Hybrid teaching: Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Adaptive, Be Imaginative

Reopening School

As there has been no local COVID-19 transmission for at least 50 consecutive days in Thailand, we are planning to open the school and welcome our students physically back to campus in August with precautions. We need to comply with the government laws, regulations, policies and as a school, it is important to ensure that everyone feels safe to return on campus. The logistics and planning details are daunting.  

When searching information and ideas regarding reopening schools, keywords such as “uncertainty”, “ambiguity”, “complexity” keep showing up in the literature. This makes me think of the term “VUCA“. VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Put simply, we live in a fast-changing world, and in such an unfamiliar environment, we face unpredictable changes that often require us to make decisions in complex systems and take uncertain actions outside of our expertise. This reflects the current situation we are in now so accurately. We do our best to anticipate the possible scenarios for reopening schools, but no decisions can be made easily. My head of school shared this article, “What will schools do when a teacher gets Covid-19?” with the senior management team and invited us to share our thoughts. There are always concerns about whether schools are opening too fast or too soon. It is agreed that frequent shutting down and reopening is not a sustainable approach and also causes disruptions to learning. To ease anxiety and keep everyone calm, we will need to make information transparent and keep the school community members informed of what will happen if there is a Covid-19 case in accordance with the local government’s guidelines. 

While preparing for the details and logistics to reopen the school, in Education Reimagined: The Future of Learning document, schools are reminded that

“There may be a tendency to overlook the learning agenda and become preoccupied with health and safety. We do this at our peril. It is essential to consider ways to improve learning early in the Transition Phase.”

(Fullan and Quinn, 2020)

This is such a powerful statement that resonates with me. It is absolutely essential to keep everyone healthy and safe on campus. While we are focusing on the nitty-gritty details, let’s also not forget to take this opportunity to make an educational shift, transitioning from being a deliverer of instruction to becoming an adaptive learning facilitator. Students have had freedom in learning anytime anywhere they prefer during the online learning period. Why will we take away that freedom away from them? How can we engage our students in dialogue and explore ways to maximize the learning anytime anywhere concept? If the school has to shut down again, how can students be better equipped with tools and strategies for independent learning and self-care?   

Transitioning to Hybrid Teaching

To shift the paradigm, teachers need support and guidance to reimagine the future of education. Just like students, teachers also need to see examples to get inspiration to create their own prototypes. I appreciate that many educators have generously provided protocols and possible solutions to support the transition. The following documents provide me with abundant ideas and practical strategies to assist our teachers in planning moving forward. 

• Education Reimagined: The Future of Learning (Michael Fullan, Joanne Quinn, 2020)
• Transcend: Recovery to Reinvention: The playbook of guidance and tools is incredible detailed and I also appreciate their library of school design examples and resources.
• Remote learning resources on Pinterest compiled by Eric Sheninger (@E_Sheninger) are so useful for planning learning at different stages.
• Imagining September: Online Design Charrettes for Fall 2020 Planning with Students and Stakeholders (Justin Reich, Jal Mehta, 2020)
• Imagining September: Principles and Design Elements for Ambitious Schools During COVID-19 (Justin Reich, Jal Mehta, 2020)

I tried to synthesize what I had read and share the information with teachers. With transitioning to hybrid teaching, the top priority is to do it safely. If we are not vigilant, there is always a risk of having COVID-19 infected cases on campus. Secondly, when returning to campus, we need to be mindful of our well-being and be kind to each other. Many adults and children have experienced anxiety, stress, anger, frustration and many more emotions caused by the pandemic disruption. I value the points being mentioned by Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn in the Education Reimagined document (page 11): ​

“We know that change affects everyone differently. Consider these realities when reopening schools: 

• Each of us has been affected in unknown ways. This self-awareness will come at different times for different people and will manifest itself differently for each of us.
• Assume people are not their best selves right now. Temper your expectations with empathy and patience.
• We won’t know what people need, until we ask them. Even then, they may not understand what they need. Know that one size does not fit all.
• The situation will continue to be dynamic and so are the people we serve; their wellbeing is not in a fixed state.”

​In the hybrid teaching and learning model, teachers need to continue to be adaptive while making the paradigm shift. Before the vaccine is developed, there is always a possibility that we will return to remote teaching and learning. Being flexible and adaptive is one way to keep our sanity. Lastly, in my opinion, teachers also need to be imaginative, collaborate with others,  prototype, deploy, and reflect in order to figure out the approach that meets the needs of their students in their own context. Context matters and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Without imagination and responding to the world as it now exists, students will only learn by compliance instead of developing self-regulation and learning how to learn.  

Hybrid Teaching: Be Safe, Be kind, Be Adaptive, Be Imaginative

In this poster I created, I first defined what hybrid learning is and then identified four key steps before reopening schools.

Step 1: Develop core and extended teams and create norms to reopen the school

Step 2: Review school vision, mission and core values 

Step 3: Examine available data (e.g. student assessment data; survey results of parents, students and teachers; student attendance/task engagement records and so on) for decision making and then identify constraints on what we can achieve and what is currently outside of our capabilities and control 

Step 4: Align actions with strategic guiding statements (or principles) 

The diagram is a reminder that we are in a VUCA world and we need to be patient and continue to develop our capabilities to solve problems that we still don’t have answers to yet. Students are always in the center of what we do at the school and in this crucial time, it highlights the importance of developing learner agility. I then include our school’s core values around the learner-centered approach: nurture passion in self and others; take action ethically; strive for understanding; create a caring and inclusive community. 

Finally, the outside ring is the iterative design thinking process to experiment with what works for our students, teachers, and the school community members: empathize, synthesize & adapt; deploy; reflect. 

This poster is to provide some ideas on what we can change to move from deliverers of instruction to adaptive learning facilitators focusing on high-agency strategies; shifting from an unresponsive approach to a transformed approach. Some possible actions are also brainstormed to help the planning process. 

You can click the image below to download the PDF file. ​An idea is that teachers can also use the poster to write down the actions that they might take to embrace hybrid teaching. You can click the image below to download the PDF file. ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️