Interview with Martin Schmitt
Teacher Secondary School, German Section
How did you conduct home-based learning during the Circuit Breaker period?
Home based learning could not have been conducted smoothly without a pedagogical strategy, a didactic concept and digital technology.
Pedagogically, it was necessary to consider:
How does the new situation change the learning conditions of students?
What are the most essential learning needs of students that a teacher can address under these circumstances?
In Secondary, our approach was to stick to our lesson schedule and to additionally employ video conference applications, so as to enable some form of structured and consistent real-time social interaction. Didactically, it was necessary to design a setup for learning activities which, on the one hand, contain phases of teacher instruction, social interaction, and classroom debate, and on the other hand phases of individualised learning, with transparency about learning tasks, the progression of competency acquisition and suitable tasks staggered by their cognitive complexity. And technologically, it was helpful that digital learning tools are so widely adopted at GESS.
What was home-based learning like for you as a teacher?
Home based learning was a very unique experience. Meeting my students and classes online at 8am, in the settings of my own study room, with a freshly brewed Espresso next to me, created a very special feeling. To me, this very different way of organising daily routines offered a mental equilibrium against the backdrop of a global pandemic affecting many countries, families, and lives.
What methods did you engage to keep your students interested?
Looking back at the eight consecutive weeks of home based learning in April and May, I’ve got to state that I was impressed by the discipline of most students. As a teacher for students from Grade 8 onwards, I observed that students in these grade levels are well-versed with the digital technology mediums we use at GESS. For example, most applications we use in a regular classroom setting, like notebooks, file repositories or word processing, are cloud-based, so students were able to access learning material, and teachers were able to instantly check and examine students’ results.
It was also helpful that we continued the regular lesson timetable in G-Sec Secondary and expanded digital platforms usage towards video conferencing. Thereby it was possible to virtually meet classes according to the normal teaching schedule, which helped to stabilize routines and supported social interaction in an almost classroom-like setting. I assume that for everyone participating in home based learning during these two months, being able to say “Good Morning” into the computer’s microphone and hearing a chorus of 20 voices answering created a positive feeling. Students were able to convene in video conferencing subgroups to assist each other, to share their results, or to collaborate. For me as a teacher, it was possible to virtually call individual students and discuss tasks, challenges, issues and results. From my perspective, what made a real difference was that learning could continue to be a social activity. On the content level, students wanted to know how to interpret the special situation, they were eager to learn about “how we can handle the pandemic”, “what history teaches us about comparable crisis situations?”, and “how our economy and society will change in the future” So these kind of questions were picked up and discussed in conjunction with many topics of our curricula.
What were some challenges you were quite surprised by?
I was surprised how quickly students adapted to the new learning environment. From a teaching perspective, a major challenge was that it became difficult to supervise learning processes directly. In a classroom, a teacher quickly realizes if students have issues understanding tasks, learning material, etc. Students with a higher level of learning-related self-confidence first try to overcome difficulties by themselves and, in case they fail, ask the teacher. Students with lower levels of self-confidence in learning-related activities tend to search for distraction, seeking for self-efficacy experiences otherwise. So, in case students get distracted from learning activities in the classroom, i. e. when they start chatting with each other about private topics or start playing, this indicates that there is some obstacle. Teachers can communicate with students in these cases through facial expressions, gestures, etc., to remind them of classroom expectations or help individual students cope with tasks and material.
In a home based learning environment, it is hard to have this level of awareness of students’ experiences and therefore it gets more challenging to follow up on each student and immediately support individual students while the task is in progress.
What did it take from you to overcome some of these challenges?
In each class and group, a huge number of students regularly volunteered to present their learning results in our video conference during the last 10-20 minutes of a lesson. The keenness to volunteer was sometimes even greater compared to regular lessons, which was impressive. But it became obvious that some students remained hesitant to share their results or thoughts. Therefore, it was necessary to encourage students, who stayed apprehensive, to believe that their results, thoughts and opinions count as well. Students were also reminded that they can contact me by chat or audio call if problems occur while working on tasks. After some time, I started calling those students who were quiet for a longer period. In some cases, it turned out that technical issues were causal, like malfunctions or disruptions of computer microphones, headsets or Wifi connections, which sometimes could be solved quickly. In other cases, students were thankful for me reaching out to them directly to assist and re-explain goals, tasks, material and procedures.
What have you learnt as a teacher from home-based learning?
I’ve learnt that human curiosity, the desire to learn and to collaborate will not be stopped by a pandemic, but instead it will be strengthened. I’ve experienced this development on many levels: Students in economics classes in Grade 10 started to investigate the macroeconomic consequences of preceding global recessions. In political science classes in Grade 9, students wanted to learn what kind of power governments possessed to tackle a health crisis, while being bound by constitutions and laws. In ethics classes of Grade 10 and 11, moral dilemmas related to the distribution of medical drugs and the system of “triage” were discussed passionately. But also behind the scenes of home based learning, a lot of change took place. Collaboration between teachers intensified, either formally in scheduled meetings or conferences, or informally, like in ad-hoc video sessions. The communication with parents became even more constructive and amicable. I think that our school community realised that we’re metaphorically all sitting in the same boat.
Were there any memorable moments you had during the HBL period?
Professionally or personally? Professionally, I’ll remember the enthusiasm of students to continue with digitally organised learning activities – against all odds. I’ll also remember the commitment of our school’s pedagogical management and administration teams, which was very helpful for teachers to focus on their designated roles and tasks. I’ll remember the efforts of parents – which I noticed through E-Mail and phone calls – who always supported their children with their respective tasks and activities. I’ll remember that I greeted all classes by counting the days of home based learning, like Robinson Crusoe cutting notches to count his days in isolation. And privately, I’ll remember cooking a lot at home, especially starting to bake pizzas, quiches and bread by myself.
What did you miss the most about classroom interaction?
The many smiling faces every day, and the planned and unplanned human encounters that occur during a normal school day. Besides lessons, where you always know whom you’re going to meet during the day, you always meet people on campus randomly: Students from former classes, parents, colleagues from other departments and sections and other members of staff who always share a smile, have time for a short or a long conversation. Even though social distancing had to be continued with many restrictions and limitations after the reopening in June, I was delighted to see so many students and colleagues back again, not on my computer screen, but in real life.
