An aspect of my current professional mandate includes visiting classrooms in the online environment in order to gather anecdotal data as well as to provide pedagogical and or resource support. While I enjoy observing the dynamics of teaching and learning both in face-to-face and in digital spaces, this time of COVID 19 presents a unique opportunity for us to re-weight and re-assign value to the components which make up good teaching and learning based on our professional assessment of student needs. Every good teacher/educator knows about the value of having clear objectives or deliverables at the start of the lesson, which should guide delivery and student academic achievement. What impressed me about one of the classes I visited to date, was the positive emotional energy I sensed in the class both among students and between teacher and students. Was it a perfect class with perfect activities all suited to the online environment? Not necessarily. What this class demonstrated, nonetheless, was a positive, soothing, embracing environment, where children were comfortable being children (albeit a tad cheekily) while the teacher displayed a strong mastery of the psycho-social domain.
The assumption that all teachers are specially called individuals with a larger than life mastery of complex situations and diverse personalities is perhaps a myth which we need to put to rest. Individuals enter teaching from a plethora of backgrounds and life experiences and possess a range of expectations and competencies based on training, prior experiences, mentorship experiences and personality traits. The construct of teacher-efficacy as espoused by Woolfolk and Hoy (1990) speaks of teachers’ belief in their own capabilities to get the job done. As originally outlined by Bandura (1997) one’s sense of efficacy is enabled through vicarious experiences, mastery experiences, social persuasion and emotional states. This suggests that teachers’ confidence as a derivative of efficacy is bolstered by what they normally practice, what they witness others practice, how they are supported and encouraged and by the level of excitement or enthusiasm they may experience in using tried and tested strategies (Gavora, 2010).
The COVID 19 global pandemic and the disruption it brought, has effectively placed teachers in a different “efficacious” space, causing many of them to question their own expertise or sense of professional certainty. This is an “exposing” space for many; a place of great professional vulnerability which has toggled with the notion of teacher dominance and mastery of the teaching-learning paradigm. Relatedly, there are significant implications for how these new unplanned for and dynamic or fluid teacher experiences, may influence their negotiation of digital spaces and their sense of competency or efficacy. Many teachers are willingly walking alone and are afraid to open their virtual classrooms to the scrutiny that can provide much needed support and encouragement. It is tough call which I understand, and which is perhaps magnified by a traditional lack of trust between teachers and educational authorities.
This brings me right back to that classroom, where more than one student said longingly: “Sir, I don’t want to leave”. Is it possible that the fluidity and uncertainty of this crisis moment in education is demanding that our teachers leverage a whole new set of competencies which tended to be in the background, largely overshadowed by a focus on teaching objectives and paper pencil tests? Is it perhaps expedient for educational authorities to focus more on the development of these competencies both at the levels of educational leaders and those who work on the educational frontlines; teachers? Creating a safe psycho-emotional space for students where they are free to explore what is troubling them or where they are free to raise difficult questions, is proving to be very critical in our new learning environment and demands the mastery of specific skill-sets.
I witnessed this first-hand in another class where students were anxious to discuss the expected challenges of returning to school with face masks. This could have been an excellent teachable moment but this became lost in the execution of a lesson plan. This left me questioning whether this focus on the plan was on account of my virtual presence or simply because the teacher did not feel competent enough to handle student discomfort. The extent to which teachers can become adept at creating healthy psycho-emotional spaces in an environment where they themselves may feel less efficacious, is perhaps worth interrogating and addressing.
Concomitantly, I think it is a tough ask, to expect teachers to master student discomfort while they themselves are either not being given the space to express such or are not seizing the opportunity to articulate or negotiate their own discomfort and loss of professional certainty. This may be attributed to the suddenness with which teachers were expected to master teaching and learning in digital spaces, especially since there was minimal training and few opportunities for mentorship or modelling (Bandura’s vicarious experiences).
In my first anecdotal reference, I mentioned a self-effacing teacher who admitted to his vulnerability and sense of uncertainty. Perhaps his personality allowed him to do so and the children connected readily with this and felt safe in that space. Admittedly we have all types of personalities in the profession and some understandably will feel angry, pressured, anxious, tensed, inept or even fearful. Some may even grieve the absence of what they once knew and were so good at. Fortunately, a few will also feel masterful and will thrive in this time of learning and experimentation. Regardless of where teachers as professionals may find themselves, developing sensitive approaches to students psyhco-emotional health in digital spaces will require that teachers become engaged with their own vulnerabilities and insecurities.
This speaks to the need for building meaningful inter-departmental relationships through both formal and informal meetings, designed to strengthen teacher competencies while also allowing for social-emotional sharing and encouragement. Scheduling team teaching in online spaces (and I witnessed a commendable example of this) is an excellent strategy for developing teacher confidence and for providing vicarious experiences for less experienced professionals. In this instance, “less experienced” may not have to do so much with time spent in teaching, as it may have to do with teacher-comfort in the digital environment. Investigating teacher skill sets and pairing/grouping them accordingly is, therefore, advised. Allowing for regular debriefings and open, non-judgemental sharing may also prove valuable.
Most will perhaps agree that students will continue to need psycho-social/emotional support to do well in digital environments, especially where socio-economic factors contribute to a digital divide. Similarly, it is imperative that school authorities and leaders organize for teacher development of their own psycho-emotional competencies by creating a healthy professional climate. This is one where there is an absence of unrealistic demands and timelines; where teachers are free to share their concerns and challenges without feeling threatened; where there is a team approach to teaching and to professional development and where there is a clear balance between expectations, professional support, and teacher accountability. The creation of professional learning communities which target specified areas of inquiry and professional development can also serve to bolster teachers’ sense of efficacy, in all environments. All teacher skills maximised in these crisis moments, become invaluable tools that are transferable across settings.
References
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W H Freeman/Times Books/ Henry Holt & Co.
Gavora, P. (2010). Slovak pre-service teacher self-efficacy: Theoretical and research considerations. The New Educational Review. Vol. 21, No. 2 pp. 17-30. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f284/be870680436674ae2c02038c595e43fded01.pdf
Woolfolk, A. E., & Hoy, W. K. (1990). Prospective teachers’ sense of efficacy and beliefs about control. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.1.81
© Dr. Denise J Charles
FUTURE LEARN 2.0 