SA education enters the 21st century
Pupils, parents adjust to online learning
REMOTE schooling has increased parent participation in education and brought structure into homes during the lockdown.
This is according to two school communities on opposite sides of the Umgeni River: Glenwood’s Sycamore Christian Academy, a primary school, and Northlands Girls’ High.
“It is good for routines and self-discipline,” said Theven Reddy, principal at Northlands where maths and physical science teachers prefer to use Zoom and others prefer WhatsApp.
Sycamore Academy, which came up with the WhatsApp option after researching what facilities and data availability existed in homes, has stuck to teaching only English, maths, science and life orientation, the latter incorporating the topic of the coronavirus.
“Because parents are not teachers, we decided to focus on core subjects. We didn’t want paralysis by analysis,” said Louis Arde, a former principal who consults at Sycamore.
While the teacher-pupil distribution range is mostly in Durban, it stretches as far as Zimbabwe, where connectivity has not been a problem, and the Eastern Cape.
“We felt it could only work properly if it was highly structured,” said Arde.
In-between lessons and at the end of the day, parents take photographs of the work that has been completed and send them to the teachers.
“The parents’ role is also to make sure the Ten Golden Guidelines are adhered to,” said administrator Chantel McCarthy.
Among these are that there should be no distractions such as radio and television, that they follow the timetable rigidly and their phones are charged.
Parents were also given workbooks. However, when it came to getting one to an Eastern Cape family, in East London, they hit an obstacle.
“DHL said it was not an essential service. So we photographed it and sent it electronically. The mom printed it out and made her own workbook,” said McCarthy.
On the topic of the coronavirus, one of the exercises has been for parents to write a letter to their child. They’ve included touching messages such as how proud they are of their work, the teachers said.
Teacher Lauren Willard said it had brought a new dynamic to teacher-parent relations.
“Never before have I spoken to parents like this. Now we even giggle and laugh together.”
Pupils even get an idea of what their teachers’ homes are like. Samantha Branders’ eight noisy dogs won’t have any of it when she gets started in front of her computer.
“As soon as I push ‘record’, the chorus mounts.”
Parent Rayner Hoffman said online home schooling for his Grade 1 daughter Taliah had had a ripple effect in their home.
“Now, my 5-year-old, Israel, who is still in pre-school, wants to do the same. So we have set him up with a desk and we’re working on the alphabet.”
Nombuso Chamane, whose Grade 3 son Emihle is at Sycamore Academy, said the online system was easy to follow. “The teachers have explained it very clearly.” Lara Mills said her son Bryson, in Grade 4, was benefiting from the structure.
“He’s a boy, he wants to climb walls, but he also thrives on routine. When I see him at his station, pen in hand, I’m happy.”
Bryson said it “feels, like weird” seeing the teacher on the video and not in the classroom. “But I am enjoying doing school at home.”
There is a lot of online activity in the Mills home, with estate agent father attending a photographic webinar, mother giving speech coaching on Zoom and daughter Julia, who is in matricat Durban Girls’ High School, also studying online.
“One challenge is the sound,” said Lara.
Julia said an advantage of online lessons was that, “if you don’t hear or don’t understand something, or if you zoom out, you can rewind”.
“What’s more difficult is that the teacher is not there to help. You WhatsApp them but there isn’t that personal touch.”
Maris Stella School has issued its hockey players with an app they can use to record drills and exercises they do at home. At the end of each week, 15-year-old Cassidy Harris and her teammates must email their records to the coach.
They include yard sticking (moving a ball from side to side), bouncing the ball on the stick and counting, and warm-up squats.
“I do some in the garden, but most in my room on a yoga mat,” said Harris. She is scheduled to start her hockey season once she is back at school, playing for the U16A team.
Further inland, Kearsney College Grade 11 pupil Tyler Gray said the Microsoft Team and Microsoft Apps systems enabled him to listen to the teacher as well as join his classmates in exercises such as quizzes, “as if we were in class”.
“We are doing revision now in maths, but we can also go ahead (further into the syllabus) and it’s easy to access material.”
While he believes it would be possible to carry on this way for a long time should lockdown be extended, he misses school life.
“I am very involved. I miss sport and chatting to my friends at the library. Instead, when I have a break I just sit in front of the television and eat. I miss the interaction.”
Kearsney started online learning after the Easter weekend with Halfway Toyota, the Student Support Programme and several old boys offering assistance, including internet connectivity, to the bursary boys they supported, said headmaster Elwyn van den Aardweg.
Felicity Coughlan, academic director at ADvTECH, which owns the Crawford schools and other institutions, cautioned against teachers trying to do too much while teaching online.
“As educators adapt to teaching remotely and online, there may be an attempt to mimic what a school day would normally look like by filling learners’ days according to pre-lockdown timetables, and pace and content of learning.
“However, this approach is counter-productive and can lead to further frustration, anxiety and tension in what are already challenging circumstances for all concerned,” she said.
Coughlan pointed out that there was an important difference between focusing on essential skills during this time and trying to stick to the curriculum.
“Much of the stress people are experiencing arises from this well-intentioned attempt to keep up.
“It is far more conducive to learning and well-being to make deliberate choices and to pare back and focus on skills around which we can then build content knowledge later.”