A lower school teacher at the Schlossmatt school center in Münsingen: she taught her students distance learning for eight weeks. Image: KEYSTONE
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After eight weeks of school closure: A conclusion in 6 points
After an eight-week break, “Switzerland at the weekend” takes stock of distance learning. How did students and parents cope with the pedagogical emergency? Six theses.
Hooray, hooray, schools open
It is the time for confessions. From primary school students, for example. They call out to the teacher from the balcony: “I never would have thought it, but I admit that I am happy to be able to go back to school.” Of course, the children of all levels long for their goose, for analogue communication from person to person. Luna Lanz, class spokeswoman for the Orpund high school near Biel, describes it in a blog post on www.condorcet.chso: «Finally sitting at my desk again, having sport in school again, finally doing chemistry experiments and changing the moods of my class teacher bear. Yes, I missed all of that in the Corona phase. »
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The homeschooling boom does not happen
The corona crisis has not triggered a boom in parental private lessons, as Willi Villiger, president of home education, says. The association recorded only a minimal increase in membership. Reasons for interest include: The children are not bullied at home. Or: You better learn at home. However, the demand for tips was great. The blog of an experienced homeschool mother was clicked a thousand times. Around 2,500 children are currently receiving permanent schooling in their own four walls in Switzerland.
The overview of the situation in Switzerland:
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Parents are amazed at what schools do
With the lockdown, lessons have moved from the school building to the living room. With which the parents realize the difficulties that need to be overcome in the learning process. Or how quickly the children are distracted. That they have to be motivated again and again. It is not the teacher who is to blame for the learning difficulties. That teaching is demanding because the teachers have to keep an eye on the whole class, but also the individual learning progress. That you need pedagogical and didactic skills, well-rhythmic lessons with practice and correction phases. Many parents who mutated into assistant teachers overnight long to reopen the school.
Corona virus – the situation worldwide:
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Digitization is still in its infancy
Let’s be honest. We were generally less than well prepared for the pandemic. And all the associated challenges. See lack of mask. Can we blame the schools and teachers for not being able to start all over the world for distance learning on day 1 after the lockdown? That everyone muddled at their own discretion in the absence of a strategy? Not really. One thing is certain: the application competence has increased.
Beat Döbeli, head of the Institute for Media and School at the Schwyz University of Education, puts it this way: «During this time, many teachers digitally exceeded themselves and managed to do what they would not have dared to do recently: a video conference with the whole class lead to making work orders available for a whole week on a website or receiving work from schoolchildren and providing individual digital feedback. » The website www.lernentrotzcorona.ch, co-initiated by Döbeli, has been clicked on almost half a million times since the school closed. The platform offers something like a digital, didactic all-round supply: practical tips for use, but also concrete teaching material.
Digital teaching is not a substitute for the classroom
Is the traditional school abolishing itself? Have the teachers become superfluous if the children type solutions into the computer and it spits out the corrections? Some politicians are hoping for a digital boost for the post-lockdown period. This will be possible in part because both teachers and students are better at using computers.
The only thing is that analog teaching remains irreplaceable. Decisive for the success of learning, as the famous study by educational researcher John Hattie from the University of Melbourne shows, is not the technical equipment of a school, but the teacher-student relationship. The interaction between people is central. The build-up feedback to students, the dialogical support in the learning process is not an anonymous machine. Incidentally, digital pioneers came to this conclusion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Apple founder Steve Jobs brought up their children largely without technology. They attended digital-free Waldorf schools.
Analog teaching remains irreplaceable. A teacher prepares the classroom for reopening. Image: KEYSTONE
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That with the digging between committed and lazy teachers
Yes, they do exist. As probably in every company. The minimalists. They are teachers who interacted little with their students, covered them with a stack of worksheets at the beginning of the week, and then almost left them to themselves. In a state of emergency, the deficits may manifest themselves even more. In conversations with parents, students and experts, however, it becomes clear that the vast majority of teachers did a great job. And received praise for it.
What you need to know about the corona virus:
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