COVID-19 & Education: Turning Disaster into Opportunity
By Dr Stephen Whitehead (view are author’s own)
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
By Dr Stephen Whitehead (view are author’s own)
A young graduate recently asked me what type of professional development he should consider undertaking so as to be able to take full advantage of the labour market post-Covid-19. Also, what I thought would be the most sought-after skills when all this virus dust has settled.
I replied that so long as he maintained his obvious entrepreneurial spirit and determination then no matter what the state of the labour market he would be in good shape to take full advantage age of it.
This young person was looking to turn disaster into opportunity, and I admire him for that. The world will always need such individuals, not just today but in the future.
For hard-pressed international educationalists, struggling with balancing their professional and personal responsibilities, there is an opportunity here. That is, how to turn this current scenario into a teaching and learning opportunity.
I don’t believe the human world has dramatically shifted on its axis as a result of Covid-19, but it has taken a knock. And from this disruption there emerge some fascinating questions, any one of which would make a superb lesson for students both now and in the future.
Photo by Orest Yaremchuk on Unsplash
I am especially thinking of any lesson which incorporates Inquiry Based Learning. That is, sets up a core question, topic or theme and allows the students to critically examine it, notably through posing a series of further questions, finding ‘answers’ or ‘solutions’ but doing so based on evidence rather than opinion or belief.
Below are some of my questions and themes which directly arise from the Covid-19 pandemic. They are probably more at secondary level than primary, though who knows, perhaps your primary level students will be itching to have their brains stretched when they finally settle back in your classroom. If so, these topics and questions will certainly do that:
Start with the very question raised by my young enquirer. That is, how is the labour market going to change as a result of Covid-19 and what opportunities are there for young entrepreneurs?
That seems a good one to kick off on, following which we can get into some really meaty topics and scenarios.
1. Why do Asian citizens more willingly wear masks than do Western citizens, even when the Westerners are confronted by the same lethal pandemic?
2. How do we explain the rising tide of xenophobia which quickly became apparent once Covid-19 spread around the world?
3. Which countries were most effective at minimising the impact of Covid-19 on their citizens and economies? And why
4. Which countries were least effective at minimising the impact of Covid-19 on their citizens and economies. And why?
5. Is online learning for school students a serious and valid alternative to traditional classroom learning? Provide evidence to support your answer.
6. What is home-schooling? Is this a viable alternative to traditional classroom learning and attending school?
7. What would have been the social and cultural impact of Covid-19 if it had erupted in the year 2000?
8. Why did governments find it relatively easy to house the homeless once Covid-19 erupted but never attempted to do so prior to the pandemic?
9. What is Universal Basic Income? Which countries introduced a version of this during the Covid-19 pandemic? Is UBI a solution to long-term unemployment? Give reasons.
10. Explain this comment: ‘Covid-19 will be no more important to humans of the 22nd century than the Spanish Flu of 1918–20 was to us, at least up until the start of this year’. Do you agree or not? Give reasons.
11. ‘Businesses cannot save humankind, only governments can do that — this would appear a lesson of Covid-19’. Do you agree or not? Give reasons.
12. Will humanity become more or less secular as a result of Covid-19? Given reasons.
13. ‘The poor always suffer the hardest when life gets tougher’. Give examples of this around the world in relation to Covid-19. How can this be avoided in the future?
14. This is the first global human disaster to be played out on social media. What are the lessons to be learned from this experience?
15. What benefits did Covid-19 bring to humankind?
16. Has the world gotten smaller or larger as a consequence of Covid-19? In other words, are we more or less globalised than we were a year ago?
17. What is the ‘Big State’ and why is it important during a global emergency?
18. What are the disadvantages of Big State becoming more important during a global emergency?
19. How did many women suffer in a particular way as a consequence of Covid-19, even though it seems men were more likely to catch the virus?
20. What is individualism? What is collectivism? How do these cultural forms of behaviour respond differently to an emergency such as Covid-19?
21. What lessons would you pass on to your children, learned from your Covid-19 experience?
22. How does humanity treat death and mortality? What cultural differences emerged around the world, regarding the threat of death, once Covid-19 took hold?
23. Is there a new normal? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Or is life fundamentally no different than a year ago? Give your reasons.
Getting your students to engage with what they’ve experienced, and do so in the relative security of the classroom, will not only be enlightening and intellectually challenging, it will likely also be therapeutic.
Indeed, for those schools where the children have been deprived of classroom lessons for several months, talking and discussing Covid-19 in a way which is sensitive and productive is probably going to be essential before any teacher can return to their original lesson plans.
The kids will want to talk and share. In which case, best to do it constructively.
By Dr Stephen Whitehead (view are author’s own)
For more articles like this see: Educational Digest International.