Katherine Atree and colleagues had to teach their kids during COVID lockdown and they report lessons learned that apply to higher education.
The four authors were experienced online teachers when the pandemic hit, meaning they had to support their children’ learning, as well as their students, from home. They used the opportunity to be both subjects and researchers, talking about their experiences over three months.
They report five common themes in their experience that relate to teaching and learning in a university.
- “Belonging and connectedness”: the support they gave their children learning at home made them aware how hard remote classes can be for students who do not have family support. “We wondered, what happened to students from rural communities who were studying on-line, or students who were stay-at-home parents? What opportunities did they have to engage and connect with their peers and academics, and could this interaction be better facilitated in the learning environment?”
- Watching their children respond to on-line teaching the four focused on the importance of flexibility and interactive learning in their own distances classes.
- “Emotions and wellbeing:” having their children’s classrooms in their home gave them a sense of what learning is like for their own students, studying in shared family spaces and of the importance of personal connections. “Reflecting on our own experiences allowed us to form a greater sense of empathy towards our university students.”
- Equity: their experience demonstrated the importance of cultural capital provided by family support. “The challenge for universities will be how to support the increasing diversity of learners particularly in the on-line environment as more students opt for, or are pushed into, hybrid modes.”
- Technology/pedagogy: as experienced on-line academics they were surprised to feel overwhelmed by home-schooling “technology frustrations” including schoolteachers tech choices. “It raised our awareness of the need to consider the number and type of technologies and software applications used within a university subject … Introducing a multiplicity of technologies early can lead to ‘overwhelm’.”
- Communication/consistency: their children’s schools let teachers decide on teaching times and content – which was frustrating. It demonstrated “the value of regular and clear communication providing guidance and instructions to facilitate the learning,”
A take-out: “While our own middle-class children benefited from having tertiary educated parents who are experienced academics, the lockdown periods may have exacerbated disadvantage amongst equity groups. The challenge for higher education institutions is how to support an increasingly diverse community of learners.”
