Westchester Words: UK and International, Education and Edtech
Westchester Words: UK and International, Education and Edtech
Lessons Learnt in Lockdown
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During the first eighteen months of the pandemic, many schools across the UK were on lockdown, with primary and secondary education taking place in the home environment. As a result there was a greater deal of parental involvement in the education of the children. In this episode, Rebecca Durose-Croft has a conversation with literacy consultant, Sarah Loader about the lessons educators and parents learnt as a result of the lockdown, and what will be carried forward as children return to the classroom setting.
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Hi, and welcome to Westchester words , UK and international. I'm Rebecca Durose-Croft, content and services director at Westchester education services. So now the summer term has ended and we can look back on 18, extraordinary months of our children's schooling, in particular homeschooling. Perhaps now it feels like a safe time to look back and have a think about what we learnt or maybe what we learnt about what we needed to learn to teach our children. And today we're talking with literacy consultant, Sarah Loader about the lessons learned in lockdown in terms of how our children were taught and how they learnt. So let's start with those zoom lessons and Sarah, what kind of insight do we build on?
Sarah LoaderRebecca, on a personal level , I found it fascinating and it's not something that normal schooling offers most of us , um, as parents that kind of chance to observe and sort of be part of our children's school day or certainly elements of it. I think lots of parents were able to witness how their children interacted with others, their peers, the teacher, their level of confidence in terms of participating in discussions, answering questions, what topics interested them and which turned them straight off, the subjects and concepts they found difficult. And I guess the things that came more easily to them, I think for parents who glean a bit less from their children on the walk home from school, in terms of what they've done all day, it offered enormous insight.
Rebecca Durose-CroftOh yeah, that. I mean, kids come home from school. I mean, my daughter comes home from school and I'll say, what did you do? What did you eat? And she just says, I dunno , I dunno . I dunno . <laugh> uh , so it makes me wonder how teachers might have felt kind of being the opposite of that and suddenly not having that insight.
Sarah LoaderYeah. I mean, absolutely. I think lots of teachers probably felt really daunted by the prospect, not only of zoom teaching, which in itself , I think had some challenges. Um, but by the idea of teaching their class of 30 in front of all those children's parents, because for us, certainly it wasn't possible to leave our son to conduct his lessons on his own , um, due to his kind of age and stage, he couldn't work the technology, the muting and unmuting, and we really needed to kind of be there to get the gist of the tasks and activities. And I guess if I'm honest, kind of keep him focused and concentrating.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, of course.
Sarah LoaderBut we did try to stay in the background sort of more bystanders than active participants, which I have to say is easier said than done. When you are watching your child scribble something that's completely wrong or refuse to volunteer and answer when they know it or get the jitters about something. But we did try.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, I bet. I mean, it must have taken parents a fair bit of restraint to maintain that bystander position. But what could it provide and , and what type of things might it have gleaned just by watching?
Sarah LoaderWell, I can certainly identify with that challenge and that self restraint, but what's interesting, I think, is to see how children in the class react to each other, how they kind of bounce off each other or they're encouraged or discouraged by the different personalities in the class. What builds their confidence and what knocks it down, the effect the teacher has on that dynamic. Um, how well she, or he's able to draw things out of children, perhaps curb overenthusiasm in others. As a parent, being able to see where your child slots into that bigger picture can be really enlightening. And if you are able to take a step back from the kind of immediacy of it, which is really, really difficult , it's interesting to see how those classroom dynamics kind of play out. Um, I think it's easy to assume that because parents know their children so well that they know them in every environment. And one of the things I was struck by was how different my son was at school, so to speak, then he was at home with us.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah. That's really interesting, actually. So what way was he different?
Sarah LoaderJust a lot quieter, I think less sure of himself. Happy kind of drifting into the background. Quite a lively, willing observer mm-hmm <affirmative> but an observer nonetheless. So not as involved as I thought he'd be and really, really concerned about getting things wrong, which I think, and having spoken to , um, a lot of peers and friends, I think that's quite common that kind of fear of making a mistake was quite debilitating at times. Yes. Yeah. And watching the impact that pattern of behavior has in terms of being able to participate in class and take risks and ask for help is really illuminating. So there can be a sort of domino effect, which is useful to witness firsthand in order to be able to react and respond to it. Parents are obviously responding to their children's behavior all the time, but having the chance to respond specifically to those classroom attitudes or personas was definitely an interesting and surprising opportunity of lockdown. So a response of that, to that fear of getting it wrong, might be about resilience in terms of learning.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, I mean I never thought of it from that point of view that a , a child would've felt quite worried and scared of doing that lesson in front of their parents. And it's not just doing it in front of your teacher. It's, you know, the , the two people who are the most focused point of your life, that must have been really daunting for them. So, so what does that learning resilience look like then?
Sarah LoaderI guess it's about having the confidence and the assurance to try things mm-hmm <affirmative> and it's interesting, cause we teach that a lot in terms of physical activities with our children, from when they're quite tiny, you know, learning to walk, riding a bike, climbing a tree, we're constantly pushing them out of their comfort zone to experience new things, get to know their physical capabilities. But I don't think we do that as much when it comes to learning, because I guess to some degree, we are less involved in that side of things , um, from when they start school and actually for some of us from when they start nursery or preschool. And of course there is homework and some at home activities and reading and perhaps some writing, but in a broader sense, we leave that to school. And suddenly we were in this situation where we could watch our children trying to solve a math problem or interpret a story or spell something new. And it wasn't just about whether they had the capability to do that task. It was about how they were able to do it in that classroom environment. Yeah . With their peers with less attention, with a time structure. So kind of how willing, and able they were to, to take risks, make judgements , put themselves out there. That's what was new to a lot of parents. And that was what was really interesting.
Rebecca Durose-CroftSo in those situations there, where there is that lack of confidence or, or resilience, how should parents have well, in an ideal world, which we definitely weren't in at the time, how should parents have been supporting children in those zoom classrooms?
Sarah LoaderWell it is difficult, isn't it? Because it goes back to the idea of how involved we were meant to be and how helpful that actually was. Yes. Yeah . I mean, you're not able to sit with them in the classroom and, and encourage them and support them. So how much you do that within a zoom lesson depends on, on, on your kind of how you feel as a parent, I think, and how teachers might have responded to that. I think for some children, it may have been useful to have someone in the background reminding them how much they can do. But I think the most important thing is really about having seen that behavior or any behavior that we witnessed during lockdown and during those zoom lessons , um , is kind of what we do with that information moving forward. So children are generally back at school now, as you said, and we are not able to sit alongside them, but we are armed with a bit more knowledge about the factors that affect their learning, which can only be a positive thing. I think it might not be a lack of confidence. Some parents will have seen their children's confidence and capacity emerge. Um , in that environment, they may have seen children more involved than they expected, more central in that dynamic. Uh , perhaps they notice their children lead more than they thought they would, take a bit more ownership, be more commanding. It just provided a window into how our children operate in an environment. Perhaps arguably one of the only environments when they're very young, that we are , almost entirely excluded from as parents. Yeah . Yeah, of course. I'm not sure you can say the same for older children who will have been working much more independently and privately you'd thought though, depending on how kind of homework stations were set up, there may still have been the odd glimpse into their classroom personas.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, I mean I was very different in school than I was at home throughout my school life. So it is, it was that kind of glimpse into them in a different world, wasn't it? But I guess as a question now about what we do with that knowledge now that we're armed with it.
Sarah LoaderYes. And I think it's really valuable to see what makes our children tick in different environments. And I think the more we know, you know, the more, the more useful that is. So for learning, understanding, or impacts that what that might be about the atmosphere we create, perhaps the level of challenge we set, how much support we offer or the type of activity that children are doing and how we kind of generate interest. I guess it's about building towards a more successful learning scenario now that we are out of homeschooling. How we adapt that in our lives, moving forward. I guess we've learned a bit about how our children learn rather than what they know. And that might have been a slightly unexpected, positive outcome of homeschooling. Yeah. I think many parents were able to communicate with their children and provide for them in a different way than they could before lockdown.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, absolutely. I'm sure. So the big question then is what can parents do differently going forward?
Sarah LoaderWell, Of course it's totally individual, but just knowing that for instance, your child responds very well to imaginative activities or problem solving tasks, that they work better independently or with more interaction, perhaps better with tasks broken down or with more kind of in broader or encompassing activities, there are all sorts of variations we can create to get that balance right. Or at least more comfortable and enjoyable for them.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah . I mean, in terms of the substance of those activities we might be setting or helping with at home, did we, or did you learn anything as a parent about what our children can actually do or , or not? And , and do , do you find think there was any big surprises about the fundamentals in your child's learning?
Sarah LoaderIt's interesting. I think there were probably less surprises there, certainly for parents who are pretty involved generally in their children's learning. It, may have shone a light on what we already suspected in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . So knowing that your child struggles a bit with maths might have been highlighted during the zoom lessons, seeing just how tricky some tasks were for them might have provided a useful reminder that things are only easy when you can do them, which sounds completely obvious. Yes . But it's worth holding onto when you are trying to help your child with schoolwork at home. Yes. Yeah . And I also think gaining an understanding of how concepts are taught in school. So how the skills are built up, like building blocks to enable that that secure understanding was really useful and that if children failed to grasp one element of that skill sdevelopment, it can actually be really difficult for them to proceed. As a parent, I think there's a lot you can take away from that in terms of supporting that skills tower to continue the metaphor and helping to fill any gaps that become apparent or became apparent during homeschooling. So that might have been in math with particular times tables gaps, for instance, which create obstacles for other conceptual processes or with knowledge of certain sounds in phonics or anything really.
Rebecca Durose-CroftThat was the one I was gonna mention. I was gonna mention phonics, I can imagine that was quite an eye opener.
Sarah LoaderAbsolutely. And if you're missing some particular sounds, then it , you know, as you know, that has a huge knock on. So it's about seeing the impact that those gaps have. Um, it informs what needs to be worked on whether that's at home in terms of where you can focus your support or at school, by speaking to teachers about extra support and tuition, it just makes for a sort of more joined up approach to learning, which I think is something we should all be taking away from this. And I certainly, noticed that the parent consultation that we had that followed homeschooling felt completely different from ones we'd had previously with regard to our son. Yeah. I bet. In the way that we were able to communicate with the teacher, we just had yeah , yeah . Much more of shared understanding of who he is. Mm-hmm <affirmative> than previously when we've, we've actually been struck by how different the teacher's perception was of him than ours. And we struggled to get those two kind of pictures of him to match, but I found that after lockdown, we could sort of all acknowledge and identify those, those gaps in his learning together talk about the best strategies and it just felt a much more realistic. Yeah . Kind of honest conversation. It was more useful than it's ever been. Certainly.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah. So it was , it was an exercise in kind of learning who he is like the whole <laugh> like, you know, the whole view of him and, you know, inside and outside of school and understanding him as , as , as an individual. Really . Absolutely. Exactly. So we've talked quite a lot about the benefits of homeschooling and the successful outcomes, but for many parents, for my friends and family, I know it was an enormous challenge. And I just felt very lucky that all I had to do was put my daughter in front of Peppa Pig, cuz she wasn't at school age <laugh> . But um, do you think that these upsides make up for that?
Sarah LoaderWe did a fair bit of that as well, so don't feel bad, but you're right. Of course. Um , and I'm not trying to detract from those challenges in any way. For many parents, and I absolutely include myself in this. It was one of the harder aspects of parenting I've encountered. I'm not a teacher. My son is not a particularly motivated independent learner, so yes, it was really, really, really tough. But I think there are positives that we have to take away from it as, as kind of compensation. Um, we know more about how our children learn more about how they cope and communicate in the classroom, more about the challenges they face, where their strengths lie than we ever did before. And you know, knowledge is power they say, so let's take that forward and, and uh , and , and take it as a win.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah, absolutely, you have to see the positives out of it. Don't you? So turning it on its head then , uh , what were the downsides to being so involved with your children's learning?
Sarah LoaderWell, that's quite an interesting point <laugh> and I think there probably were , um , keep it clean. <laugh> some outcomes that were tricky to manage. It can feel quite hard to hand that control back to schools and to head back into the dark in terms of what happens beyond, beyond the classroom door dipping in and out of anything with that degree of intensity is quite frustrating. So going from such a position of involvement and responsibility to one of so much less, to knowing a lot to knowing much less is quite disorienting actually. And I think for teachers having had parents so involved may be quite difficult in terms of managing those relationships, moving forward. Teachers are the experts after all, but now there are probably quite a lot of parents who think they more than that's helpful, but lockdown was, was bizarre and destabilizing generally. And so in some ways the experience of homeschooling just became kind of grouped under that umbrella experience. The whole thing was incredibly hard and boring and depressing and frightening. And I think homeschooling could be categorized as all those things for most parents and children, to be honest <laugh> yeah , but unlike other aspects of lockdown, there were some real benefits and knowing a little bit more about our children. Well perhaps knowing our children a little better is definitely one , one of those benefits.
Rebecca Durose-CroftYeah. I can totally see that and , and giving yourself a , a massive pat on the back for that as well for getting through it and for continuing with your children's learning. Absolutely . Thank you so much , Sarah . That was really interesting . It was great to talk to you as always . Thank you .