizing and validating others’
emotions, and responding to individual needs. Practicing active listening and asking clarifying
questions increases understanding and strengthens the leader's ability to provide supports that
produce better outcomes.
Practice 3: Promote Diverse Perspectives
Leaders play a critical role in the communication that takes place within and among their teams,
allowing for the effective exchange of ideas and messages in a non-judgmental environment. All
team members need to feel a part of the team and know their voices are heard and honored.
Why is promoting diverse perspectives important?
Diverse perspectives serve to leverage the skills, experience and expertise of team members that
will likely result in more effective decisions or outcomes. Leaders need to hear and embrace
various cultural, experiential and generational perspectives found in their teams. The need to
make decisions inclusive of all voices will support in meeting the wide spectrum of student
needs across different learning models. Given the unique circumstances in which there is a lack
of experiences leading in time of significant uncertainty and where there is not a clearly defined
or known effective solution, diverse perspectives can serve to address these adaptive challenges.
What does promoting diverse perspectives look like in practice?
To promote diverse perspectives, leaders need the ability to embrace their own vulnerability,
create feedback loops and allow for individuals to effectively exchange ideas where all
voices are heard and honored in a safe, transparent environment. As the expressed needs of
students, families and staff continuously change, intentionally created opportunities for
collaborative dialogue promote solutions that are inclusive of all team member voices. In
addition, asking for feedback to ensure clarity and understanding that can be effective in
promoting diverse perspectives.
85
Practice 4: Foster Professional Growth and Teacher Leadership
Rather than operating in isolation, leaders need to leverage the influence of teachers to extend
beyond classrooms and to others within their own school, district and community:
“Teacher leadership refers to that set of skills demonstrated by teachers who continue to
teach students but also have an influence that extends beyond their own classrooms to
others within their own school and elsewhere” (Danielson, 2006).
These opportunities for professional growth and shared leadership include participating in teams
at the teacher, school and district levels.
Why is fostering professional growth and teacher leadership important?
Collaborative team settings create the space, process and structures where teacher voices can be
elevated and influence school and district decision-making. Leaders at all levels of the system
must continue learning and growing in the face of changing/unplanned disruption. Providing
these professional growth opportunities serves to build the capacity of others to lead regardless if
they are a teacher or an administrator. Teachers are in the best position to track and evaluate
student learning in the environment. As a result, focusing on developing teacher leaders is
paramount in responding to school and district challenges effectively. Leaders become
motivated to be competent in their practice, they engage colleagues to encourage further
collaboration and they lead parents and community members to greater roles in educating
students. The actions of teachers working in collaborative teams, adding their feedback and
leveraging their influence results in well-informed and effective decisions for students, teachers
and the school community.
What does fostering professional growth and teacher leadership look like in practice?
The primary purpose of implementing these structures is to provide feedback, propose solutions
and assist leaders in making decisions (i.e., shared decision making). Where there are teams of
teachers working together in the organizational structure of schools, there are changes in work
routines and relationships, and increased involvement in decision-making (Leithwood et al.,
1997). Rather than operating in isolation or feeling as if one must have all the answers or be an
expert, leaders should work to develop collaborative structures that support learning and
instruction, through sharing successful practices with their colleagues. Leaders and teachers,
themselves, need to be learning every day.
Practice 5: Support of Team Collaboration
Leaders (both teachers and administrators) play a crucial role in supporting the conditions for
successful cultures of district, school and collaborative teams. Collective teams are more
effective when leaders fully engage as participants and provide needed support. When teams of
educators meet consistently and with purpose, collective efficacy can develop when common
teaching strategies produce greater student learning.
Why is supporting team collaboration important?
Previous research has shown that collaboration can enhance collegiality, increase team efficacy
and contribute to teacher professional development (Nelson et al., 2008). When confronted
with changed scenarios and altered environments, such as the global pandemic, supporting team
86
collaboration is vitally needed, required and expected on the part of those educators entrusted
with leadership responsibilities. As a result, leaders play a significant role in modeling and
prioritizing the importance of collaboration among colleagues during uncertain times.
What does supporting team collaboration look like in practice?
A shared leadership model can only be as effective and successful as the collective inquiry and
efficacy of the team. Supporting this collective inquiry means that the building or district leader
has trust in the process and is able to relinquish control of the work to the teams. Once a leader is
able to do this, they can spend their time and energy to further develop their own self-awareness
and reflection as they grow professionally.
Practice 6: Engage in Reflective Practice
Collective inquiry and reflection are keys to organizational success (Fullan, 2005). Leaders can
provide time and space to their team for reflective practice. Reflection can work to help build
consensus that keeps the team moving forward and provides an opportunity to voice their
reflections as a key outcome. Reflective practice helps to integrate the other shared leadership
practices together and ensure that focus is maintained on goals with desired outcomes for
students and staff.
Why is engaging in reflective practice important?
Reflective practices support leaders in decision making which keeps the team moving forward in
a positive direction. Taking a moment to pause and reflect (creating time and space) allows
teams to be more thoughtful and strategic in their decision-making, rather than simply relying on
the first suggestion or loudest voice. A rapidly changing environment requires teachers and
leaders to engage in ongoing and continuous reflection in order to best leverage the collective
knowledge, experience, and creativity of all team members. A structured reflective dialogue
becomes even more critical for teachers to learn what is effective and apply their own learning to
meet the needs of an ever-changing educational environment.
What does engaging in reflective practice look like?
Considerate and careful listening is the key ingredient in the reflective process. Reflection
requires intentional planning that establishes the time and space dedicated to this practice.
Leaders can enhance efficacy through the preparation of deeper reflective questioning and
facilitating dialogue that moves beyond surface level considerations that impact decision-
making. Additionally, reflecting on collaborative processes such as what went as expected, what
was surprising and what could be different the next time the protocol, process or strategy is
employed will result in continuous improvement of professional practice for leaders and
teachers.
Practice 7: Celebrate Successes
Leaders spend a significant amount of their time focused on “fixing problems.” The pandemic
has placed a significant amount of stress on schools and districts around the world. The result for
leaders is intense pressure and an overwhelming feeling that enough is not being done. Leaders
need to make sure that celebrating success becomes embedded in their school and district
87
cultures. The explicit acknowledgement of success by the leader sets the tone and allows teams
the opportunity to both understand and celebrate their impact.
Why is celebrating successes important?
Celebrating successes in a genuine and authentic way can foster continued team success. By
celebrating success, leaders reinforce motivation and acknowledge progress toward the overall
goal especially in times of uncertainty. Leaders can guide their celebratory process that can carry
teams over to their next challenge and increase both self and collective efficacy.
What does celebrating success look like in practice?
Leaders can support celebrations through strategic use of staff meeting time, creating
opportunities for teams to share successes, posting successes on school and district websites,
directly communicating successes with staff and students, thanking people personally, using
social media to acknowledge success and creating “spotlights” for high achieving teams.
Conclusion
Shared leadership consists of a set of intricately and intertwined practices that come together to
move learning forward for students, teachers and staff. The implementation of these practices
creates opportunities for school and districts to co-construct more equitable conditions that
transcend the model of education being implemented by school and district leaders. Trust,
empathy, diverse perspectives, teacher leadership, professional growth, collaboration,
reflection and celebration serve as a roadmap for ensuring a pathway toward increased student
achievement. Engaging in these practices will result in school cultures of high engagement and
progress for each member of the community.
REFERENCES
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work, tough conversations, whole hearts. London:
Vermilion.
Danielson, C. (2006). Teacher leadership that strengthens professional practice. Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Edmondson, A. (2019). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the
workplace for learning, innovation and growth. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Son.
Eppinga et al., (2018). What’s (relational) trust have to do with it. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar18/vol75/num06/What's-
(Relational)-Trust-Have-to-Do-with-It%C2%A2.aspx
Fullan, M. (2005). Leadership and sustainability: Systems thinkers in action. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.
Fullan, M., & A. Hargreaves. (1996). What’s worth fighting for in your school? New York, NY:
Teachers College.
88
Goddard, R. D., Tschannen-Moran, M., & Hoy, W. K. (2001). A multilevel examination of the
distribution and effects of teacher trust in students and parents in urban elementary
schools. The Elementary School Journal, 102(1), 3-17.
Kellet, J.B, Humphrey, R.H, Sleeth, R.G (2002). Empathy and complex task performance: Two
routes to leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(5), pp 523-544.
Leithwood, K., & Seashore-Louis, K. (2012). Linking leadership to student learning. San
Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Son.
Leithwood, K., Steinbach, R., & Ryan, S. (1997). Leadership and team learning in secondary
schools. School Leadership and Management, 17(3), 303-325.
Nelson, T. H., Slavit, D., Perkins, M., & Hathorn, T. (2008). A culture of collaborative inquiry:
Learning to develop and support professional learning communities. Retrieved from
http://www.tcrecord.org/library/abstract.
Tschannen-Moran, M. (2014). Trust matters: Leadership for successful schools. San Francisco,
CA: John Wiley & Son.
Authors’ Biographies
Rodney Harrelson, Ed.D. serves as an educational strategist and consultant for RTH Strategic
Planning and Consulting, LLC. Dr. Harrelson previously served in a variety of roles at Columbus
(Ohio) City Schools, including as a district administrator supporting school improvement efforts
in the district's lowest performing schools. His work brings expertise in school improvement and
inclusive instructional leadership practices research to districts and schools.
Greg VanHorn, Ph.D. has been working with Columbus City Schools for the past three years in
the role of coaching elementary principals. His experience includes administrative duties as an
elementary/middle school principal, director of special education, high school assistant principal
and athletic director. Co-Founder of VanHorn Educational Consultants, he also recently earned
his Ph.D. in Education with study focus in the areas of collaborative inquiry teams and school
improvement initiatives.
Pam VanHorn, Ph.D., Co-Founder of VanHorn Educational Consultants, has served in
leadership, consulting, and educator roles for the University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton,
Ohio Department of Education, Ashland University, and a number of urban and suburban school
districts. Her experience includes leading systemic-wide and state-wide school improvement
efforts in Ohio.
89
PEDAGOGY AND 21st CENTURY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY:
TEACHING DURING A PANDEMIC AND IMPROVING AN OUTDATED
MODEL
Martí Teixidó
School Inspector and Associate Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Catalunya-
España)
ABSTRACT:
During the COVID-19 pandemic a confinement in Barcelona, Spain forced the closure of schools
and institutes. To partially compensate for the lack of face-to-face schooling, teachers did their
best to activate personal telematics communications and provide students with digital resources
and applications. We, teachers, had the instruments and devices but we had still decided to use
them regularly. Soon we discovered teaching usefulness that we could not do it the same way we
had been doing it in class. And at the same time, we saw how we could streamline digital
teaching. Digital devices and connections needed to be increased, but digital technology itself
will not change our schools. However, today we cannot do school without digital technologies. It
is part of learning, an instructional skill that all students must learn. Stopping to teach by
tradition – how we, the teachers, were taught – we must explore the systems and methods of
twentieth-century scientific pedagogy to find the most appropriate uses for education and not
just copy those of mass communication.
90
PEDAGOGY AND 21st CENTURY DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY:
TEACHING DURING A PANDEMIC AND IMPROVING AN OUTDATED
MODEL
School education at the beginning of the 21st century
From the year 2000 onwards, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) reports on school education were disseminated and generalized, articulated with the
reports Education at a Glance – (OECD Indicators des 2000); the Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA tests since 2000); and the Teaching and Learning International
Survey reports since 2008 (TALIS). It should be noted that these are programs and reports of the
OECD that took the initiative at a time when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was focused on the literacy of developing countries:
"Therefore, the main objective of this project is the competition, assessment and
interpretation of this information to improve educational methods and respond to current
situations. At least the main gear of society is focused on education, so the assessment of
education systems and the commitment to improvement are of real relevance, thus
perpetrating an improvement of a social nature."
Over the past twenty years, in Catalunya, Spain, the focus on performance indicators, and
concern for improved outcomes has been escalated by governments, in certain families of
students, and in school management. The emphasis has been on finding strategies to achieve the
best results for student learning. The tests available to prepare children for the PISA tests have
increased in number, along with the families wanting to know the results to assist them in
making the choice of a school for their child.
In the last fifteen years in Catalunya there has been a significant number of schools that have
introduced important changes in their organization. It has been a progressive, inductive process
varying the grouping system by age and level, working on specific projects that integrate
subjects and introduce cultural activities that used to be outside the conventional activity.
However, except for these exceptions that have been grouped under denominations such as: Alive
and Active School, Innovative Schools, Escola Nova 21 and schools of institutions that have
made their own projects such as Summem, Horitzó 2020, or project called with the company. The
current school maintains a conventional model inherited from the school of the enlightened:
homogeneous group of students by age and level, teaching organized by subjects, fragmented
timing, school activity and homework, summative assessment and level promotion at the end of
the school year.
Thus, we can say that three modalities can be observed by supervision. 1. Conventional schools,
we cannot say traditional, since with groups, official subjects and traditional schedules they have
introduced active school procedures, participatory activities and initiatives arising from current
cultural uses. 2. Innovative schools that want to break radically with the traditional school and
make flexible groupings, dedicate a good number of hours to integrated projects of various
subjects and promote the maximum participation of the student, also in the self-evaluation. 3.
Schools that prioritize the improvement of school results and introduce intensive practices to
91
improve certain results or skills such as reading, arithmetic, and foreign language and are very
focused on what is called ‘instrumental learning.’
In all three modalities there is an absence of foundation in the models, systems, methods and
techniques of twentieth-century scientific pedagogy. The history of education, or more precisely
of pedagogy, leaves reliable evidence of those that have a scientific basis and consistency. On
the other hand, the latest positivist research in neuroscience confirms the contributions of
evolutionary psychology and marries the contributions of the sociology of education.
Neuroscience also explains and confirms pedagogical renewal practices that were initially
intuitive for some teachers, evidence of effectiveness when incorporated by other teachers, and
yet leaves some practices in the personal art of singular teachers for whom but which cannot be
transferred to other teachers.
In these experiences of innovation there is a clear attention to transform the school and change
the organization: “A protocol of change has been developed (combination of coaching, training
and resources) that allows a systematic update of the educational schools.” (Escola Nova 21The
method has been to collect practices of the schools considered advanced to extend it to others
with the good orientation of cooperative networking. "A humanizing project, our organizational
culture, support, sustainability, evaluation and educational model.” (Jesuïtes educació, 2020).
The point is to update the ideology of the company. They are innovation projects to get out of a
certain sluggishness at school and limited effectiveness and at the same time be present in
society as an alternative. That is why they are underpinned by global goals and show new
organizational forms of the classroom and resources. We can say that they are a philosophy of
education, built on intentions. They correspond, to a greater or lesser degree, to the 2030 Agenda
of the United Nations (2015).
Other projects are more focused on how to learn by adopting various teaching modalities. "An
interdisciplinary and cooperative learning, which helps children and young people to learn and
solve real problems, and which helps them to achieve attitudes and skills, in the face of a
constantly changing society like ours." (Escola Pia de Catalunya).
The key purpose focuses on students and guides teaching (technical pedagogy) articulating basic
instrumental learning in a systematic way with interdisciplinary work to ensure meaningful and
competent learning.
There is research-innovation that moves a hundred schools focused on the purpose of language
learning with plurilingual intercomprehension. “The uniform treatment of the language cannot
respond to a society as diverse as ours. We cannot transplant other people's models without
adjusting them to our social, cultural and linguistic reality.” (MELvives, 2015). Marc
d’Ensenyament de Llengües Vives [Living Language Teaching Framework] is structured on the
basis of scientific principles of neuropsychology, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. It points
out the aims, describes the tensions that need to be balanced and the landmarks of each school to
make decisions. With this framework we have developed adjusted eight pedagogical instruments
with the participation of territorial working groups of schools that describe practices and guide a
progressive consolidation.
92
It should be noted that we are achieving improvements in schools by the will and enthusiastic
dedication of teachers but perhaps in some cases we cannot ensure that they have continuity by
scientific professional consensus of the whole professional community of education. And in this
profession, we are too used to everyone posturing by personal opinion and judgment, that we
lack a collective progress that is only possible with shared scientific and technical pedagogy.
Surprisingly, no reference is made to any of the pedagogical methods or systems tested in the
twentieth century. The pedagogue Martí Teixidó presented a review of the pedagogical systems
of the 20th century in relation to basic competences, showing the validity of systems that have a
scientific basis and provide rules for action and organization. "Pedagogical system and basic
skills." (Teixidó, 2009, pp. 213-248). Observing the practices of various schools, we see that its
own terminology is introduced without knowing that is delimited: educational project,
pedagogical project, interest centers, pedagogical renewal, educational innovations. We keep this
in mind in the development of this contribution.
The school institution and the needs of children and young people in the digital information
society
The school institution provides children and adolescents with a teaching-learning environment in
which teachers are a model of culture – a culture that shares the emotional dimension of the
family and continues with the rational dimension. This is much more than the accompaniment
often invoked.
We must synthesize the above models without contradiction. The teacher organizes learning
situations (rather than showing knowledge), the student participates with his interests
developing activity (physical and mental), the common reference is knowledge and culture
(prestigious, popular and technological).
Today, culture has expanded into a new dimension, information technology with multiple
digital accessibility. The teacher is a user and a learner at the same time, given the evolution of
resources and accompanies the student in this digital learning that gives a new formality to
knowledge and culture without prejudice to direct experience. The joint learning within a group,
more or less cooperative, of equals and also of adults in coexistence, creates a complex of
relations and stimuli essential for a personal, social and humanistic education that develops
the consciousness of the responsibility for the world and for life.
Adjustment of the school organization to ensure health protection against COVID-19
The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our country as well as every country on the
planet. Researchers, doctors and health professionals have been deriving protective measures to
prevent the spread of the disease (Canal Salut Generalitat de Catalunya, 2020). They fully affect
the school, an environment of maximum proximity like the family, but at the same time of the
full diversity in a multicultural society. Initially, it was necessary to completely confine the
children and the population to their homes. Subsequently, health professionals have synthesized
the specific rules to be able to return to school, obviously in limited conditions. Teachers have
tried to keep the school model with minimal changes, and this has been impossible to resolve in a
93
pandemic situation. However, it was imperative to explore models of twentieth-century
pedagogy that provide consistency and at the same time offer diversity for the same purposes.
Exploring the models of twentieth-century pedagogy means knowing how to analyze them in the
context in which they were projected and transfer them to our context today, making the
necessary adaptations. This context is characterized by mass-communication and digital
technologies. Great adaptations as they offer us information, transmission and storage
technology and we can incorporate the learning content we know we need. In education,
McLuhan's thesis on communication The medium is the message (1964) is partially fulfilled. It is
not met if the learning objectives and contents are well systematized with pedagogical
consistency. Yes, it is fulfilled because by incorporating digital technologies we are making it
easier for students to learn as before they learned from books, and before books they only
learned from oral communication. So, it’s time to take a big step in pedagogical renewal by
integrating pedagogical systems with the possibilities of digital technologies that we’ve had to
implement, whether we like it or not, out of necessity due to the long confinement of students in
their homes. We must turn the problem around and transform it into a general opportunity in a
time of receptivity.
Forms of pedagogical intervention and proposals for education policy
• Set up groupings in a semi-group (12 or 15 students) with a teacher or professor each. A
possible variation is students of two consecutive levels, particularly to bring together
siblings or from the same cohabitation unit.
• Single continuous session of three or four hours. Displacements are reduced, yard times
difficult to manage. It involves organizing time in six or eight modules of different
activity such as a long radio program. The other two hours of personal work are done at
home. Some students with less work autonomy may be cared for by teachers at school or
high school.
• The problem of duplicating spaces is avoided. Morning and afternoon shifts can be
offered at the beginning, and families can make this compatible with their working hours.
Also, each teacher can arrange an alternative space in museum, athenaeum, house, civic
centre, library and some squares and parks with conditions to sit. From September to
December the weather is good in our country (Catalunya).
School time (3 or 4 hours)
Motivation and opportunity to share knowledge, communicating and listening, Conversational
mode (30 minutes).
Presentation of knowledge tasks carried out personally or in a team to illustrate to classmates (30
minutes). The teacher will give access to students in successive sessions or teams ensuring
content and recognition to all.
Common book reading club. (30 minutes) The student reads at home, is encouraged to share
their reading and dialogue about their book with relatives. The teacher has selected a suggestive
94
book, comprehensible but demanding, and difficult, so the student can lead it himself. Topics or
themes of interest that students or teams can develop should be extracted from the reading. From
the reading the teacher will make grammatical, orthographic or contrast applications with
languages (Catalan / Galician / English / French / Portuguese) already known, but not well
learned systematically yet.
Master class or, better, communicative class (approximately 30 minutes). A key topic in the
school curriculum is well prepared by the teacher in content structure and didactic presentation.
The teacher models of communication and organization of thought. The lesson must be accurate
and, include challenges and questions. The aim is let students think at home and engage in a
dialogue with relatives.
Creation module: music, art, museums, plastic arts, video creation, graffiti-art (30 minutes) A
participatory module based on what art hunting students contribute. The teacher should always
have something interesting in reserve. A specialist may intervene, but the regular teacher must
present himself as a person of integral basic culture.
Synthesis. Orientation of study, research and creation options (30 minutes). Arouse personal
commitments of realization or of cooperation teams that will be able to present in later sessions.
There is no leisure time. It’s three hours and an articulated and dynamic face-to-face class like a
radio show (there may be singing and musical tunes in the change of activity). Going out in the
yard is an added complication of vigilance and time that doesn’t compensate.
As in a a large and flexible office, students can bring a bottle of water or juice (one day you can
accept coke) and dry crumbs (breadcrumbs, cookies, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews without shell)
which they can take at any time while not intervening and without leaving residue. Of course,
students will be able to go out to the toilet at any time. What is needed is to ensure hygiene and
disinfection. It’s better not to go all at once but there must be an adult attending.
A rewarding meeting personally and culturally collectively. Activities are not homework.
Anticipate music and song in any transition. We take the opportunity to improve a school where
little is sung and worse is breathed. Song is very complete activity: ortophonic (speech therapist),
voice modulation and vocabulary memory. It should be sung more often, without recorded
music.
Home time (lock down) (2 hours)
Instrumental learning. These exercises are individual and involve repetition for fixation (30
minutes'). The programmed instruction (Skinner, 1954; Crowder, 1959) is suitable for these
learnings (operative, spelling, vocabulary, languages; in secondary typing, few polynomials,
equations, triangulation and trigonometry) is not yet well utilized. The teacher will do the
supervision to confirm or reorient.
95
Individual reading of the assignment of the common book (30 minutes). Suggest conversation
with parents, older siblings, or grandparents. Having has a conversation about the book at home
family members will want to intervene in face-to-face class.
Personal work on topics of knowledge, experiments, documentation, and study. Teamwork (2-4
students) with good script, assignment of tasks and consultations or telematics exchanges (shared
unit, chat, video, mail) (90 minutes).
Research, invention and personal or collaborative creation activities (30 minutes). The story of a
song or a monument, discovery of a unique building, making an automaton with reusable
material (TV ideas), writing and designing a graphic (or manifesto) narrative…
The teacher and classmates will give clues to sources of information to develop work. The teacher
will organize presentation time in person or by video conference. A three-hour daily dedication is
forecast.
If personal motivation is achieved, students will tend to spend more time on the activity without
realizing it. Diversified cultural tasks and activities are proposed to match students’ interests.
It is necessary to promote the communication of knowledge in the family. No standardization or
correction is required. It is necessary to provoke activity on the initiative of the student. Public
communication to peers is a stimulus and is already a first assessment, self-assessment.
We will try to offer discretionary face-to-face sessions with a personal tutor to those students that
we know have unfavourable learning conditions.
Resistance to incorporating changes to keep the model consolidated (Nothing will be the
same.)
It is time to change mentality regarding school education. The pandemic has paralyzed us for
some months, but it is time to reorient education and not reproduce the banking model (Freire,
1969), where tables are arranged facing the blackboard or the PDI (interactive digital screen.
With 25 children or 30 teenagers, we could personalize more and go beyond group education,
which was the same as when there were class sizes of 40 or 70 students. Twentieth-century
pedagogy has made great scientific and technical contributions that have only been explored in a
small number of schools. And even in some of these, the pedagogical renewal has been done
with emotion, with intuition, but with very little scientific direction. Scientific-technical
pedagogy is that developed in Catalunya by Alexandre Galí, Eladi Homs, and Artur Martorell.
They followed the initiative of Ovide Decroly, Maria Montessori, and John Dewey. Years later,
Célestin and Élise Freinet (1945) developed the pedagogy of cooperative work, Ivan Illich
changed the school for cultural circles and Paulo Freire did the pedagogy of awareness. This
pedagogy can apply intuitions and introduce innovations but with a systemic vision. See what
other factors need to be adjusted and the learning outcomes evaluated in relation to the
educational process, that is, continuous assessment.
96
Not resolved by law. What is needed are good (competent) teachers with knowledge, culture and
good communication. The writer and pedagogue Joan Triadú (1989) very clearly characterized
the school teacher or secondary school teacher: 1. Language training, 2. Psycho-pedagogical
training, 3. Philosophical training, 4. Training in ICT and media and 5. Cultural training.
Open classrooms show effective ways to teach, and other teachers can learn by modelling. In
recent years, it has become usual for two teachers to work together with the same students, and if
they had different profiles, both have opportunities to grow professionally.
New teaching procedures need to be rethought using the simplest resources to reach the same
learning or increasing the difficulty of learning. If contents are too easy, learning is lessened.
There are still computer classrooms, with individual children facing the screen. Poor use of
digital technology can be customized. Kindergarten-aged children with tablets are motivated and
they are instructed, but not learned. With good personal ability children can learn and practice
‘instructional learning,’ but in general the intervention of the teacher is needed to access
comprehensive knowledge, and group learning is needed to progress.
For technology, digitized memory does not replace personal memory recorded in permanent
active brain synapses. For oral language, words are the expressive support of thought and later,
written language will be the objective support that allows complex thinking. Continuously
expanding your vocabulary is the basis for learning and broad thinking. An undesirable model is
demonstrated by the teacher who continually uses the word ‘work’ just as the smurfs say
‘smurfing’ many times.
If we do not improve the linguistic competence and cultural breadth of teachers, they will not be
teachers, and they will not be able to show knowledge, neither with expression, nor with content.
After high school, teachers must be selected, not by grade and level or cut-off score, but by
personal competence, through an interview and performance where they demonstrate their
quality.
No exams or homework for students. (It had already been done in Barcelona in 1904 at the
Modern School of Ferrer i Guàrdia). Finishing at home what could not be done at school is really
absurd. Assessment is not an exam at the end. It is an observation and continuous assessment to
adjust the learning to the process of each student.
Traditional or modern cannot be a typification of the school. Knowledge is the result of wisdom
of tradition and certainty of science. Pedagogy must be articulated between tradition (cultural,
pedagogical) and innovation (scientific and technological). There is pre-scientific pedagogical
knowledge in Socrates, and in Paideia, the study best explained by Werner Jäger (1947), in
Doctrina pueril i Blaquerna by Ramon Llull (1276) and in Introductio ad sapientam by Joan-
Lluís Vives (1514). The scientific contributions are those of Jan-Amos Komensky, Baldiri
Reixac, Johann-Heinrich Pestalozzi, Johann-Friedrich Herbart, Friedrich Fröbel that underlie the
pedagogical renewal of the twentieth century that in Catalunya was promoted (1909-1939),
unlike other countries, by the official institutions.
97
Tradition and innovation example (Teixidó, 2011). To learn multiplication tables with a
traditional procedure you do not need the graphics tablet. Nor it is not appropriate to teach a
digital application for six students from the board. Competitions are not conducive to
comprehensive teaching and do not require digital devices. Principle: Use the simplest procedure
for greatest learning; If you use powerful means, you must suggest more complex learnings. It is
simpler and more effective for learning for each child to build their own Cartesian multiplication
table, first on paper. But for children with difficulties the traditional and old procedure of singing
the tables is still valid.
The atmosphere of order and beauty of the school is very important. It is not common to talk
about it, but it is obvious from school images and recordings. They are aesthetic patterns that the
child internalizes regardless of the words. Nowadays, as a result of the mass media, there is a
graphic with an excess of childishness copied from the audio-visual animations that the school
should not reproduce. We need to present aesthetic models that are incorporated into the
education of children and adolescents.
Unfortunately, it is true that education is only of interest to the parents directly affected, by the
education of the children or only by custody when they cannot take care of them. It is a matter
for the whole tribe as José-Antonio Marina always says, for the whole city as pointed out in
Plato's The Republic. The “Pacte per la Infància a Catalunya” (2013) [The Pact for Children in
Catalonia] projects this but has not yet taken root.
Conclusions and discussion
The subject of the teaching specialty in compulsory secondary or primary is derived. Every
teacher is trained in the rigor of a discipline or scientific field but has a broad basic knowledge of
the whole culture. Epistemological connections strengthen knowledge, and the teacher must
always present them, even if they act as a specialist. Obviously, a teacher may be lacking in one
area and will have the specialist colleague to help him, perhaps in some cases act (language,
music, physical education practice) in some of its contents. Optional subjects can be tried and
tested as optional activities. In limited periods we can compensate.
The continuous four-hour session at school increases colloquial activity with very limited
teaching exhibition and cooperative learning among students and an opportunity to greatly
improve oral expression, communication, exposition, oratory and rhetoric. The teacher is the first
to self-orient and become a model and regulator of students. We are reviving Socratic dialogue
teaching, we have the schoolbook designed by Comenius for technical education, and we live in
the Global Communication Village announced by McLuhan (1967). Telematics integrates
everything and makes it available with a device and an access line that must be universal today.
But in the educational stage, everything returns to the face-to-face communication of teachers
(who show up) and students (fed by knowledge) who learn together.
Two hours of learning at home enhances personal exercise, activity planning, and time
regulation. We will accustom the students to write down the times dedicated to each activity
because we will have anticipated to them the forecast of time that we have established.
98
Focus on the basics of the resume is not good idea. This is a return to traditional pedagogy:
learning by reception and memory. Rather, it is necessary to present well-developed cases with
observation, induction, association, and structuring that serve as a methodological model.
Students will develop other cases, several of which can be presented in class or explained to
classmates. The most basic learning is the discipline of thinking today exponentially enhanced
with access to information on the Internet. Personal competence is knowing how to search (tree
of knowledge), knowing how to contrast (certainty) and knowing how to integrate various
sources (interdisciplinarity) in a coherent way.
Needless to say, attendance is mandatory. Families already know that it is necessary, but it is
necessary to understand the initial insecurity that usually corresponds to those who have their
own resources. It must be remembered that when the universality of education for all was
proclaimed, it became the obligation of the public authorities, not of the citizens. For children
under the age of six, in a situation of pandemic, it would be better to strengthen the self-
organization of families by taking care of groups of four or five children in a home. Being in
school without sensory contact and proximity becomes an excessive constraint and is often
poorly managed by teachers.
Today, the school or high school has an otherwise inevitable opportunity to contribute to the
health education that every citizen needs. With adolescents in particular, a good treatment of
health issues must have an impact in conversations, in family communication. The family-school
alliance benefits learning conditions, especially if they find coincidence and reinforcement in the
media. ◼
REFERENCES
Canal Salut Generalitat de Catalunya. (2020). Protection rules and all the information on the
Health and School channel has raised in Catalunya. Accessed September 12, 2020 from:
https://canalsalut.gencat.cat/ca/salut-a-z/c/coronavirus-2019-ncov/ciutadania/salut-escola/
Escola Nova 21, project. Accessed September 12, 2020 from: https://www.escolanova21.cat/
Escola Pia de Catalunya, project “Summem”. Accessed September 12, 2020 from:
https://www.escolapia.cat/summem/ .
Jesuïtes educació, project “Horitzó. (2020). Accessed September 12, 2020 from
http://h2020.fje.edu/
MELvives (2015). Marc d’Ensenyament de Llengües Vives, [Living Language Teaching Framework]
prepared by Societat Catalana de Pedagogia a subsidiary of l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans
and the Departament d’Educació Infantil i Primària of the Grup Promotor / Santillana,
2015, p. 15. http://blogs.iec.cat/scp/
99
Pacte per la Infància a Catalunya. (2013). [The Pact for Children in Catalonia, was approved by
the Parliament of Catalonia in 1913]. Accessed September 12, 2020 from:
https://www.parlament.cat/document/intrade/44656
Teixidó, M.. (2011). “Pedagogical system and basic competences” Revista Catalana de
Pedagogia, 7, 2009-2010. Barcelona 2011, 213-248.
http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/RCP/issue/view/4460/showToc
Teixidó, M. (2011). Example explained in Martí Teixidó: “Pedagogical system and basic
competences” Revista Catalana de Pedagogia, Vol. 7, 2009-2010. Barcelona 2011, pp:
244-245. http://revistes.iec.cat/index.php/RCP/issue/view/4460/showToc
Triadú, J. (1989). “Teacher training”, presentation at the 1989 School Council of Catalonia
Conference.
United Nations (2015), Agenda_2030/nacions-unides/ Accessed September 12, 2020 from:
http://cads.gencat.cat/ca/
100
“WHEN WE THOUGHT WE HAD ALL THE ANSWERS...”: The
Binomi.online 3.0 Technopedagogical Project, online and remote teaching
Maria de Montserrat Oliveras Ballús
Official College of Doctors and Graduates in Philosophy and Arts and Sciences of Catalonia (CDL)
Catalan Society of Pedagogy (SCP-IEC)
Official College of Pedagogy of Catalonia (COPEC)
BINOMI Technopedagogical Centre
ABSTRACT
Did the COVID-19 pandemic transform the convictions we had as educators and as persons
before 2020? Did the educational parameters and paradigms become more complex and
uncertain?
The COVID-19 pandemic is a reality that has probably been described by Mario Benedetti:
“When we thought we had all the answers, suddenly, all the questions changed” (Benedetto,
1993).
This article aims to be the calm transcript of some reflections and experiential evidence that help
me in this writing, inspired by this quote of Mario Benedetti (Uruguayan journalist, novelist and
poet); a quote that probably acquires in these moments, more than ever, a special relevance.
The writing that you have in your hands, is the result of my commitment to collaborate in the
ongoing training of teachers and offer them support, and the need to share this
psychopedagogical experience and technopedagogical experiences in times of pandemic through
the Technopedagogical Project Binomi.online 3.0.
A vital transcription that starts from an academic purpose with the pedagogical objective that,
altogether, it can become useful and accessible knowledge, particularly for the benefit of the
children of the world. For this reason, and with great pleasure, I present in this WFATE Journal
the methodology and techniques of Binomi.online 3.0, a resource, essentially simple and
economical, and with good results during the pandemic lockdown.
101
“WHEN WE THOUGHT WE HAD ALL THE ANSWERS...”: The
Binomi.online 3.0 Technopedagogical Project, online and remote teaching
INTRODUCTION
This academic article was born from the commitment to collaborate in the ongoing teaching of educators
and to support them, with the need to share psychopedagogical and technopedagogical experiences in
times of pandemic. Disciplines that deal with psychological, pedagogical or technological aspects with
aim to improve training, welfare and development processes necessary to enable people to make complex
decisions and meet the needs of the 21st century.
These lines are the historical moment that places us in an unexpected reality, that is probably described by
Mario Benedetti: “When we thought we had all the answers, suddenly, all the questions changed.”
(Beneditti, 1993). A quote that doubtless in these moments acquires, more than ever, a very special
relevance as the certainties we had before 2020, have turned out to be more complex and uncertain due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is important to highlight that the intention of this paper is to talk about a reality lived in the forefront as
an essential service in the face of the educational emergency that is being experienced at a global level.
An educational reality experienced virtually, has allowed us to react and value new psycho-educational
opportunities and possibilities, very likely as our predecessors faced in other historical moments of
humanity in times of pandemic and crisis, facing the needs of the people and safeguarding fundamental
rights.
The focus of this paper is the personalization of the online psychoeducational process, in “Blended
learning ‘through’ clips BINOMI” or the post-lockdown combined learning modality (activities that
combine the work in the virtual environment with face-to-face sessions).
I will talk about a psychoeducational accompaniment that for decades I have been lucky to carry out in
person in unique educational ecosystems. Now it has become even more necessary than before to be able
to entrust this work and knowledge to place, in the online teaching, the student as a motor of its own
learning in a virtual educational environment. In other words, the pandemic and the necessary lockdown
that were imposed in different areas of the planet, have highlighted a praxis, that now more than ever, has
made it possible to adjust, so that learning to learn would have a real context for the educator.
The reality of the COVID-19 lockdown has provided the opportunity to highlight educational
methodologies and techniques that respond to the specific needs of personalized online teaching to
develop academic content guided and oriented towards the capacities of each teacher. This situation has
led teachers and the educational system itself to keep in mind the person that each student is, altogether
considering their own natural tendencies, their interests, their learning needs, etc. (Freinet, 1974; Bray &
McClaskey, 2015) towards a development that allowed us to take general elements to adapt them to the
transmission, the management, organization, and the accompaniment of the students.
The experience that I will share below is a living testimony to how the conviction that every student is
unique (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1980) can be deeply embraced. A deep conviction moves me to share this
102
experience to encourage teachers to take the undeniable commitment to provide students the capacity to
‘think outside the box’, combining in an original way knowledge already acquired.
This article, will be the story of the educational experiences lived virtually in times of pandemic (from
March to November 2020) offering students in a personalized way the possibility to learn how to think,
learn to know, and learn how to use the knowledge. However, I will also include aspects and references
from a decade full of educational compromise, offering the possibility to move robotic devices created by
students remotely. From this intensely lived reality I can confirm that all the protagonists of this online
learning and teaching process have had an authentic opportunity to develop their own skills to find real
solutions and drive their own learning in the framework of personalized methodology and didactics.
In short, the lines of this writing, as aforementioned, aim to be the story of a personalized online
accompaniment, not individualized, which has been allowed to escape from an intention to delay and
push students from a standardized and/or normative perspective.
PEDAGOGICAL COMPROMISE
My vocation and compromise have always encouraged me to do research, to know and understand those
techniques, methodologies and didactics that could offer the students the possibility to develop cognitive
processes, skills, abilities, creativity, reasoned thinking, etc. From this angle, the technopedagogical
experience started through educational robotics in 1991 and the learnings shared remotely that started in
2012, have inspired the design, in these times of global pandemic in 2020, the innovative initiative of
Binomi.online 3.0, online learning sessions that highlight the importance of the student as a driver of its
own learning, from a quality proposal, consistent, solid, clearly credible, consolidated and aligned with
the pedagogical values of 21st century Europe.
The pedagogical commitment that has allowed this remote learning is the result of a firm conviction to
value each student as the unique person they are since birth; and to respect them unconditionally and
always place them in the centre of the teaching and learning process (Zabala & Arnau, 2007).
The technological evolution without precedent, a reality with new needs (Latorre, 2019), the vertiginous
changes from these last months, an academic world that is very likely not the only reference about the
knowledge and abilities of a person (as it was during the 20th century) has made it necessary to generate
educational experiences such as those we have faced due to the pandemic: a reality placed inside a
democratic pedagogical framework, that allows students to develop the reasoned and critical thinking;
together with one’s own creativity and all those unique combinations of abilities and skills that give the
person the necessary potential to make complex decisions and achieve the challenges with responsibility
while assuming its consequences (Alimisis, Moro & Menegatti, 2017).
The pandemic has spurred us to say from the psychopedagogy that self-learning is very important to
empower the person and make them aware of their own talent, abilities and skills and thus become the
author of one’s own existence. Therefore, in the 21st century, where Artificial Intelligence is already a
reality, we have dedicated our compromise from Binomi.online 3.0 to make available to people, online
tools and strategies to develop and manage talent, skills and personal abilities, contributing to the
teaching, well-being and development in all the evolutive and educational stages of people (childhood,
youth and adulthood).
My constant educational research with the pedagogical reflection that it entails, in accordance with my
professional commitment, has allowed me to learn about studies and psychopedagogical references
(Trilla, 2001; Bueno, 2017) and thus arrive at a more appropriate formulation of didactic and pedagogical
methods in this situation of planetary pandemic.
103
Below, I will share a brief reference foundation that has been part of this pedagogical path: Freinet and
their idea of workshops and creative freedom as a categorical bulwark (Freinet, 1996; Teixidó, 2003);
Montessori and their solid arguments that emphasise student-led activities and teacher observation
(Montessori, 1937, 1939); Piaget and the concern for the learning in a broad sense, through which
cognitive and qualitative changes occur and lead to a new way of organizing mental schemes (Piaget,
1975, 1980; Bringuier,1977; Papert, 1984), Vygotsky and the importance of the verbalization and the
language with the desirability to value the bidirectional relation between learning and development
(Vygotsky, 1979, 2010); Dewey and the defence of the importance to show students the instrumental
value of the thought through trial and error to solve real problematic situations from practical situations
and technical means (Dewey, 1985); Decroly and the pedagogical assets of the interest centres and the
globalization of the learning (Decroly, 1987; Decroly & Boon, 1965, Bosch & Muset, 1980); Ausubel and
the student´s metaknowledge regarding its own cognitive and learning processes (Ausubel, 1980,
Ausubel, Novak & Hanesian, 2009); Bruner and learning as an active process of association and
construction (Bruner, 1980; Bruner, Goodnaw, & Austin, 1978); Freire and the role of the context and
empowerment in learning (Freire, 1994); Gardner and the theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner,
1983, 1999). And also, other neuroscientific referents such as Damasio and the comprehension about
mental processes that can exist in the human brain (Damasio, 1994); and finally Goleman and the need of
people to recognize their own feelings and those of others with the convenience to develop the ability to
manage them (Goleman, 2018).
The inspiration in these authors, and in many others that I am not mentioning, have provided the support
and the necessary theories and premises to develop diverse online creative processes that benefit the
personalization of the teaching and learning processes, with the objective of promoting critical thinking,
competence development, the concretization of creative processes and skills management (Cornella,
2018).
A pedagogical agreement that has required stimulative technological techniques and materials that
allowed valuing the student body in the framework of a personalized online teaching and learning process
(Miller, Nourbakhsh & Siegwart, 2019). The acquisition of robotics’ materials (controllers, sensors…)
have been integral to the development of innovative and creative learning activities insignificant contents
in a transdisciplinary mechanism, that is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
The objective of the educational reality of this pedagogical model is to stimulate students’ critical
thinking because there shouldn´t be barriers between disciplines. These types of experiences can also be
identified in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) activities. The
methodological framework offers opportunities and possibilities to the students with the objective to
develop the capacity to think beyond accepted ideas, while learning to combine in an original way
knowledge acquired in an online environment specific to their learning needs. We have been fortunate to
be able to give students personalized opportunities, resources and strategies to create and maximize their
own abilities through educational itineraries that provide them with engaging and meaningful learning.
Online teaching sessions have been developed using resources such as remote control of robots, real-time
shared whiteboards, videoconferences, and other technological online resources as elaborated in our own
technopedagogical laboratory.
EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT
The psychopedagogical context of the technopedagogical project Binomi.online 3.0, deep into a
coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 reality, is the result of an educational reality and unconditional delivery with a
theoretical frame of reference (Teixidó, 2017); a unique context with a pedagogical agreement that has
104
strived to faithfully offer students the tangible opportunity of identifying real problems, to find real
solutions, and to drive their own learning.
This context has unexpectedly promoted online training opportunities with few financial and
technological resources, which have allowed accompanying students to learn how to adapt to the
unexpected pandemic situation and reach the challenges imposed from the uncertainty of a changing
society. An online environment is required for a pedagogical model stimulating creativity, fostering
curiosity, personalized analysis, idea exchange, teamwork, finding solutions through trial-and-error, co-
elaboration and co-creation, co-evaluation, etc. to continue encouraging students to take risks without fear
of failure.
A reality of online experiences that has helped students to discover and develop their own vital project
from uncertainty and unexpected moments; while accompanied by the real possibility of well-being and
forced adaptation. In a situation where students are experiencing the loss of physical contact with the
others, face-to-face interactions between schoolmates and teachers, of the warmth of a spontaneous and
unexpected smile in the middle of a school classroom, of the shared silence walking through a long and
sunny hallway, of disorganised conversations, etc.
From the first moment, my team and I were fully convinced that it was necessary to give an
unprecedented and immediate answer to remain engaged in an educational context that allowed our
students to continue discovering the pleasure of combining ideas that maybe no one before had put
together. In this sense, it was essential to build an educational space named Binomi.online 3.0 to continue
to remotely offer the best conditions to live together and learn with effective learning tools that allowed
students to face new and unknown situations, where problem parameters were not well defined and were
presented ambiguous in the real world.
THE BINOMI.ONLINE 3.0 TECHNOPEDAGOGICAL PROJECT:
ONLINE AND REMOTE TEACHING
Binomi.online 3.0 is a technopedagogical project born during a pandemic, conceived and designed to give
students all types of online materials and techno-pedagogic resources. This project that has allowed a
reduced group of students to freely develop and create solutions and answers to their own identified
challenges to achieve and expand their competencies, abilities and skills (Sarramona, 2004).
This online educative environment that we have named Binomi.online 3.0, unexpectedly became on
March 13, 2020 a regular and unique virtual space, guided and directed by a multidisciplinary team of
professionals who unprecedently managed and accompanied the students and their families in the
framework of Projecte Binomi.
In this time of pandemic, the genesis of a psychoeducational and technopedagogical project was more
relevant than ever and created to facilitate and promote the universality of education, the accompaniment
and the well-being of people in an equitable and inclusive manner.
The Binomi.online 3.0 sessions, from the first moment, were carried out in reduced groups or
individually, with or without the accompaniment of a parent or guardian, according to diverse needs and
realities; within the framework of its own virtual space that facilitated and still facilitates
psychoeducational and training opportunities.
This psychoeducational and training space during online learning provided students with possibilities to
create habits, support their emotional well-being, while being accompanied and helped to create a climate
105
of self-improvement with educative opportunities that allowed creativity and the development of
cognitive processes.
The singularity of this telematic environment or new digital windows at the service of training, well-
being, and people development (Images 1, 2 & 3) allowed the construction of knowledge to individuals
and students from educational institutions. From this space, a collaboration and cooperation between
students from different realities was possible from the very beginning; regardless of geographical
location; with the shared objective of learning and to know more thanks to the sum of efforts, initiatives
and technology that allowed students to seek knowledge and develop their own reasoned thinking.
Images 1, 2 & 3: Binomi.online 3.0: Telematic construction of knowledge.
Infant (from 3 to 6 years old); Primary (from 6 to 12 years old); Compulsory Secondary (from 12 to 16 years old)
and Post-Compulsory Education students – Vocational Training, Baccalaureate and University.
Source: Technopedagogic Centre Binomi; 2020
The online teaching that has been carried out at Binomi.online 3.0 has been possible thanks to a digital
world that has only represented a change in the channel and the structure; a digital world that has likely
amplified the pedagogical work providing more opportunities to develop cognitive and adaptive skills
during this unexpected situation of a global pandemic.
During these telematic experiences, students have assimilated and built knowledge, developed
competences, skills and thought processes; proof of this are the positive evaluation indicators that have
been collected in each session. Situations where students have exteriorized their own thinking to face
better situations in life and be able to give the same importance to the emotional and cognitive sides of an
experience.
Binomi.online 3.0 has been and is a long-term telematic reality, which should support the ability to reason
through personal reflection, dialogue and discussion; where it facilitates (as it is in a face-to-face
situation) the development of creativity, ethical knowledge, the ability to find meaning to an experience,
develop alternatives, impartiality and comprehension.
106
Binomi.online 3.0 includes activities that have strengthened thinking skills and that have promoted a
personal teaching methodology, so that the students could achieve an authentic dialogue that meta series
of conditions: freedom, recognition of others, inter-comprehension, participation and interaction; at the
same time that an active, reflective and participative dynamic is established in the group through
dialogue, discussion and the intervention. Online moments such as these have promoted progress towards
consensual truth and, consequently, towards the solution of one´s own challenges
One of the key elements of this telematic reality Binomi.online 3.0 has been to be able to facilitate the
management of one´s own time. It is known that the genesis of creativity is to avoid one´s own limits, and
time is one of them. In this sense, we have always found as a sine qua non condition to provide each
student with the opportunity to responsibly choose the best moment to do their project and achieve the
challenge, born from the need to know, experiment, create to satisfy one´s own curiosity while learning to
manage time with freedom in an inclusive and personalised educational environment, and according to
the current historical context.
It is from this perspective and tangible reality, now more than ever from Binomi.online 3.0, that we have
avoided to focus the technopedagogical activities in the same line, product, tool, or resource. The main
psychopedagogical objective of Binomi.online 3.0 is to respect the singularity of each student and to give
them a different methodology and / or resource that are adapted to their needs and to the challenge that
each one intended to achieve, while being in line with the relevant curricular.
The technopedagogical commitment constantly forces and encourages us to be alert to advances and new
possibilities; however, in the middle of a pandemic it has been necessary to unexpectedly guarantee tools
and technopedagogical resources online, to make available to students and their families, everything they
require to achieve the proposed objectives by putting in place strategies that use thought processes such as
the computational thinking (Papert,1984; Wing, 2006): identify, delimit, consider different options, break
down, simplify, test, validate, refine, etc. It is important to mention that computational thinking (Wing,
2006) goes beyond computer science and needs to be understood as an educational strategy for the
development of skills of the 21st century (Gardner, 1999; Mallart, 2009) outlined and summarized below
(Figure 1) according to cited criteria, and also the Four C proposal, essential in the 21st century education
(Trilling &Fadel, 2009).
107
Figure 1: Summary of the essential skills in the 21st century education
Source: Technopedagogical team BINOMI, 2020
The essence of the methodology and didactics of Binomi.online 3.0 has been immersed in an online space
sheltered by consolidated experiential and academical experiences, where learning is the result of growing
up with freedom and responsibility, a life experienced shaped from courage and adaptation to the new
times, being necessary that from one´s own acts could speak of values, capacities and skills of each one.
Our pedagogical model has continued to be satisfactory, using online: creativity, curiosity, personalized
analysis, ideas exchange, teamwork, trial-and-error solutions, etc. and has facilitated the possibility of
encouraging to take risks without fear, while we all have learned from unexpected situations subject to
failure, such as, the lack of connectivity, outdated technological tools, the difficulty in the usage of tools,
etc.
Imagine, create, experiment, share, reflect and reimagine has been a vital need in our online context. For
all this, since the beginning it was considered important that the competences that would be worked
online from different technopedagogical activities, such as robotics, would allow to give meaning to own
challenges and take advantage of one´s own possibilities:
• Communicative and linguistic competences. From these online opportunities, students learn to
interact orally (converse, listen and express themselves) and must be able to explain what they do,
how and why. They develop a cooperative work and are aware of their own learnings.
• Methodological competences. Students must turn information into knowledge, to be able to guide
their own decisions. They need to develop reasoning and critical spirit, with the capacity of
organizing themselves and in certain attitudes, such as the sense of responsibility and discipline,
perseverance and rigor in carrying out their work. They intensify interest and pleasure in a well-done
job.
•Teamwork
•Take risks
•Learn how to share
•Empathize to reach agreements
•Identify real problems.
•Find real solutions.
•Generate original ideas and improve them.
Learn to communicate
knowledge and exchange
ideas through different
channels.
•Solutions through trial and error
•Failure-success analysiS
•Understand complex systems
•Apply strategies
•Solve challengesCritical thinking
Communication
CollaborationCreativity
108
• Mathematical competence. Students challenge the ability to understand, use and relate numbers
together with their own basic operations, the symbols and forms of expression and mathematical
reasoning. They code and decode, etc. with the objective of developing the ability to reason and the
faculty of abstraction contributing a set of models and procedures of analysis, calculation and
estimation that, applied in different authentic situations, allow the comprehension of concepts and
their competence command to solve situations and problems.
• Digital competences. From a transversal development of competences, the students have to interact to
deal with problems and situations that affect any curricular area; putting into play a set of skills,
knowledge and attitudes that students have been achieving during the different online teaching
sessions.
• Learning to learn competence. During these types of activities, the abilities to conduct one´s own
learning and to continue learning in an efficient and autonomous manner are developed.
• Autonomy and personal initiative competence. The challenges allow to transform ideas into actions,
to undertake and evaluate individual and collective projects.
In this process of online teaching and learning, the didactics and methodology of this singular psycho-
pedagogical proposal have been placed in a unique context that has provided students with the criteria to
choose what to do (or not do!) in different situations where it has been necessary to assume and put in
place different adaptive mechanisms. That is why we can talk about learning to decide and reflect from a
critical thinking point of view, because we are talking about facilitating the opportunity to act and
exercise values such as responsibility, empathy, comprehension, tolerance, etc. and to challenge one´s
mental capacity, emotions, and the genesis of one´s own acts (Zabala & Arnau, 1995).
The didactic that we have embraced in this online learning and teaching reality has allowed us to offer
experiences to learn how to decide and manage in uncertainty, facilitating the possibility of developing
the whole of the person, including self-confidence; for this, one of the most important reasons for
encouraging the prominence of each student is that they can assume the consequences of their own
actions, taking into account the success or failure that this entails.
The online educative reality during the pandemic has allowed us to accompany the competence
development and facilitate creativity through the needs of each student. Students (those in pre-school,
accompanied by their parents or legal guardians in the majority of cases; and from primary school in a
more autonomous way, arriving with a control of the tool; to secondary school and post-mandatory
school) have been able to create the things they imagine and / or have developed the competence
according to their academic level. We, as professionals, have guided and accompanied them through the
process.
This methodological framework has also needed the scientific method, which has made it easier for us to
respect that the genesis of the activities were the intentions, the illusions, the hypotheses, the needs of
knowledge of the students. Once this beginning was defined, we were able to provide a theoretical
framework of reference to facilitate the understanding and knowledge of the students in the face of the
educational challenge, the analysis, the practice, and the conclusions.
From this online didactic approach, the learner has the opportunity to ask himself what do I want to do,
how do I want to do it, why do I want to do it, what do I need to achieve it? (Freinet, 1974); once the
whole learning process has been developed, the student communicates his experience and must justify
what he has done, how he has done it, why he has done it, the difficulties he has encountered and the
challenges he has achieved; a process that must end with the student's self-evaluation, which will be
recorded in an evaluation chart (Freinet, 1996; Santmartí, 2010).That the students can successfully present
their work implies meeting the learning outcomes. The synthesis of the work developed can also be noted
109
in their personal chart (Initiative for action; Freinet, 1974). These graphs help students to make a self-
evaluation of their effort, evolution, and personal progress; and it has facilitated the systematization of
each step of the process of personalized learning from a continuous evaluation and training strategy. From
the student´s personal chart and the dialogue established, trends can also be conducted, managed, and
evaluated, possibilities, capabilities, natural talents, etc. It is a good way for students to also value
themselves based on the results. This resource favours education in the values and the building of
knowledge of each of our students, and in learning to manage their own limits and possibilities.
In this vital framework of co-evaluation and self-evaluation, students have been able to manage the
learning process and finish it by self-evaluating and self-assessing the assimilation and acquisition of new
content and has been able to build knowledge knowing how to communicate orally, while it allowed us to
assess and evaluate whether students are internalizing the knowledge worked by him / her or other
colleagues who participate in the co-evaluation. All this evaluative act at the end of the online teaching
and learning process has ended under the shelter of democratic criteria when students have expressed
orally and / or in writing brief reflections and agreements for the future before starting another
technopedagogical activity.
In this educational reality online, the student has been able to develop, with the accompaniment of the
teacher, the personal work project that has been proposed or needed; and finally, has known how to
synthesize the aspects that were assimilated regarding the content; when it was necessary, a summary card
has been made designed according to the age, the capacities and the abilities of the student through the
chat, or the shared blackboard, etc. among other technological resources.
Each online session led by a small group of students ended when each one explained the balance of the
learning process by demonstrating their knowledge in a collaborative and collective way within the
framework of a content assimilation and development of competences and skills process (Working
Assembly; Freinet, 1974). The different aspects dealt with online allowed the students to carry out a
continuous self-evaluation exercise, – what have I done? – how have I done it? – what have I learned? –
what must I improve next time?, while, at the same time, the teacher made a compilation of indicators to
be able to carry out in a systematic way the continuous and formative evaluation that allowed them to
make an assessment of the online teaching and learning process.
From these online educational and training opportunities, the role of the teacher has been that of a guide
who favours an assessment of the viability of the proposal, who gives guidance, advises with possibilities,
intervenes in the acquisition of knowledge, etc. without imposing proposals that eclipse the talents and
natural tendencies of each of the students. This professional has also assumed the commitment to evaluate
and assess the evolutionary process of each student, ensuring a learning process that will develop the
opportunity to learn how to specify a problem, to structure information and knowledge, to put into play
thinking processes such as creativity, to promote collaborative work and to facilitate the achievement of
basic skills such as those of mathematics, language, digital, cultural, and artistic field.
The online sessions have been an opportunity and an unavoidable possibility in the commitment to help
students to develop their natural talents, their own capacities, competences and skills to explain, to answer
from the reflection of their own knowledge, to understand and express the how and the why, and not only
to answer the what, which can be only the fruit of a solely memory act.
Evaluation, self-evaluation, and co-evaluation of online and remote teaching
The evaluation process of the students that we have followed during the on-line sessions has been
continued and integrated into the teaching and learning process itself. In this evaluation process we have
considered the creative capacity, the ability to find solutions and the strategies used by each student.
110
As a result of decades of educational research, we designed self-evaluation and co-evaluation tools to
enable students to:
• Anticipate and plan how to carry out their own challenge with execution criteria.
• Recognize their assimilation by putting into play attribution criteria.
• Reflect to self-regulate and develop criteria of responsibility.
Some instruments have also been useful to professionals. They have served to identify key aspects to help
students and design the personalized process educative; especially for the learning of those students who
found obstacles to successfully achieve their own challenges and desired pedagogical
objectives.Indicators and evidence of the process have been very closely assessed to encourage families to
accompany their children in this evolutionary and educational process.
The evaluation of the online sessions has been inclusive, featuring ethical and democratic criteria because
it has helped to understand and value the whole process. It has been defined from the importance of the
students through self-evaluation; co-evaluation; participatory observation of the teacher and his
assessment; also from determined rubrics by the methodology and didactics that facilitate the self-
regulation of students: I know nothing (rookie indicator, objectives completely not reached), I think I
know... (learner indicator, objectives somewhat reached), I know... (advanced indicator, objectives
practically reached), and I know and can explain it (expert indicator, objectives totally reached).
Answering these questions has helped the students to value the specific aspects that the teacher has also
valued and evaluated: development of curricular content (know-how); assimilation (knowledge) and
responsibility (knowing how to be).
Through the self-correction and self-evaluation of their work projects, it has been possible for students to
evaluate the evolution of the cognitive processes and the educational needs in each moment of their
learning process. Observing, assessing, and evaluating continuously the trends, skills, abilities,
possibilities of each student has allowed us, the professionals, to promote their development to the
maximum and guide them in the framework of this personal evolution. Throughout this process, as we
have already mentioned, we have also taken into consideration the rubrics designed so that the students
learned how to learn, knew their own possibilities and abilities, and reflected and grew in self-knowledge;
rubrics and indicators that have also allowed us to reflect and innovate in front of the real needs and the
natural talents of each student.
This evaluation of the teaching and learning process of Binomi.online 3.0 has allowed us to reflect (Coll,
1983), search and give guidelines for the improvement of the reality of the Binomi technopedagogical
project. In the framework of our reality, the evaluation has always been key since we understand it as an
educational act that has also a fundamental function in the construction of the coexistence of people.
Analysis and evidence of online and remote teaching through Binomi.online 3.0
Promoting this online reality, with haste due to the sudden onset of the pandemic, has allowed us to offer
a pedagogical model that personalizes the teaching and learning process. The aim is to facilitate the
development of competences and of thinking processes, the establishment of intrinsic creative processes
accompanying the development of emotional and social skills such as collaboration and entrepreneurship
while ensuring the welfare of students and their families in times of pandemic, and that despite all certain
routines and comfort environments are not overshadowed by the situation and an unexpected and
unprecedented transformation.
During the process of teaching and learning online, as professionals and from the participant observation,
we have collected both qualitative and quantitative evidence. We have noted some quite remarkable
111
quantitative indicators that have helped us to summarize the relevant aspects of the educational process in
times of pandemic (Palacios, Marchesi & Coll, 1990, 1999). Quantitative and qualitative indices that
validate a psychoeducational project where students, in a telematic space such as the one described, have
developed “learning by doing" (Dewey, 1989) based on their own questions; students have always been
allowed to start from their own interests (Kilpatrick, 1929), thus achieving "research-based learning"
(Freinet,1979) together with "project-based learning" (Dewey, 1989) and "experiential-based learning"
(Decroly, 2009) through shared and collaborative experiences; students have undoubtedly developed their
own creativity with "peer-to-peer learning" (Duran & Monereo, 2012) acquiring skills and competences
that have allowed them to think beyond established ideas. In other words, the indicators collected
throughout these months of learning and online teaching have indicated what has been achieved through
this educational process. This includes a set of skills and competencies to solve complex situations, while
developing a reflective attitude towards life showing a real development in terms of ability to think for
themselves; also favouring (especially in younger children) emotional ties with their parents or legal
guardians.
The following ten bullets summarize the educational objectives achieved so far through online teaching
and of these types of transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary experience of
Binomi.online 3.0:
• It has facilitated the freedom and curiosity of each student to learn how to learn in a very
personalized way and with a creative spirit.
• The necessary conditions and situations have been created to accompany families and help
students develop those processes that have allowed them to adapt to the changes they have had to
face and assume because of the pandemic.
• A learning environment has been built to allow students to make decisions and learn to assume
their own failure and / or success; the student has been able to grow in the broadest sense.
• The students have been allowed to prepare themselves for those realities that may never be
mastered while assuming responsibilities.
• Students have been encouraged to make complex decisions and assume the consequences to
improve and advance in complex projects, since finding aspects to improve reasoned and critical
thinking.
• Students have been encouraged to learn and unlearn from their own responsibility and respect in
an environment of freedom that has facilitated their creativity, reflection, and evolution; they
have been allowed to understand that making informed decisions is a reflexive act (—not
mechanical or impulsive!).
• We have promoted the awakening and growth of the capacity to think and reflect in each student.
They have been encouraged to dare to think for themselves and have the courage to do so.
• Each one's capacities and abilities to know how to be, to be, to do and to know have been
developed to the maximum.
• Possibilities and opportunities for learning have become a reality, so that each student could come
to answer the what, the how and the why of their own challenge in a reflective way and from a
reasoned thought.
• And, finally, as professionals we have reached points of reflection from the participating practice
in the benefit of the improvement of the processes of teaching and learning towards our
commitment to the service of people.
The Binomi.online 3.0 experience has achieved a unique educational ecosystem, providing added value to
learning and accrediting students with skills and competencies for life (Coll, 1983). A quality educational
reality that is synthesized in the following five pedagogical criteria:
▪ Educational space, inclusive and with equity for all.
▪ Personalization of the teaching and learning process.
112
▪ Accreditation of competencies.
▪ Development of computational, creative, and critical thinking. ▪ Connected and deep learning.
As it has been highlighted throughout the writing, this process of online teaching and learning was able to
give immediate response to an unexpected planetary pandemic situation as a result of an ethical
commitment that has always allowed to place the students in the centre, providing them with an active
preparation and exercise based on values. Decades of making this commitment a reality in a classroom
were decisive in carrying out online teaching and overcoming the unprecedented pandemic situation from
the outset. A pedagogical model that allowed us to immediately facilitate personalized opportunities such
as robotics or other activities of cognitive and competence development through connected and deep
learning.
From our psychoeducational and technopedagogical vision, we have verified that the key to success is to
respect and foster the curiosity of all students, the capacity to admire themselves, the illusion, the will to
break mental barriers, the trust in their own capacities, etc.; in spite of the pandemic, the online
educational framework can facilitate these decisive factors and personalized experiences, the students
learn significantly and develop a reflected and computational (Estebanell, López, Peracaula, Simarro,
Cornellà, Couso, González, et al, 2018) thought that allows them to experiment with their own
competences and from their own reality (Figure 2).
113
OBSERVING, CAPTURING UNKOWNS..
...IMAGINING SOLUTIONS...
...FORMULATING ANSWERS...
...BUILDING RESULTS...
... EXPERIMENTING TO COMPREHEND AND
IMPROVE THE PROPSED SOLUTION.
Figure 2: Experimenting with own competencies and from the own reality.
Students learn...
Source: Technopedagogical team BINOMI, 2020
The present and future of Binomi.online 3.0 is stimulating and exciting; the selected indicators (Figure 3)
identify that the online teaching sessions through cognitive stimulation activities that can be performed in
the described context, open windows that expand possibilities without limits and ensure that professionals
can educate and accompany the person that every student already is.
Figure 3: Attitudes, skills, competencies, abilities that have been harmoniously achieved through online teaching in
the context of a pandemic reality by COVID-19.
Source: Technopedagogical team BINOMI, 2020
Our vocation, training and experience have helped us to build this Binomi.online 3.0 space in an
unexpected way as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; through online teaching to continue loyal to a
deep commitment towards an educational context that has always had the aim of facilitating and
enhancing cognitive stimulation activities; where students, despite the health crisis, have been able to
continue to come up with their own challenges and develop their own competences and skills in a
transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary way. A fascinating online reality has allowed
students, despite everything, to create and govern their own existence.
CURIOSITY AND ADMIRATION
It is advisable to encourage the research spirit of the student that allows them to rethink again and
again the different knowledges.
ENTHUSIASM AND MOTIVATION
IIt is good to promote the inspiration of the student body, which can certainly appear in the
moments when they are captivated and fascinated by reality.
REASONED THOUGTH AND CRITICAL SPIRIT
The creativity of the students must be encouraged, which allows and demands
nonconformity, promotes reflection and the development of their own critical thinking.
SERENITY AND RELAXATION
It is important to let students daydream, so that psychic tension can curb their creativity.
ONLINE AND REMOTE TEACHING
Activities desgined to develop cognition, creative and reflective, thinking, critical spirit...
114
Therefore, it is convenient to entrust the need to generate online, in a standardized way, inclusive learning
environments based on the activity of the students, where their initiative and curiosity to understand and
learn is respected. A reality that respects diversity from equity and that allows students to develop their
cognitive abilities and critical thinking from educational experiences such as the ones shared and lived
within a psycho-pedagogical framework.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The persistence of the pandemic, and the uncertainty it still generates, means that the original quote by
Benedetti (1993): "when we thought we had all the answers, suddenly all the questions changed" also
inspires some conclusions in the form of pedagogical hope, whose objectives allow us to face the
problems that arise and solve them with psychoeducational responses.
It is true that I have shared a unique experience with humble technological resources, in the context of an
unexpected situation full of limitations due to the economic and health crisis that we still face today; but I
have done so with the necessary conviction to appreciatethe students unconditionally (Rosenthal &
Jacobson, 1980) offering them a personalized learning process and vocationally accompany their families
without forgetting references that in situations of maximum complexity as the one we are living, were
also able to carry it out successfully; for example the Agazzi sisters (1892); Dr. Maria Montessori (1909);
or the teacher Freinet (1974).
For all this, and with the purpose of drawing the living testimony of a reflected thought, the ideas that I
have exposed can be synthesized in a brief decalogue of pedagogical hope for new steps of humanity.
First, I would like to highlight the unexpected opportunity that the confinement measures in a large part of
Europe during the month of March 2020 represented, which, if we look closely, allowed the psycho-
educational world to put to good use its know-how to respect, more than ever, the uniqueness of all
students, avoiding labels that could probably force us to clip the students' natural wings.
In this sense, from psycho-pedagogy – immersed in the situation of pandemic, lockdown, post-pandemic,
mourning, loss, online learning, etc – we fortunately promoted existing attributes and positive
expectations towards each unique and unrepeatable person – teachers, father, mother, son, daughter ... -.
I invite you, if you have not already done so, to embrace with hope the psycho-pedagogy and teaching
that always, and at this time more than ever, aims to infect and promote human values such as courage,
hope, compassion, understanding, and love to weave paths of life that can embrace and accompany
diverse sociograms; all with the legitimate right to achieve the desired objectives.
These final lines, which the reader can read from his/her own intellectual inquisitiveness, have been
written from the teaching and psycho-pedagogical vocation of helping and loving to develop the person;
this fact has allowed me to make an effort together with my team, with the condition of the moment, to
spread and to put in value the professional asset of the educational world that without renouncing to the
features that characterize us in each field of action, I understand that the situation of pandemic and post-
pandemic has made evident and shows that our visibility is a key in moments of socio-educational
emergency and that our human profile is decisive in multidisciplinary teams of essential services.
Unfortunately, the lockdown has shown that we have probably been late to prevent the educational system
in our territory parodied in the classic tale The Emperor's New Clothes (Andersen, 1837); fortunately, the
pedagogical asset (teachers, psychopedagogues, pedagogues ...) of the world have known - obviously with
many cases of renunciations and sacrifices! –to rethink and promote the what, how, when, why ... in the
accompaniment of families and unconditional esteem for the students. However, reality has shown more
than ever how a series of methods aimed at modifying educational processes have become evident from
115
the educational world we have been, are and will always be with body and soul and - without a doubt!–
embracing an unwavering commitment to the service of people.
And evaluate what, how and when? As is often the case, many of the exclamations during these
pandemic times deafened the best of intentions. Surely the evaluation processes should be a fascinating
path and a unique opportunity, which many of us have never let go before, with the conviction of leading
leaderships that offer personalized realities, such as the one described and shared, where self-evaluation
and co-evaluation have allowed students to learn to analyse, assess and value what they know, what and
how they have learned, what and how they should improve, what and with whom and how, etc.” It is in
this scenario, that I invite tutti quanti to share the pedagogical commitment (-from now on, please!), to
find resources and establish strategies to accompany the students from that guide, help and professional
intervention that also allows a formative evaluation and accreditation of skills, abilities and learning to
their students. A reality that, I wish, could be spread like a layer of oil of this new educational path that
life invites. An evaluation that is given to learning so that the students become the protagonists of a life
experience that allows them to value what they do well and rectify what they can improve.
At the same time, let me also share that the experience of online teaching has been a reality of
communicating vessels; a multidisciplinary look that has understood the benefit of adding pedagogical
assets for the continuity of an accompaniment to families, teachers, technicians, etc. It has been possible
to prioritize the essential role that corresponds to professionals in the fields of psychopedagogy, because
they have been able to join efforts, harmony and connect learning, training, accompaniment, guidance,
intervention, and advice. In this direction, an online reality has been assured that has been able to continue
promoting individual and collective well-being, from reflection and professional praxis at the service of
people; developing didactics, elaborating psychopedagogical diagnoses, promoting methodologies, etc. to
attend the uniqueness of people and intervene, advise, orient in the framework of a diversity of realities
full of particularities and idiosyncrasies.
At this point in the writing, surely one of the risky aims of these conclusions has already been grasped in
the form of a brief decalogue, which can only be to entrust the need to focus on the psychoeducational
and technopedagogical role of professionals who must be, and in fact are, an essential service in the
framework of a new ‘Age of Humanity’; to which we can agree that we have the unexpected privilege of
living in first person as teachers and this can legitimize us to rethink a new treatise on pedagogy and, why
not, write the first pages from the WFATE Journal.
We will admit then, that everything that has been shared, can become a reality if we take on board the
urgent need to continue with the scientific constancy of mending human knowledge, while firmly
assuming the convenience of writing new psychoeducational and pedagogical paradigms committed to the
collective good of humanity, with the need to rewrite new pages, all from the analysis, organization and
management of processes that can surely favour the development of people, their well-being and the
formation of the society of the 21st century, now in a situation of pandemic by COVID-19; with the
condition of a psychopedagogical and teaching look that has not pretended anything else than to spread
hope and illusion from the acquired knowledge and experience.
REFERENCES
Alimisis, D., Moro, M., & Menegatti, E. (2017). Educational robotics in the makers era. New York:
Springer.
Andersen, Hans Christian (1837). The Emperor's new clothes. In M. Tatar, (2007). The Annotated Hans
Christian Andersen. London: Norton.
116
Ausubel, D. (1980). Psicologia educativa. México: Trillas.
Ausubel, D., Novak, J., & Hanesian, H. (2009). Psicología educativa: Un punto de vista cognoscitivo.
(2nd ed.) México: Trillas.
Benedetti, M. (1993). Perplejidades de fin de siglo. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana.
Bosch, J.M. & Muset, M. (1980). Iniciació al mètode Decroly. Barcelona: Teide.
Bray, B. & McClaskey, K. (2015). Make learning personal. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
Bringuier, J.C. (1977). Conversaciones con Piaget. Barcelona: Granica.
Bruner, J. S., Goodnaw, J. J. & Austin, G. A. (1978). El proceso mental en el aprendizaje. Madrid:
Nancea.
Bruner, J. S. (1980). Investigaciones sobre el desarrollo cognitivo. Madrid: Pablo del Río.
Bueno, D. (2017). Neurociència per a educadors. Barcelona: Rosa Sensat.
Coll, C. (1983). La evaluaciónen el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Revista Cuadernos de Pedagogía,
103, 13-17.
Cornella, A.(2018). Educació per a humans en un món de màquines intel·ligents. Barcelona: Barcanova.
Damasio, A. (1994).Descartes' Error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York:
Grosset/Putnam.
Decroly, O. (1987). La funció de globalització i altres escrits, Vic: Eumo.
Decroly, O. (2009). Le programme D'une École dans la vie. Paris: Fabert.
Decroly, O. & Boon, G. (1965). Iniciación general al método Decroly. (8th ed.) Buenos Aires: Losada.
Dewey, J. (1985). Democràcia i escola. Vic: Eumo.
Dewey, J. (1989). Cómo pensamos..Barcelona: Paidós.
Duran, D. &Monereo, C. (2012): Entramado. Métodos de aprendizaje cooperativo y colaborativo.
Barcelona: Horsori.
Estebanell, M., López, V., Peracaula, M., Simarro, C., Cornellà, P., Couso, D., González, J., et al. (2018).
Pensament computacional en la formació de mestres. Servei de Publicacions UdG.
Freinet, E. (1974). Nacimiento de una pedagogía popular. Historia de una escuela moderna. Barcelona:
Laia.
Freinet, C. (1979). Los planes de trabajo. Barcelona: Laia.
Freinet, C. (1996). La escuela moderna francesa. Madrid: Morata.
Freire, P. (1994). Cartas a quien pretende enseñar. México: Siglo XXI.
117
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic
Books.
Goleman, D. (2018). Inteligencia emocional. Barcelona: Kairós.
Kilpatrick, W.H. (1929). The project method. The use of the purposeful act in the educative process. (11th
ed.) New York: Teachers College – Columbia University.
Latorre, J.I. (2019). Ética para máquinas. Barcelona: Ariel.
Mallart, J. (2009). Competències educatives. Revisió conceptual, cronológica i bibliogràfica. Revista
Catalana de Pedagogia, 7 (2009-2010), 249-281. https://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaPedagogia/article/view/252230
Miller, D., Nourbakhsh, I., & Siegwart, R. (2019). Robots for education. Methods and applications for
teaching and learning. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Montessori, M. (1937). El método de la pedagogía científica. (3rd ed.) Barcelona: Araluce.
Montessori, M. (1939). Manual práctico del método. (3rd ed.) Barcelona: Araluce.
Palacios, J., Marchesi, A., & Coll, C. (1990). Desarrollo psicológico y educación I. Psicología Evolutiva.
Madrid: Alianza.
Palacios, J., Marchesi, A., & Coll, C. (1999). Desarrollo psicológico y educación II. Psicología
Evolutiva. Madrid: Alianza.
Papert, S. (1984). Desafío a la mente. Computadoras y Educación. (3rd ed.) Buenos Aires: Galápago.
Piaget, J. (1975). Seis estudios de psicología. (6th ed.) Barcelona: Seix Barral.
Piaget, J. (1980). Psicología y pedagogía. Barcelona: Ariel.
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1980). Pygmalion en la escuela. Expectativas del maestro y desarrollo
intelectual del alumno. Madrid: Marova.
Sanmartí, N. (2010). Avaluar per aprendre: L’avaluació per millorar els aprenentatges de l’alumnat en
el marc del currículum per competències. Barcelona: Graó.
Sarramona, J. (2004). Las competencias básicas en la educación obligatoria. Barcelona: Ceac.
Teixidó, M. (2003) C. Freinet, potser el millor pedagog del segle XX. Revista Catalana de Pedagogia, 2,
2004, p. 197-211, https://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaPedagogia/article/view/299921
Teixidó, M. (2017). Pedagogia, ara. Barcelona: Institutd’Estudis Catalans.
Trilla,J. (2001).El legado pedagógico del siglo XX para la escuela del siglo XXI. Barcelona: Graó.
118
Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. New Jersey: Jossey-
Bass/Wiley.
Vygotsky, L. (1979). El desarrollo de los procesos psicológicos superiores. México: Grijalbo.
Vygotsky, L. (2010). Pensamiento y lenguaje. Barcelona: Paidós.
Wing, J.M. (2006). Computational thinking. Revista mensual de l’Associació de Maquinaria de
Computació, 49(3), 33-35.
Zabala, A., & Arnau, L.(1995).La pràctice educativa.come ensenyar. Barcelona: Graó.
Zabala, A., & Arnau, L. (2007). 11 ideas clave: Cómo aprender y enseñar competencias. Barcelona:
Graó.
AUTHOR NOTE
I want to thank all those who have supported, participated and accompanied these sessions of
Binomi.online 3.0: children, families and institutions such as the School Arrels-Verne of Perpignan
(https://sites.google.com/view/binomi-arrels/inici) through the Project Cités Éducatives
(https://www.citeseducatives.fr/le-projet).
To the good friends and colleagues for their recognition of a new-born project and to their unconditional
encouragement to make a unique system of online learning a reality.
I would also like to make an emotional and very meaningful recognition to the CDL
(https://www.cdl.cat/) and the SCP (http://blogs.iec.cat/scp/), who with their encouragement,
consideration and support have made possible the transcription of a psycho-pedagogical and
technopedagogical reality, which they have accompanied and loved since its birth. On the other hand, I
would also like to make a special mention to COPEC (https://www.pedagogs.cat/) for their trust and
accompaniment, which has stimulated and pushed me with esteem to define in writing, from the heart and
with the head, some pedagogical decalogues in times of pandemic.
To my daughter Anna, who with their wisdom, esteem and recognition have given the possibility that
these lines above could see the light and be shared.
And finally, I would like to end with a special thanks to Jaume Basseda for his courage, dedication,
compassion, and leadership as the main architect of the technopedagogical project Binomio
(http://www.binomi.cat/; https://sites.google.com/view/binomitecnopedagogia/inici) and the sessions
lived from Binomi.online 3.0 (https://sites.google.com/view/binomi11/), providing guidance, knowledge,
and unconditional support.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Maria de Montserrat Oliveras Ballús
Teacher and psycho-pedagogue, educational innovation advisor, counsellor, and psychoeducational
consultant.
Member of the Official College of Doctors and Graduates in Philosophy and Letters and in Sciences of
Catalonia (CDL) where she is part as educational innovation advisor of the KBIP / COMconèixer Project;
Member of the Catalan Society of Pedagogy (SCP-IEC)
119
Member of the College of Pedagogy of Catalonia (COPEC) where she is part of its Network of Experts,
of the High-Capacity Research Group and of the Pedagogy and School Research Group.
Co-founder of the BINOMI Technopedagogical Centre
E-mail: [email protected]
120
CONNECTING TEACHER EDUCATORS ACROSS THE WORLD IN THE
WAKE OF A PANDEMIC
Jenene Burke, Federation University Australia
WFATE President Elect
As we move into the second year of the COVID-19 global pandemic there is no doubt that, in a
short period of time, the world as we know it has been significantly and irrevocably changed.
This paper examines the implications of the pandemic in terms of the engagement activities for
global teacher education professional organisations, such as the World Federation of
Associations for Teacher Education (WFATE), as we move toward a post-COVID future.
In this paper, the concept of global competence as a vital attribute for teacher educators and their
students in contemporary times, and the role of an international teacher education association, in
supporting professional learning will be considered. An overview of the professional activities
that WFATE has offered in the past will be provided. The WFATE mission and aims will be
examined along with the role that technology will play in bringing the WFATE ‘team’ together
to meet its aims in the immediate future, then a discussion about how WFATE could utilise
technology to support its membership and activities during the pandemic.
A case study methodology will be adopted to examine the potential for WFATE to operate as a
‘virtual team’, by identifying challenges and opportunities faced by members in maintaining
interactions.
Background
Since holding its inaugural biennial conference in 2010, WFATE has relied on regular gatherings
to bring together teacher educators from across the globe, meeting in countries that have
included the USA, China, Kenya, Spain and Australia. The sixth biennial meeting planned for
November 2020 in Houston, Texas, USA, was postponed until 2021 and has now been modified
as an online event. It is currently implausible to hold international conferences where delegates
meet face-to-face. This is because, regardless of whether the virus has continued to spread or has
been curtailed, many countries have effectively shut down international travel, placed restrictions
on conditions for entry or various periods of quarantine for incoming travellers. Some countries
have implemented curfews, physical distancing measures, restrictions on the number of people
permitted in various indoor spaces and at outdoor gatherings, the mandatory wearing of masks or
other types of protective apparel, and the closures of borders between territories, even within
countries.
Aside from the WFATE biennial event, the regular conferences of organisations such as the
Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) in the USA and the Association for Teacher Education
in Europe (ATEE) have provided valuable opportunities for the WFATE Board to meet in
121
person. In addition, WFATE has a website, a Facebook page and group, and produces a regular
academic journal and newsletter. Research development groups (RDGs) connecting researchers
across the world through research theme interests are another way that WFATE has provided
opportunities for teacher educators to reach out beyond their own countries, connect, and
collaborate with each other.
Building global competence in the 21st century
Global competence is considered vital to enable teacher educators to thrive in the twenty-first
century (Devlin-Foltz, 2010) and, in turn, to promote this disposition in their students as
preservice teachers (PSTs). This is particularly important given that the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) recently introduced global competence assessment
(OECD, 2018) thus placing value on students’ active participation in their communities and the
wider world (Tichnor-Wagner, Parkhouse, Glazier & Cain, 2019).
In today’s interconnected world, global competence enables PSTs to be aware of and gain value
from cultural differences (OECD, 2018) to help their students to “learn about the world, from the
world and with the world” (Devlin-Foltz, 2010, p. 113). The Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines global competence as “the capacity to examine
local, global, and intercultural issues; to understand and appreciate the perspectives and world
views of others; to engage in open, appropriate, and effective interactions with people from
different cultures; and to act for collective well-being and sustainable development.” (OECD,
2018). Devlin-Foltz (2010) argues that teacher educators play an important role in forming
‘forward-looking’ connections with colleagues in other countries and in finding ways to respond
to the challenges of developing global competence. As an international teacher education
association WFATE can play a central role as a conduit in assisting teacher educators, and by
extension their students as future teachers, to build global competence.
The acquisition of global perspectives by teachers can be achieved in two ways according to
Ochoa (2010). One way is in exposing teachers to international experiences and the other is in
integrating global education into teacher education. Devlin-Foltz (2010) agrees, suggesting that
global knowledge for pre-service and in-service teachers can be deepened through access to
internationally focused professional development and research in teacher education, international
experiences at home, overseas and online, through world-language opportunities and through a
globally oriented teacher education culture. Development of global citizens is aided by the
“continual enhancement of digital technologies that facilitate collaboration and partnerships
across borders and time zones” (Burke, Redford, Coker & McDonough, 2017).
In the years before COVID, teacher educators had various opportunities to engage in
international experiences to develop global competence and international perspectives. Examples
of such opportunities are international exchanges or fellowships, employment, or volunteering
in-country or offshore, engaging in specific research or other collaborative projects—sometimes
122
involving academics from various countries—and sharing and exchanging learning at events
such as seminars and conferences. As opportunities to engage across borders with others
diminish, the need for teacher educators and their students to develop global competence
becomes increasingly important. This means, as a global organisation, WFATE must take stock
of what is not currently possible and find ways to use the tools at our disposal to continue to
support building global competence, despite reduced possibilities for teacher educators to take
part in activities abroad.
Teacher professional learning
The purpose of teacher professional learning is to “extend the scope of teacher educators and
their learning” (Husu & Clandinin, 2019). Husu and Clandinin identify two kinds of scholarship
for teacher educators as a ‘scholarship of integration’ where ideas are drawn together, and a
‘scholarship of disruption’ that utilises an inquiry stance and acknowledges uncertainties:
“By stretching the boundaries of teacher education outside of schools of education and
classrooms, we … offer insights that can help develop new ways of engaging in teacher
education. We conclude that research on teacher education is not about clear answers,
solutions, or theories but about understanding the complexities of how we are thinking
about, and engaging in, the practices and policies of teacher education.” (Husu &
Clandinin, 2019, p. 3)
To consider the activities that WFATE should offer, WFATE’s stated vision and aims for the
international teacher education community (Figure 1) and how these might be achieved, given
constraints on international gatherings, is a good place to start:
123
Figure 1. WFATE mission and goals. Source: World Federation of Associations for Teacher
Education (2021).
Broadly interpreted, these lofty goals support international collegiality and cooperation, research,
and development in teacher education. Three important concepts that underpin the mission and
aims of WFATE as an international teacher education association are the development of global
competence for teacher educators and their students, providing opportunities for teacher
professional learning and research collaboration. These concepts underscore the role that
WFATE can play in enriching the professional lives of teacher educators. Traditional approaches
that connect educators, adopted by global groups and organisations such as WFATE, tend to
embrace opportunities that examine and critique teacher education practices and the thinking that
lies behind them. These opportunities can provide valuable professional learning for teacher
educators.
Case study
Case study methodology, which will be adopted in this paper, allows the researcher to examine
“a phenomenon of some sort occurring in a bounded context” (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 25).
A case study can be used to explore single, holistic or multiple cases of communities,
relationships, decisions, or projects (Yin, 2009, p. 33), and this particular study will explore the
single case of WFATE. Case study methodology is underpinned by constructivist epistemology
(Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003), and the assertion that “truth is relative and that it is dependent on one’s
perspective” (Baxter & Jack, 2008, p. 544).
124
There are four features of research that should be present in case study design: 1) the focus of the
study is on answering “how” and “why” questions; 2) the researcher cannot manipulate the
behaviour of those involved in the study; 3) the researcher seeks to cover contextual conditions
because they are considered relevant to the phenomenon being studied; 4) the boundaries
between the phenomenon and context are unclear (Yin, 2003). Cases can be bounded by various
combinations of factors such as time, place, context or activity (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Stake,
1995; Yin 2003) to control the scope of the research. In this paper, the factors – context and
activity – bind the case and will be considered in unison. For WFATE, as an international
federation, there are two important ‘how’ questions that will be considered in this paper:
How can core WFATE business be transacted under pandemic conditions?
How can WFATE stay relevant to its membership and continue to support members’ needs
(particularly in developing research, professional learning and global competence) during the
pandemic?
Virtual teams
In the face of current restrictions and uncertainty around being able to physically gather in
person as a global organisation as has been possible in the past, it has become necessary to turn
our attention to alternative ways of interacting. The obvious solution lies in using digital
technologies to mediate interaction between WFATE members and with other teacher education
associations.
Digital technologies have made many things possible, that were previously unthought of, and in
some cases inconceivable. While many people have had access to personal computers and smart
devices for several years, the need to use them to connect with others, while maintaining a
physical distance, has become important and urgent. Technology has enabled creative solutions
for people do a variety of things such as communicate, transact business, receive medical advice,
learn and socialise, when many people across the world have been required to confine
themselves to their homes, and stay clear of their workplaces and schools. Digital platforms,
virtual conferences, remote learning, social media, and video instruction are just some of the
digital modalities that have been adopted and have become commonplace during this time.
Virtual teams are described as “geographically distributed collaborations that rely on technology
to communicate and cooperate” (Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020). A wide variety of teams are
covered in this definition and the teams can be involved in a variety of tasks. A teacher education
association like WFATE can be a virtual team. Morrison-Smith and Ruiz (2020) recommend
examining the challenges faced by virtual teams and how they use technology to mitigate issues
that may arise.
125
While digital interaction in virtual teams can offer some similar outcomes to meeting in person,
it also works differently from face-to-face collaboration. Kozlowski, Chao, and Van Fossen
(2021) argue that virtual teams come with advantages and disadvantages (refer Figure 2). Some
of the advantages that are likely to be relevant to this case study are that travel can be minimized
while accessing a global talent pool, and that greater flexibility and autonomy for participants
can be offered. Disadvantages include the need for technologies that support collaboration, and
the added difficulty it takes to lead a team online compared with in-person. The ability to
coordinate spontaneous meetings and to build trust, team cohesion and relationships is hampered,
as well as an anticipated reduction in the richness of non-verbal and social communications in a
virtual team compared with face-to-face team interaction.
Figure 2. Advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams (Kozlowski, Chao, & Van Fossen,
2021)
Zigurs (2002) attributes the differences between virtual teams and face-to-face teams as virtual
teams being ‘dispersed’ on a variety of dimensions. Four common dimensions which influence
and mediate interaction in digital teams are cultural, organizational, geographic, and temporal,
(Zigurs, 2003, in Burke, et al., 2017) (see Figure 3). Each of the four common dimensions will
be discussed in this paper with respect to possibilities they present for the WFATE community as
a virtual team. Zigurs explains that “the more virtual a team becomes, the more complex are the
issues it must address to function effectively” (p. 339). As the team moves from the centre of the
diagram in Figure 3, from traditional to virtual interaction, the issues it addresses become more
complex. It can be said that WFATE already functions as a virtual team through its website
platform, Facebook page and groups, and online journal. As these activities are already well
established, the discussion below will focus on dispersions affecting the activities that have not
been virtual in the past and cannot currently take place, such as the WFATE biennial meeting,
WFATE face-to-face board meetings and RDG networking, and on examining possibilities for
how these activities might be mediated.
126
Drawing on evidence from research, Zigurs explains that “virtual teams cannot rely on simply
transferring their behaviour in traditional teams and expect to be successful in virtual
environments” (2002, p. 341). Shared cultures are underpinned by assumptions about
communication practices that need to be brought to the surface and discussed. Rules and
procedures for new virtual interactions need to be explicitly considered and established before
any activities commence.
Figure 3: Dimensions of Virtual teams. (Burke et al., 2017, adapted from Zigurs, 2003, p. 340).
WFATE as a virtual team
Using these four dimensions (cultural dispersion, organisational dispersion, geographic dispersion,
and temporal dispersion), examination of the possibilities for a global organisation like WFATE
can assist in identifying difficulties and illuminating potential for mediating interaction.
Cultural dispersion
Morrison-Smith and Ruiz (2020) insist that “geographically distributed collaborations are more
socio-culturally diverse than co-located ones because distance typically increases demographic
heterogeneity (especially racial or ethnic heterogeneity)”. While this dimension does include
national differences between team members such as language and customs, it also includes
motivations, associated values and practices which are likely to impact on team members’
interactions.
In considering cultural dispersion it can be useful to consider diversity in three levels: surface-
level, deep-level, and functional-level. Surface-level diversity includes differences that are
127
observable, such as race, age, and sex, while deep-level diversity encompasses attitudes, beliefs,
and values, that are often communicated through team interactions. Functional-level diversity,
involves knowledge, information, expertise, and skills of team members (Morrison-Smith &
Ruiz, 2020). Morrison-Smith and Ruiz (2020) stress the importance of developing explicit,
shared, working cultures and setting clear parameters for interacting within digital teams.
WFATE is an organisation that so far has successfully partnered with large, well-organised
teacher education associations and supporting organisations from predominantly English-
speaking, developed countries. The desire to build a diverse global community that focuses on
principles of equity are clearly articulated in WFATE’s mission and aims. The pandemic may
provide a unique opportunity to build existing partnerships with organisations that have a strong
social justice agenda such as Kappa Delta Pi and the UNESCO Center for Global Education,
rebuild some partnerships that have lapsed, and to seek new partnerships from parts of the globe
where less connected and small-scale teacher education organisations predominate.
While WFATE has conducted its activities in English, English language translation technologies,
could assist some members to join online conversations, communicate and interpret text. This
could offer a way of casting the net wider to include a more linguistically diverse community.
Explicit agreements and virtual exchanges, multi-cultural teams and professional learning
activities activities, will be important to establish virtual collaborations going forward. The
WFATE RDGs could play a strong role in advancing this agenda through re-envisioned types of
virtual activities.
Organizational dispersion
Organizational dispersion refers to individuals who work together from different organisations;
in relation to WFATE this would apply to those from the various teacher education associations
around the world or from different institutions and from supporting organisations.
While there are issues with available technology and compatibility between established systems,
options are becoming more universal and reliable which assists digital connection and interaction
across borders. In many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries or geographically
vast or sparsely populated areas, internet access or access to equipment can be unreliable or non-
existent. When people are unable to access devices or internet connections, due to, for example,
poverty or isolation, collaboration in virtual teams may not be possible.
Geographic dispersion
Geographic dispersion relates to physical separation of team members across distant locations
and areas. Morrison-Smith and Ruiz (2020) define geographic dispersion as “a measurement of
the amount of work needed for a worker to visit a collaborator at that collaborator’s place of
work, rather than the physical distance between the two collaborators.”
128
Under pandemic conditions, visiting overseas locations has become difficult, and in some
countries, impossible, given the scarcity of international flights, border closures, and the need to
obtain permits for travel or undertake a period of quarantine on arrival. The amount of ‘work’
needed for geographic dispersion caused by lockdowns and travel bans is prohibitive for most
teacher educators seeking to undertake travel outside their own countries, and in many cases
within their own countries. Some countries, such as Australia, have used various temporary
measures like closing state borders and preventing people moving more than five kilometres
from their homes. Teacher education associations like WFATE often rely on conferences as their
major activity for member collaboration and as their major source of funding.
Geographic dispersions can be mediated by technology by allowing people located almost
anywhere on the globe, to connect synchronously. Putting the pandemic to one side, this means,
for those in remote locations or for whom travel was personally or financially prohibitive (and
provided internet access is sufficient) connecting virtually with international colleagues may be
possible, when it was not possible to do so in person. Groups can be easily established and linked
using video-conferencing technology. Videotaping and sharing recordings may not mediate
professional social interaction as richly and effectively as face-to-face meetings, as Kozlowski et
al (2021) pointed out, but it does offer a partial solution.
Temporal dispersion
The literature reveals that temporal distance is more impactful than geographic distance
(Ågerfalk, et al., in Morrison-Smith and Ruiz, 2020) and this seems to be accurate in the case of
WFATE. Temporal dispersion relates to shifts in work patterns and differences in time zones,
both of which can be manipulated to “either decrease or increase temporal distance” Morrison-
Smith & Ruiz, 2020). A face-to-face event such as a conference lacks temporal dispersion
because participants are all located in the same time zone. (That is except for when differences in
work patterns emerge.)
The full diversity of global locations for teacher education takes place across the entire 24 hours
of a day. Any event held synchronously on an international scale where participants are located
across the entirety of geographic locations must advantage participants in some countries and
create difficulty for others. For example, a recent synchronous event held by videoconference in
the USA during office hours took place at 3.00 am to 4.00 am in the author’s time zone.
Consider as another example a video-conferenced meeting for the current WFATE Board. If a
meeting was held at 10.00 am in WFATE President Paul Paese’s home location of Texas, USA,
it would also have members attending at different times from their home countries of Australia,
Canada, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the USA (Table 1, Scenario 1). The time differences between
board members stretch out over 14 hours, including at 1.00 am or 2.00 am on the east coast of
Australia. It is therefore impossible to schedule a video conferenced meeting for all members
within ‘reasonable’ daylight hours. By switching the meeting to 5.00 pm in Texas (Table 1,
129
Scenario 2), board members in Australia and Canada can attend at the reasonable time slot of
8.00 am or 9.00 am, or 3.00pm respectively, but members in Spain, Italy and Sweden would
need to attend at 2.00 am. There is no way to hold a synchronous meeting without some
members having to attend a meeting late at night or in the early hours of the morning. The full
diversity of time zones is illustrated in Table 2, acknowledging that board or RDG members
could potentially come from any location across the globe.
Country State, Territory or
Province (WFATE
board members
locations)
Scenario
1
Scenario
2
Time zone
WFATE
President, USA
Texas 10.00 am 5.00 pm Central Standard Time
(CST)
USA Virginia; Kansas;
Indiana; Ohio; Nevada
9.00 am
or 10.00
am
4.00 pm
or 5.00
pm
Central Standard Time
(CST) or Eastern
Standard Time (EST)
Italy; Sweden;
Spain (Europe)
4.00 pm 2.00 am Central European Time
(CET)
Australia Queensland 1.00 am 8.00 am Australian Eastern Time
(AET)
Australia Victoria 2.00 am 9.00 am Australian Eastern
Daylight Time (EDT)
Canada Alberta 08.00 am 03.00 pm Mountain Standard Time
(MST)
Canada Manitoba 09.00 am 04.00 pm Central Standard Time
(CST)
130
Table 1: Locations of WFATE Board members and meeting times, using two scenarios
Country At 12 midday … west to east
United Kingdom; Iceland; Portugal 12.00 pm
Europe (excluding Russia) range of time zones 1.00 pm–3.00 pm
Africa 12.00 pm-3.00 pm
Saudi Arabia 3.00 pm
China 8.00 pm
Iran 3.30 pm
Pakistan, India, Afghanistan Burma.
Nepal, Bhutan
range of time zones 4.30 pm–6.30 pm
Russia range of time zones 3.00 pm-12.00 am
Indonesia 7.00 pm-9.00 pm
Philippines, Malaysia 8.00 pm
Australia, Papua New Guinea,
Micronesia,
range of time zones 8.00 pm-10.00 pm
Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia 7.00 pm
Japan, North Korea, South Korea 9.00 pm
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu 11.00 pm
New Zealand, Islands of West
Pacific
range of time zones 12.00 am
Canada range of time zones 4.00 am–8.00 am
United States of America range of time zones 3.00 am–8.00 am
Central America 7.00 am
South America range of time zones 7.00 am–9.00 am
Greenland 9.00am
Table 2: Possible locations of WFATE Board Members across time zones
The same concept applies to virtual conferences; it is inevitable that no matter when sessions are
scheduled the time will be extremely inconvenient and prohibitive for some participants. It is
probable that conference sessions would need to be held around the clock to enable all members
to participate at least some of the time. Videotapes of sessions go some way towards making
sessions accessible.
131
Managing temporal dispersion by meeting in real time through video conferencing is possible if
locations are in time zones that are close together. In November 2020, WFATE participated in an
event “Teacher education around the world” organised by the President of ATEE, Professor
Davide Parmigiani in collaboration with the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA),
the Canadian Association of Teacher Educators (CATE), American Teacher Educators (ATE)
and the Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand–Te Rauika Titohu Kaiako o
Aotearoa (TEFANZ). Speakers from each organisation covered topics that were collectively
decided on. Presenters were drawn from each organisation. The seminar was divided into two
separate but related events, Atlantic involving ATE / CATE / ATEE / WFATE, and a week later,
Pacific (ATEA / TEFANZ / ATEE / WFATE), each one held during the day. Both seminars were
recorded and made available to those who could not attend. The intent was to arrange the
webinars as round tables with international scholars. The event focused on teacher education
issues such as the development of teacher educators, preservice teachers and teacher education
programs, but specifically, how the core business of the various associations might continue,
given the constraints of the pandemic, as follows:
• How to implement research and cooperation activities among the associations and their
members
• How to share perspectives/aims of Teacher Education programmes through different
cultures and educational systems
• How to support Teacher Education prof development around the world
• How to ‘connect’ with each other when international travel is not possible
• How to develop global competence within our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs
The structure offered compromise and was largely successful, the greatest difficulty being that
all participants were unable to share in the forum and the ensuing discussions together. There is
no easy solution.
It may be that three time zones with activities in three- or four-hour blocks might offer more
manageable session schedule for participants, or (and as a less satisfactory solution) that some
participants change their work hours, effectively working a conference “night shift”. Three
separate time zones for activities would ensure reasonable timeslots, but the diversity of
participants in each ‘live’ timeslot is severely reduced.
Temporal dispersion can also play out to advantage when collaborating with texts, in tasks such
as editing, transcribing, moderating or evaluating using a “‘follow-the-sun’ approach (i.e., where
teams hand off work at the end of the day in one time-zone to workers beginning their day in
another)” (Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020). Participants can meet briefly on handover. This does
offer some advantages that might be taken up by WFATE RDGs or researchers and writers who
are planning to collaborate on research grants or publications.
132
Burke et al., (2017) provide an interesting contrast between the two sites affected by temporal
dispersion in their collaboration from locations in Scotland and Australia.
In the most extreme example Australia can be in the grip of summer heatwave and
bushfire conditions when Scotland is enveloped in winter snow and ice…
In Australia the academic year begins in late February, whereas in the Northern
Hemisphere the academic year starts in August. Semester breaks don’t always match up
and so any collaborations need to take place within respective semesters and around
lecture breaks…
Supporting student learning at particular and timely points in their program of study
becomes a complex and important consideration. While the use of digital technologies
can mediate climate differences (people can work at their computers and devices
regardless of the weather), organizing learning experiences and meetings in real time,
given seasonal differences, is more difficult and forces us to rethink traditional notions of
working hours. (Burke et al., 2017)
Temporal dispersion is evident in the variation in the academic calendar as well as seasons and
climate between the north and south global hemispheres and while none prohibit virtual teams,
they do present important considerations for planning and management for WFATE.
Barriers and opportunities in global interactions
Learning from the experience of the pandemic requires teacher educators to make a post-
pandemic shift to reshape, rethink and re-imagine the approach into the future using our
collective resources and thereby “extend the scope of teacher educators and their learning” (Husu
& Clandinin, 2019). This thinking utilises a scholarship of integration to “bring ideas together”
and a scholarship of disruption “to both to contemplate the idea of uncertainty and to take an
inquiry stance” (Husu & Clandinin, 2019).
As stated earlier, virtual teams do offer opportunities, yet also present barriers, for interactions for
an international organisation like WFATE, that can be identified by through various dispersions.
From the analysis of dispersions, the most impactful dispersions during the pandemic in this case
study seem to be geographic and temporal. Collaboration in virtual teams is hampered by
insufficient access to technology, (e.g., devices, tools, internet). The pandemic has prevented in-
person collaborations in traditional events such as conferences. Temporal dispersions, requiring
synchronous meetings across the full diversity of international time zones are, by their nature,
inconvenient and prohibitive for some participants.
As we ponder what we have we learnt from the experiences that a pandemic has created it is
useful to consider how we can reshape our approach to global collaboration and professional
133
learning through WFATE following the two central questions raised in this paper. How can core
WFATE business be transacted under pandemic conditions? And how can WFATE stay relevant
to its membership and continue to support members’ needs (particularly in developing research,
professional learning and global competence) during the pandemic?
Opportunities
The exploration of alternative ways of interacting through virtual teams becomes important in
using digital technologies to mediate interaction between WFATE members and with other
teacher education associations and partner organisations. Procedures for new virtual interactions
need to be established.
Opportunities through cultural dispersions include building partnerships with organisations that
have a strong social justice agenda, and to seek new partnerships from parts of the globe that
have not previously been successfully explored. Translation technologies could be of use in
fostering linguistic diversity. A range of new virtual activities could be explored and developed,
such as explicit agreements, virtual exchanges, multi-cultural teams and select professional
learning activities, particularly towards building global competence. The need to develop global
competence in both teacher educators and their students becomes more vital as opportunities to
travel diminish. The role of WFATE in brokering these competencies becomes important.
Geographic dispersions can be mediated by connecting virtually with international colleagues
who have previously been unable to travel to meetings in person using video-conferencing
technology. Three time zones with activities in three- or four-hour blocks might offer a more
manageable virtual session schedule for participants. Videotaping virtual conferences and
sharing recordings offer a partial solution. Forward planning to match up suitable times for
activities in the various academic calendars present important considerations for planning and
management for WFATE.
Temporal dispersion can provide advantages collaborating with texts using a “‘follow-the-sun’
approach. WFATE RDGs are already established and researchers and writers who are planning
to collaborate on research grants or publications could make good use of this concept. The
WFATE journal could be developed by RDG contributions around themed issues.
A caution and a call to action
On paper these virtual activities have much to offer teacher educators and their students, but
there are limitations on the resources of WFATE to deliver them. Keeping members engaged
requires that they can gain ‘value’ from their membership, in terms of worthwhile and attractive
professional activities and opportunities to contribute and build successful or satisfying careers in
teacher education. This means that a broad, energetic and active membership base should be
galvanised into action. The challenge, as always, in any organisation is to ensure small, active
134
contributions by many participants, rather than relying on large contributions by a few members.
Relationships with in-country associations like ATE, ATEE, ATEA, CATE, TEFANZ and
existing and new partner organisations as integral resources can be drawn on and developed. And
a bright and flourishing future for WFATE during and beyond the pandemic can be assured.
References
Ågerfalk, P.J., Fitzgerald, B., Holmstrom Olsson, H., Lings, B., Lundell, B., & Ó Conchúir, E.
(2005). A framework for considering opportunities and threats in distributed software
development. In Proceedings of the of DiSD’05. Austrian Computer Society, pp. 47–61
Baxter., P. & Jack, S. (2008). Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and
implementation for novice researchers. The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559.
Burke, J., Redford, M., Coker, H., McDonough, S. (2017). Education through digital platforms:
Possibilities for transformational partnerships. Journal of the World Federation of
Associations of Teacher Education. 2(1), 8-22.
Devlin-Foltz, B. (2010). Teachers for the global age: a call to action for funders. Teaching
Education. 21 (1), 113-117.
Husu, J, & Clandinin, D. J. (2019). Opening Possibilities for Research in Teacher Educators’
Learning. In: Teachers’ Professional Development in Global Contexts (pp. 3-22).
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004405363_001
Kozlowski, S., Chao, G.T., & Van Fossen, J. (2021), Leading virtual teams, Organizational
Dynamics, 100842, ISSN 0090-2616, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2021.100842.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090261621000176)
Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded source book
(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morrison-Smith, S., & Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and barriers in virtual teams: a literature
review. Springer Nature Applied Sciences 2, 1096. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-
2801-5
Ochoa, A. (2010). International education in higher education: a developing process of
engagement in teacher education programs. Teaching Education. 21 (1) 103-112.
OECD. (2018). Preparing Our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World: The OECD PISA
Global Competence Framework. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/Handbook-PISA-2018-
Global-Competence.pdf
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
135
Tichnor-Wagner, A., Parkhouse, A., Glazier, J., & Cain, M. (2019). Becoming a Globally
Competent Teacher. ASCD.
World Federation of Associations for Teacher Education (2021). WFATE’s mission.
https://www.worldfate.org/about.php)
Yin, R.K. (2003). Case study research: design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications.
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: design and methods (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
Zigurs, I. (2003). Leadership in virtual teams: Oxymoron or opportunity? Organisational
Dynamics. 31(4) 339-351. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-2616(02)00132-8
136
WFATE Board Members 2020-2021
Last Name First Name
Country Location Role Email
Parmigiani Davide Europe Italy President ATEE [email protected]
Morberg Asa Europe Sweden ATE-E Past President [email protected]
Montane Mireia Europe Spain, Barcelona
WFATE Past President
Lefever Shirley USA Kansas ATE-US Past President
Embry-Jenlink
Karen USA Texas ATE-US Past President
Stachowski Laura USA Indiana Board Member [email protected]
Jones Melita Australia ACU Board Member [email protected]
Burke Jenene Australia Federation Board Member WFATE President-Elect
Cooper Maxine Australia Federation WFATE President 2011-2014
Jacobsen Michele Canada Calgary CATE Past President [email protected]
Smith Cathryn Canada Brandon, Manitoba
CATE President [email protected]
Schnellert Leyton Canada UBC CATE Vice President [email protected]
WFATE Officers Cooper Maxine Australia Federation WFATE President
2011-2014 [email protected]
McCarthy Jane USA Nevada WFATE President 2014-2016
Montane Mireia Europe Spain, Barcelona
WFATE President 2016-2018
Paese Paul USA Texas WFATE President 2018-2020
WFATE Ex-Officio Officers
Alouf Jim USA Virginia WFATE Business Officer
Shelly Ann USA Ohio WFATE Executive Secretary
van Tassell Frances USA Texas WFATE Recording Secretary
![[MS-ADFSOAL]: Active Directory Federation Services …... · Active Directory Federation Services OAuth Authorization Code ... Active Directory Federation Services OAuth ... Federation](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/5ae61a947f8b9a6d4f8c406b/ms-adfsoal-active-directory-federation-services-directory-federation-services.jpg)
