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In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
Eight Post-Pandemic Predictions for Education
Admittedly, the pandemic has caused confusion, trauma, and disruption. It has also offered important insights, alternatives, and opportunities to make schools better as teachers and students return in the fall. The experience we gained, the challenges we faced, and the lessons we learned can be harvested to provide some important modifications and improvements, but only if we commit to identifying, applying, and leveraging them.
We know that pre-pandemic learning environments did not meet the needs of many students and educators. Now is the time to address some of the most intractable deficits of traditional education. However, we need to make specific commitments and allocate resources in ways that make the changes realistic and sustainable. Shifts in classroom practices, the role of learners, the nature of professional learning, and improvements in other areas are within our reach. Let’s explore eight post-pandemic predictions for this fall based on lessons we have learned.
Prediction #1. Instruction and learning experiences will be more responsive to student readiness and needs.
Lesson learned: One-size, standardized instruction does not meet the needs of too many students. Remote learning during the pandemic made this truth even more visible and had an exaggerated impact on learning.
Prediction #2. The focus on building relationships and creating communities of learning will grow, gain greater credibility, and be viewed with increased urgency.
Lesson learned: Building and sustaining connections and strong support presented a difficult challenge during remote learning. Unfortunately, where strong relationships were absent, students experienced lower levels of engagement, increased feelings of isolation, and lower levels of learning.
Prediction #3. Families will remain more directly involved in their children’s learning.
Lesson learned: Families can be effective and influential partners in their children’s learning, if given the right opportunities, adequate support, and necessary guidance. While in most families the intensity of involvement will retreat, there will remain an important role for families to play.
Prediction #4. Classroom rules and discipline will offer increased flexibility and tap student motivation to manage behavior.
Lesson learned: Many of the immediate behavior control levers available during in-person learning were not available during remote learning, so educators were forced to consider, adopt, and develop other strategies that led students to choose to cooperate and engage. These strategies are also effective in developing self-regulation, self-motivation, and learning independence as students return to in-person learning. Consequently, they will increasingly be recognized as key features of effective practice.
Prediction #5. Teachers who must be absent will have options to connect and lead instruction remotely.
Lesson learned: During remote learning, teachers routinely engaged their students in learning without being physically present. Many of the same tools and strategies can offer options for educator parents who need to be home with an ill family member, deal with a contagious disease, or otherwise be physically separated from school. While an in-person monitor may need to be present in the classroom, remote instruction can maintain continuity of learning even when the physical presence of the teacher is not practical.
Prediction #6. Professional learning will be more flexible, practical, and personalized.
Lesson learned: The pandemic forced rapid learning, flexible approaches, and increased collaboration. Learning that resulted led to shifts in instructional practices and modified classroom environments and innovative approaches. Lessons about flexibility, practicality, timeliness, purposefulness, and collaboration in professional learning will continue to be important to teachers beyond the pandemic experience.
Prediction #7. Technology will be a more integrated tool for students to gain knowledge, apply new learning, and generate insights and ideas.
Lesson learned: Prior to the pandemic, technology was often an appendage to the learning environment rather than a central tool for learning. Remote learning shifted technology to be a crucial access tool and learning conduit. Many educators also discovered the power of technology to give students a voice in their learning, an outlet for their creativity, and a way to extend their learning beyond the confines of prepared lessons.
Prediction #8. Remote learning options will remain available to learners with conditions and where needed.
Lesson learned: Remote learning can offer important flexibility to meet specific needs and unique circumstances. Some families may choose to continue remote learning in response to their children’s needs. Remote learning might also be helpful in response to extended school absences for travel, illness, etc. Of course, remote learning might also play a useful role during short term disruptions such as inclement weather and natural disasters.
If we fail to honor and apply the lessons learned during the pandemic, we are likely to find that schools and classrooms return to what existed prior to the pandemic. Unless we make these changes a priority and provide professional learning support and adequate resources, we risk losing some of the most important and beneficial outcomes of what has been a difficult and disruptive year.
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
Cultivating Trust in a Skeptical World
These are tough times for trust. Well before the pandemic, doubt and skepticism were growing in our society as a whole, and particularly in politics. Doubt and skepticism are contagious. What grows in one area can quickly spread to others.
Education and schools have not been immune. For generations, parents and the public consistently expressed high levels of confidence and trust in education. The public generally saw education as a way to improve our society and create opportunities for success so young people could do better than their parents. Taxes for public purposes, including education, were seen as investments in our collective future.
Consistent with erosion of trust in other public institutions, over the past few decades, doubts have grown about the performance of schools. Educators have often been blamed for the perceived lack of progress achieved by schools, despite dramatic expansion in the scope of the population being educated and significant shifts in the demographics of students attending our schools. Of course, education has not always progressed at a pace consistent with the needs of our society. Yet, there is more evidence that the problem is rooted in how our schools are designed and organized than there is that educators are not doing their best to serve the needs of students.
On the surface, the challenge of building and maintaining trust can seem insurmountable, even if we have done nothing to undermine or violate the trust of those we serve. Yet, while the challenge is significant there are steps and strategies we can employ to build trust and diminish skepticism over time. Here are five ways to build and sustain trust, even in the midst of controversy and conflict.
Start by keeping the focus of your decisions and communication on the core mission of your organization. Decisions that prioritize the interests of learners and learning are more likely to be accepted than decisions that do not include a “why,” or reasons that are not clearly aligned with and supportive of the mission. Don’t assume that constituents can see the connection by themselves. Consistently reference the core mission of learning and learners when making key decisions and communicating about direction. Conditions may change and the challenges may shift, but the more consistent you can be about what drives your decisions the more trust you will build, especially when the core is what is best for learners and learning. When learning and learners at the center, it is much more difficult for skeptics to pushback, even when they may prefer another option.
Establish decision criteria in advance where possible. Discussing what should drive considerations in advance of a decision can help constituents understand why certain criteria are important to evaluating options. Availability of decision criteria in advance can also help to prepare people for what may lie ahead. When a key decision is made, refer to the criteria as part of the rationale and confirm the decision with criteria-related data and evidence. Of course, be sure that the criteria are reflective of the purpose of the organization. Depending on the specific situation, you might even consider engaging constituents in discussions about the best criteria to use.
Be visible. Apart from any specific controversy or decision, be physically or virtually present throughout the organization and community. Be sure that people see and can easily engage you. There is a direct correlation between leaders who people often see as engaged in constructive, non-controversial things and the level of trust they offer when difficult decisions have to be made. You can build a “benefit of the doubt” quotient well in advance of having to make difficult or controversial decisions.
Anticipate questions and provide full information when announcing and communicating about challenging decisions. Don’t wait for people to ask. Anticipating questions allows you to frame answers and provide reassurance before doubt and rumors begins to emerge. Further, having thought about the concerns and perspectives of others offers reassurance that the decision is well-thought out and is more likely to be trusted.
Be ready to listen and open to feedback and criticism. How we respond to questions, doubts, and criticism can send important signals to listeners about how confident we are in actions we are taking. Defensiveness can undermine and even sink workable solutions and credible paths forward. Of course, there are times when we might miss key implications or fail to anticipate some outcomes resulting from our decisions. Our willingness to listen, consider, and even make needed adjustments can go a long way to build trust and counter skepticism.
Building trust takes time. It cannot be taken for granted. Winning over skeptics may require patience. However, consistent, mission-focused decisions supported by openness, flexibility, and listening will win over, or at least mute, most skeptics while building your credibility and making the case for trusting you and your leadership.
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
In Your Corner, Teacher Learning
In Your Corner, Student Learning
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Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
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As much as we sometimes want to take control and tell students what they should do when they face a difficult challenge, it usually is best to position ourselves as coaches, reflectors, and supportive advocates.
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