The Great (Education) Reset: Series Intro
Welcome back! I hope you had the chance to check out my latest guest post on designing home learning spaces. It was a lot of fun to write and it reminded me of how important it is to share our knowledge, our ideas, and our passions with each other. Before I dig into the topic of today’s post, I just wanted to share how excited I am to be (re)launching the create.ed blog. While the web address will be the same, I have changed the name to reflect the new focus of the blog and my new journey as a designer. More announcements regarding the latter will be coming soon. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of this post, and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!
I recently read a piece by Jason Baer titled Coronavirus and the Great Reset. Of particular interest, and the inspiration for this post, was the notion that the global Coronavirus pandemic will redefine ‘normal’, that change is inevitable, and that some leaders are being intentional about the change as they lead their organizations. But what about education?
If history has shown us one thing, it’s that our current model of education is incredibly resilient, as it has successfully weathered numerous events (World Wars, the Great Depression, etc) that have reshaped global politics, business, trade, medicine… the list goes on and on. And yet, education continues to look the same as it always has. And so the question is, will our current crisis finally cause leaders to change the model?
Coronavirus and the Great (education) reset
Change is going to need to occur, whether leaders are ready or not. In the short term, many schools have been forced to change the model they follow in order to provide the required safety measures that will keep students, staff, and families safe. This usually means a hybrid or 100% virtual approach to learning. Different from the model traditionally applied to teaching and learning, it is unclear if educators (broadly speaking) have the capacity, knowledge, and support to make the needed shifts to their instructional approach.
In the face of the vast uncertainty and ambiguity that exists as a result of these large scale shifts, educators will naturally yearn for some sense of the familiar… a need to feel a sense of comfort and control, no matter how small, in what they are doing. It is this need for the familiar, combined with a broad lack of resources and well-known examples, that will cause many educators to reach for the status quo within the new system. In other words, many will try to adapt, or even crowbar, their ‘in-person’ instructional approach to fit the new mode, applying a teacher-centered approach to hybrid and remote learning experiences. And as I personally witnessed this past Spring, this approach will leave many students disengaged, disenfranchised, and unable to continue their academic growth.
In response to the ongoing crisis, and the need for an education reset, I believe the following areas offer the greatest opportunity for real, human-centered redesign:
Instructional approach (pre-K to 12)
Technology integration
Learning Spaces (physical and virtual)
Grades and grading
School culture
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