It used to be that the predominant method of educational delivery came by way classroom teachers teaching in brick and mortar schools. Then came the “DL” schools -- an extension of “distance learning” into “distributed learning”, wherein students access their entire curriculum online.
And then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers and school divisions scrambled to create an emergency version of DL learning that would get them through the year. While there were heroic efforts here to be sure, by and large it wasn’t pretty. Many practitioners regarded this digital intervention as a temporary band aid that would soon be removed when things got back to normal. But the current contours of the Covid-19 pandemic suggest that we will not be getting “back to normal” anytime soon.
And, even if some of the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, there are good reasons to think that a new approach to educational programming -- for high school students, in particular -- might be a better way to go after all. While the first impetus for change has been the necessity of responding to the restrictions, the next iteration will focus on the quality of the education experience for students.
So, come September, there will be a new educational delivery kid on the block: the bi-modal school.
A bi-modal school is one that attempts to blend the best elements of onsite and off-site schooling to create an educational program that is better than either of its progenitors. The question is whether we are going to do this well or poorly.
The Upside of Off-Site Learning
For high school students, in particular, there are at least three areas of off-site learning that might significantly enhance their educational experience.
Apprenticeships and Mentoring
One favoured component of an enhanced educational program is a provision for mentoring and\or apprenticeship opportunities for students. In a traditional model, it is difficult to build this into a regular academic timetable. Many such initiatives have to happen outside regular schools hours. A bi-modal school, however, can make this an integral part of their overall program.
Use of Community Resources
It is entirely possible -- and potentially much better -- for students to use community resources to meet certain curricular requirements that would otherwise be addressed in school. Take, for example, encouraging students to be physically active on a regular basis. The traditional approach is to lump students into Physical Education classes to make sure they “get their exercise”. Now imagine a bi-modal approach wherein students are encouraged to select their own method of physical activity -- e.g. badminton, cycling, recreational sports, fitness training -- as one portion of their overall program. If one goal is to encourage “life-long” engagement in physical activity, this individualized approach might yield better results.
Online Learning
When properly curated, an online learning environment can provide three distinct advantages over some elements of regular classroom instruction. First, it can allow students to move at their own pace by providing extra time and support where necessary, and extra challenges and extensions for those who gasp material more quickly. (The key idea here is asynchronous learning -- i.e. learning that is not tied to a definite timetable, but instead happens according to the capacity of each individual student.) A second benefit is that it enables learners to make multiple mistakes away from the scrutiny of the entire class. And third, it enables students who may be shy or reticent to engage and participate in ways that they might not otherwise do in school. Guardian journalist Tobias Jones tells the story of “a very timid student [in Milan] who never speaks in class but, it now emerges, is exceptional at languages.”
The Upside of On-Site Learning
At the same time, there are both social and educational reasons to ensure that key elements of a total educational program continue to happen on-site.
First, there are certain elements within courses that are best conducted on-site with teachers working with students in classrooms. Science experiments, class discussions, hands-on demonstrations, and group projects are all good candidates. More than this, teachers with a very good grasp of the course content as a whole can be particularly strategic in their on-site, face-to-face encounters with students by offering “catalyst lessons” that form the centrepiece of their entire instructional framework.
Second, it is well to remember that most schools aim to do more than simply get students through their courses. They also want to create a supportive community where adults and students interact and engage with one another as part of the overall educative process. Schools are about connection and community as much as they are about the curriculum. Student mentoring sessions, whole school meetings, recognition assemblies, and even opportunities for unmitigated fun need to happen on site. One British Columbia middle school ends its year with a giant water fight between students and staff. There is just no good way to do that online.
The Essential Question
The essential question of bi-modal education is, of course, to determine which parts of a school’s overall program should happen on-site, and which elements are better pursued away from campus.
If the goal, in the immediate future, is simply to meet Covid-19 safety restrictions, then there is a danger we may end up with a system that simply has students complete digital worksheets or weekly assignments with no real improvement to the overall learning environment of the student. We may end up with a dry, antiseptic and hyper-individualized version of education that abandons the kind of personal and community engagement that is the hallmark of a genuine education.
If, on the other hand, we have a clear idea of the true value of schools and are strategic and intentional about the division between online and on-site educational elements, we have a unique opportunity to make bi-modal education -- for high school students, in particular -- the way of the future.
The Secret Sauce: Student Support
What will make or break the shift to bi-modal education is the extent to which a new, comprehensive student support framework will be baked into the system. Schools that can best figure out how to coordinate both onsite and offsite assistance are the ones that will be recognized as offering real value beyond our current way of doing things. But this will require a shift in thinking. Traditionally, we have devoted the majority of time and resources to students identified as “special needs” or “at risk” and left the rest to their own devices. The new approach will be to recognize that every student requires and deserves some level of support -- whether it be remedial math tutorials and\or extra challenges in areas of personal interest -- and to reengineer the support structure accordingly.
Challenges
American educational author Grant Lichtman identifies several major barriers that could prevent Covid-generated reforms -- like bi-modal schools -- from taking hold in the near future:
The changes contemplated are “just too uncomfortable” for the majority of teachers that would have to implement them.
There is little incentive for “bold, forward-looking leaders” to construct new educational futures that stray too far away from what is currently known and accepted.
“Big systems have too much inertia, and we won’t make them smaller”
The forces that will work against an enhanced version of bi-modal education are those that favour security over change, the known over the unknown, and large over small.
A more mundane, but equally challenging, problem has to do with regulations and funding. In British Columbia, Distributed Learning (DL) schools are certified and funded as a separate category from brick and mortar schools. There have been questions and concerns, moreover, as to what extent the education delivered by a DL school is “equivalent to” the education provided in regular schools. In light of this, the questions that will naturally follow will be how best to understand, certify and fund bi-modal schools. While it is pretty clear that bi-modal schools will be in a category of their own, how exactly do we define that category?
Small is Beautiful
Lichtman’s analysis of the possible barriers to implementing Covid-generated reforms also alludes to two long-understood features of the educational landscape that might, together, reveal where success is most likely. First, most large schools are populated by about 15% “hard-chargers-for-change”, while the other 85% “are just trying to get through their days.” Second, it is generally accepted that smaller schools have a greater capacity to cultivate a strong staff culture around shared values -- including values related to the quality of the educational program they offer.
If this second assumption is true, then it follows that small schools should be able to increase the percentage of its staff who might be described as “hard-chargers-for-change” -- assuming, of course, that “creating (beneficial) change” became a core element of a school’s shared values. A school that has 40-70% of its staff seriously committed to bringing about positive educational change has a much better chance of implementing those changes than a school where 85% of the staff are, in Lichtman’s words, waiting for that “liferaft of normalcy [to] re-appear on these stormy seas.”
Bi-modal education will be most successful in schools where the staff culture is strong and there are shared values that centre on creating the best possible learning experience for all students. Smaller, more nimble, schools will likely have the advantage. That said, maybe one way to make “big schools smaller” is to separate staff into smaller focus teams and invite them to re-engineer educational delivery for their designated cohort of students. If given the proper structural support, remarkable things can happen. It is certainly worth a try. Change is coming in September, no matter what.
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Ted Spear has over 25 years of teaching and administrative experience in public and independent schools. In July, 2019 he published a book about the future of education entitled, Education Reimagined: The Schools Our Children Need. He is an engaging speaker who invites parents and educators to change the way we think about schools.