Author: Mark Anderson
Let’s start by sharing the simple premise that good teaching and learning is good teaching and learning – whether that be a situation where all learners are in the same location, whether all are remote or any combination in between.
Throughout my career, opinions on what good teaching and learning look like have changed dramatically. From the engaging starters to conversations about learning styles to the three-part lesson – everything has moved forwards as we learn more about what works, how people learn and the approaches to supporting that. Sure, people haven’t changed much but our understanding about people and how their brains work has.
If like many now, you have a hybrid classroom due to absences related to COVID or other illness, my clear viewpoint is that a good lesson should still contain the same basic tenets of what is currently deemed good learning and teaching should look like.
For this post, let’s assume everyone has access to devices, teachers are trained and confident in their use of tools to facilitate this all working and there’s an infrastructure in place to ensure connectivity. This should now be a given, not a desirable. If these things aren’t in place for your school organisation, careful planning and thought should be given to how you can make them possible. It may be, for example, that you perform the learning sequence live, record it and facilitate the other activities asynchronously in a blended approach, as opposed to being synchronous.
So, what does a good one look like? Well, I think it’s expected that most learning scenarios will include these areas:
- Lesson planning:
Use your knowledge from the previous session to inform what you cover in the next session. Link it to your curriculum map so progression continues. - Delivery planning and any resource creation:
Will this be online? Will you share a video for learners to watch? Will you create it or will it be from an external source, such as Oak Academy or YouTube? Have you checked it? Will you deliver in the classroom to some learners whilst some observe remotely via a tool such as Microsoft Teams and engage with learners joining remotely via a device at home, monitored and supported through a tool such as classroom.cloud? Will you need to create any resources such as a template worksheet or online activity? How will you share any curated or created resources? - Checking for student understanding:
Engagement is important here, so can you track it using a tool such as Insights in Teams? Will you create a low-stakes quiz to test knowledge? Could you use the live chat feature on your platform for questioning to gauge responses quickly and easily? Will you cold call and does the tool you’re using for the lesson facilitate this? Could you use an online tool such as Microsoft Whiteboard or Jamboard to help with this or would the chat feature be sufficient? Again, whatever you choose, ensure learners know how to do this and the suggestion again would be that you make this a consistent practice. - Plan student activities to represent their learning:
How will you do this? Will you set an assignment in Google Classroom or Teams? How about adding a rubric so that learners know what they must do and cover to be successful? How will you view this work? Can students complete the activity with pen and paper and submit it via a photo? Whatever approaches you allow, make them consistent so that everyone knows what is expected and allowable. How will you support accessibility with the activity? - Assess learners and review to provide feedback:
How will work be assessed? Will this happen live within the class? How could you facilitate peer review and feed forward? Do the devices your students are using allow for them to submit their in-lesson activity? Do your students know how to create their response and submit it? Consider making it clear what you are able and willing to assess and feed back upon and what you are not. You can’t mark and look at everything, so outline what you will do and when.
To sum up…
What teaching and learning look like in a hybrid setting shouldn’t differ too much from what you would do if your learners were all in the same location, albeit you’ll approach it in different ways based upon your setting (which may or may not include a blended approach incorporating synchronous and asynchronous opportunities).
It can unfortunately be the case that, with the digital divide and a lack of equity of access to technology and infrastructure, this approach isn’t possible for your setting. If it isn’t, what can you do about it? How can you improve that scenario? This is where your digital strategy comes into play – and if you aren’t yet in this position, perhaps a look at our resources on digital strategy on our education hub such as our ‘Guide to Creating a Digital Strategy in Education’ will be a good starting point to move forwards.
The thing that is of paramount importance is that we remember that whatever we decide to do in the lesson, it must be accessible to your learners, whether they’re in the room, down the corridor, at home or any combination of these.
It is always my strong advice that you apply your approaches consistently; this means that learners don’t have to learn how to do different things every lesson and can focus on their core business of learning through the shared sections and lesson activities. It’s even better if these approaches are applied consistently across your school, so learners get a similar experience with all of their teachers.
The important thing to remember is that whatever your school, your infrastructure or set-up or access to devices your learners have, good teaching and good learning activities don’t differ too much across any of these settings. The things that change are management-related rather than activity-related – so how will you manage to ensure the basics are covered as part of your delivery? That is what is most important. Get the basics right for your setting and you won’t go far wrong with your learners in the classroom.
