Rewriting the ABCs of the 3Rs

As an organisation, we have lived through SARS in 2004 and experienced up close how Singapore implemented edtech to overcome disruptions caused by the epidemic. Never to be caught off guard again, the ministry went a step further and equipped schools to be future ready should such crises ever happen again. Even as of last week, Singapore transitioned effortlessly to home based learning because they had systems in place and the stakeholders knew the routine.

In 2020, Covid unleashed a tidal wave that accelerated the adoption of technology in schools at unimaginable speed and scale. Overnight learning spaces got virtualised. Time and content got virtualised. Schooling itself got virtualised. Teachers had to rapidly adapt to virtual classrooms. Students were at home with no peers and pretty much had to take charge of their own learning. If this practice continues effectively, students can develop agency and become self-directed learners. That could be one of the best outcomes and a silver lining of the lockdown. 

As the saying goes, ‘never let a crisis go waste’ - the pandemic has presented a once in a generation opportunity for transformational change in school education.

But, the starting point is to question the most basic assumptions ?

• How to teach?
• What to teach?
• What is the purpose of schooling ?

The inescapable reality is that the future looks more and more complex and volatile. Education should prepare students with competencies that will enable them to navigate through and solve knotty problems. Schools should nurture dispositions like adaptability and agility so that students develop mindsets to thrive in environments of ambiguity and uncertainty.

What is clear is that innovation is pivotal in education. In 2020, some new and successful practices emerged in teaching & learning eg: teachers experimented with mobile apps to conduct real time quizzes virtually, students used adaptive software for asynchronous learning and google docs became interactive notebooks. Teachers and students we surveyed are keen to continue leveraging such digital technologies to create richer interactive experiences.

This is a great time for schools to pause and make changes with intent and purpose. We are presented with a unique moment in history to consider educational innovations that are deeper, wider and more ‘fundamental’ than ever before. Based on my discussions with school leaders over the last 18 months, I am presenting a few ideas below: 

1) First reimagine curriculum Why should schools have a templatised syllabus that is sequential in nature? Curriculum should reflect the socio-economic and technological realities of our times as well as meet the demands of the future workplace.

Next, curriculum should be inter-disciplinary. Students of all ages should have comprehensive exposure to multiple areas of learning, especially the arts and humanities - because solving challenges like youth unemployment or food insecurity requires ingenuity and expertise that spans across disciplines. Critical thinking and communication should also be embedded in all content areas. 

Some years ago, Singapore came up with a breakthrough concept called ‘Teach Less, Learn More’. Genesis of this idea was that if you reduce the curriculum and provide white spaces in the calendar for teachers and students - they will have the opportunity to co-create new areas of knowledge leading to more relevant learning.

2) Reimagine assessments : For the first time, standardised tests like SAT and high stakes exams like the CBSE and IB boards were cancelled last year. This has opened up a public debate on whether these forms of assessment are outdated and need to make way for more contemporary formats that reflect today’s needs. 

3) Next, a deliberate focus on developing dispositions and attitudes such as collaboration, entrepreneurship, story telling and self-awareness will lay the foundation to create innovators and inventors of tomorrow. 

4) Another path-breaking idea would be to provide maximum flexibility for students to choose their own learning pathways. Schools should allow students to choose content areas based on their natural talents and passions. That is true personalisation of learning and will be a great outcome of schooling. 

5) Education has traditionally been the least digitised sector. However, in 2020 teachers realised the tremendous productivity benefits of digitising their own knowledge into power points and videos. It was amazing to see how teachers extensively used dynamic content in the HeyMath! platform for assessments. This was a big departure from the past when there was over reliance on textbooks. The pandemic should be a catalyst for leaders to embark on a solid school wide digitisation plan. 

6) The upside of no commute during the pandemic got replaced by zoom fatigue. That’s because a usual school day of marching through six or seven 45 minute sessions simply got mirrored into a virtual format. Once the government imposed restrictions on how much time students could spent on online classes, principals had to creatively rethink about the school day. This gave birth to ideas such as independent study time, group work and one-on-one tutorials. 

As the academic year came to a close, several forward thinking educators paused and asked themselves the questions, ‘What is the purpose of teaching? How do I reinvent myself for a world of hybrid learning?’. Edtech, when put to good use can create superstar teachers. The role of a teacher can be elevated in significant ways as curator of resources, enablers of learning and mentors/counsellors to students. 

1) Good teachers have realised the need to reimagine pedagogical practices to make online teaching effective eg: content must be broken into smaller chunks and made more atomic, interactive elements (like quizzes and games) need to be planned more carefully, music and stories can be used to break the monotony.

2) Next, introduce variety in the modes of teaching & learning to engage students better eg: mashing up lectures with peer to peer mentoring, inviting guests for cameo talks, involving student as moderators for discussions in break out rooms etc.

3) The success of an education system directly depends upon the quality of its teachers. The pandemic has spotlighted an acute sense of urgency for up-skilling and re-skilling teachers. The pandemic also brought together the teacher fraternity like never before. There was a sense of shared challenges, shared anxieties and shared aspirations. New routines and habits formed. These practices can be taken to the next level through online professional learning communities; where teachers can share ideas, co-create lesson plans and access technical support.

4) Lack of ‘connection with students’ and inability to gauge whether learning really happened was the biggest discomfort that teachers voiced about online classes. These might have been concerns even earlier but they got amplified and became ‘top of mind priority’ for teachers post Covid. Focus in the coming months should be on reaching every student through mentoring and counselling. Edtech solutions like HeyMath! enable teachers to provide individualised support to students through differentiated lessons and remedial bridge programs. 

In conclusion, I believe schools can become cauldrons of creativity if they adopt an agile approach to experimentation and iteration of new ideas. As classrooms literally have no boundaries anymore, we can raise the quality of education by streaming common lectures by master teachers and organising inspiring talks by subject matter experts across schools. Further, innovations can be scaled up if schools collaborate with each other and create a mechanism to exchange and institutionalise next practices.