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Four years on from the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, schools worldwide continue to transform the way teaching and learning is delivered both in and outside of their classrooms.
Indeed, the shift to remote learning following the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 provided some crucial lessons for educators, leaders, students, parents, and policymakers – namely, what works and what doesn’t when it comes to online learning.
Ronan Kearney is one educator who observed a marked shift in student engagement and performance while transitioning between online and face-to-face teaching.
With a career spanning from the UK to international assignments and a variety of leadership roles including Deputy Principal, Head of Biology and Psychology, and Curriculum Manager, Kearney has also had the opportunity to see this dynamic play out across multiple school systems.
Today, Kearney is the Deputy Principal at Crimson Global Academy, a global online school in Australia that “empowers students with the learning flexibility to re-imagine their academic potential.”
He says online learning has unlocked individual learning paths, allowing students to interact in diverse ways—whether through chat functions, direct communication, or improving through the real-time feedback on assignments they receive.
“This adaptability has been particularly beneficial for students who thrive in less traditional learning environments and want to accelerate their learning,” Kearney told The Educator. “Online learning also better supports students with special educational needs.”
Kearney said the flexibility of online schedules enables students to pursue passions outside the academic curriculum, broadening their intellectual and extracurricular pursuits.
“We have seen students previously underperforming in face-to-face settings show remarkable improvement online, highlighting the potential of digital education to cater to a wider range of learners and needs,” he said.
“This transformation underscores the importance of embracing technology in education, not just as a tool for dissemination, but as a means to foster a more personalised and engaging learning experience.”
Kearney said the transition to online teaching presents unique challenges, not least of which is adapting traditional classroom workflows to digital platforms.
“The pace of online lessons tends to be quicker, demanding a reevaluation of lesson timing and content delivery,” he said.
“For teachers navigating this new terrain, it's crucial to approach the online environment with openness to experimentation and adaptation. Exploring new pedagogical methods and technological tools can enrich the learning experience significantly.”
However, Kearney notes the potential for isolation is a notable pitfall.
“Engagement with peers and participation in professional development are essential to combat this,” he said.
“Encouraging a school culture that facilitates staff collaboration and observation online can replicate the collegial support found in physical settings.”
Kearney said teachers are urged to leverage digital professional development spaces as well as regular group meetings to share insights and strategies.
“Embracing this collaborative spirit not only enhances teaching practices but also enriches the online educational environment for both teachers and students.”
QUEZON CITY, Philippines –
Record heat in the Philippines this month has forced schools to send children home for online classes, reviving memories of COVID lockdowns and raising fears that more extreme weather in the years to come could deepen educational inequalities.
Pupils at 7,000 public schools in the Southeast Asian country were sent home last week due to unusually hot weather in many areas that forecasters have linked to the effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Teacher Erlinda Alfonso, who works at a public elementary school in Quezon City near the capital, said she did not know what was worse for her pupils — sweltering in an overcrowded classroom or trying to study at home.
"Some students told me they prefer going to school because the heat is worse at home," she said, adding that many of her students live in nearby shantytowns and have no internet connection to take part in online classes.
While teachers are providing offline assignments for students without internet access, Alfonso said the arrangement left children with no one to raise questions with.
"If there's something they could not understand, their parents or siblings are often not at home because they need to earn a living," said the 47-year-old, who also heads the city's association of public school teachers.
The Philippines had one of the world's longest school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the education gap faced by children from low-income families without computers or sufficient internet access.
But with most public schools in the country of 115 million people poorly equipped to deal with soaring temperatures and other extreme weather, online classes have become the safest option during the current heatwaves, teachers and unions say.
In public schools in Metro Manila, the capital region, a survey of more than 8,000 teachers last month showed 87% of students had suffered from heat-related conditions.
More than three-quarters of teachers described the heat as "unbearable" in the survey conducted by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers of the Philippines — National Capital Region (ACT-NCR), a teaching association.
Nearly half or 46% of teachers said classrooms have only one or two electric fans, highlighting inadequate ventilation measures to deal with rising temperatures.
"The heat had tremendous impacts on children. Some students even collapsed inside classrooms. Teachers suffered from the heat, too, but often they would prioritize their students' health inside classrooms," said Ruby Bernardo, ACT-NCR spokesperson.
As climate change fuels the frequency and severity of heatwaves, the problems faced by teachers and students in the Philippines look set to play out elsewhere.
About 243 million children in Asia and the Pacific are expected to be exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves over the coming months, the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, said last week.
Children are particularly susceptible to heat stroke, and UNICEF said prolonged exposure to intense heat also impacts their ability to concentrate and learn.
Since the start of El Nino, "danger category" temperatures as high as 44 degrees Celsius have been predicted by country's weather agency.
Filipino teachers say more measures are needed to deal with extreme heat in schools — from tackling shortages of classrooms and teachers, which lead to overcrowding, to providing free drinking water and having a school nurse or doctor on site.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers has called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to address such issues.
It has also proposed the immediate reversion to the pre-pandemic school calendar, when the hot months of April and May fell during the long school break.
Asked to comment, a DepEd spokesperson said its policy of letting head teachers decide when to switch to online or offline home classes "provides a more immediate and effective response to heat conditions rather than knee-jerk changes that would further compromise learning recovery."
Some teachers say the current situation also underlines the need for more education about climate change.
"Climate change has not been comprehensively taught in our classrooms. But it's a pressing issue linked to all the other challenges our education system is facing now," Bernardo said.
For many low-paid public sector teachers, working in packed schools with non-existent or inadequate cooling has been the last straw.
"The heat makes me want to resign or retire early," said Alfonso.
Here are five reasons why we made the move:
1. COVID learning loss is real. During the COVID lockdowns, parents were expected to transform into teachers, tutors and homework helpers overnight. When students returned to the classroom, some were grappling with learning loss and struggling to catch up.
By 2021, the average K12 American student was five months behind in math and four months behind in reading, according to McKinsey & Co. We knew we needed to do something to help our students get back on track with their learning.
2. Online tutoring levels the playing field. Bedford Public Schools serves some families who can afford to pay $70 or $75 an hour to hire private tutors for their kids. But not all families have the resources to help bridge educational gaps for their kids.
Thanks to our new tutoring platform, everyone can benefit from tutoring at no cost to their families. The equitable availability of support has helped level the playing field.
3. Online tutoring guides students through the thinking process. Instead of just providing answers, experts on the platform ask questions to guide students through the problem-solving process. Educators also receive early intervention alerts about students struggling with content mastery or prerequisite knowledge so that schools can provide just-in-time support.
If a student is working on an algebra problem and struggling with multiplication facts, an alert about this learning gap is helpful and enables teachers to feed that information back to the teachers. I find that to be a powerful tool to help students advance in their learning.
4. If you build it, they will come. As a starting point, we initially rolled out our new online tutoring platform to our leadership team. We wanted that team to understand the platform’s purpose and value first.
Next, we rolled it out to all of the parents, many of whom got their first look via a dedicated website where families can get their tutoring-related questions answered. Today, the platform is integrated with Google Classroom, so our students can get instant access to it with a single sign-on.
5. Tutors’ expertise and instructional approach matter. I was instantly impressed with the rigor of the vetting process our tutor partner used. I also appreciated the tutors’ use of Socratic questioning and the ongoing quality control they engage in. I felt very confident that I would let my own kids interact with the tutors based on the encouraging learner experience.
Participation in our new online tutoring option has been impressive so far. Our students have had more than 1,000 sessions in the last six months—from personalized tutoring to drop-off review services and use of self-paced test prep from The Princeton Review and other resources. We are excited about what the future holds.
In a world where the cost of education goes up every year, and where finding and keeping good teachers can be challenging and expensive, our online tutoring partner gives us yet one more way to reduce overall operating costs while expanding educational opportunities.
