Peter Wilson – Director of Co-curricular Activities
Last week we welcomed back our Preppies, Year 1, 11 and 12 students. This time has given me an opportunity to reflect on the differences of teaching online versus face to face.
What follows is not an academic treatise and is not intended to be representative of any group of teachers, but purely personal reflections of what I feel works as a teacher.
Face to face learning and teaching is far more nuanced than anything online, far more personal, far more human.
Students tend only to rely on two senses online, that being vision and hearing. My online lessons have been, by necessity, teacher-led and mainly verbal. In the classroom, for both teacher and student, all the senses are firing and the experience is far more encompassing. The input of stimuli from all these senses strengthens neural pathways, which enhances memory and understanding.
What I did not realise, was my reliance on student body language to gauge their understanding and engagement. A frown, a curl of the lips, a widening of the eyes, a slouch and seat position are just some of the cues that trigger my teaching actions to determine student understanding, task attention, motivation and focus.
By simply moving around the classroom and changing my proximity to the students I can re-engage their focus and boost their motivation.
Online platforms tend to stilt the natural flow of conversation, inhibiting the spontaneous class discussions that allow real-life examples to flow and frame new concepts. These spontaneous discussions also reveal weaknesses in learning and teaching.
Peer learning is essentially lost in the online world as there is limited opportunity to work with others. Students teaching students in a guided manner is a powerful classroom learning tool.
As a teacher, it has been a lot harder to check student accountability. Moving around the real-world classroom enables one to get instant feedback on each student’s pace and work ethic. The students have also relayed to me how it is easier to get distracted at home compared to in the classroom.
This is not to say that the Learning from Home was ineffectual. It was a fantastic gateway to bring SCOTS PGC College into the home. Many other students around Australia did not have the opportunity to get their teachers beamed into their lounge rooms for virtual lessons. Our staff worked tirelessly to bring a powerful learning experience to students through the online platforms.
I personally have improved my skills in the IT world through this experience and it has, I believe helped me become a better teacher.
That being said, I can honestly say, that for now, I do not think I will be replaced by a computer or some form of AI. The human element of teaching is still what makes the classroom, the playing field or the music centre the most powerful of learning places.
