The impact of the coronavirus crisis on education

80% of the classes that were previously offered during the regular school day are now being held online, in addition to workshops on other subjects such as cooking and exercise.

APRIL 2, 2020 06:38

PRINCIPAL DAVID KLAHR (right) notes that students who have experienced social anxiety in the classroom seem to be doing well (photo credit: RONEN KRUK) — PRINCIPAL DAVID KLAHR (right) notes that students who have experienced social anxiety in the classroom seem to be doing well

(photo credit: RONEN KRUK)

"The coronavirus has taken education, thrown it into the 21st century and basically said, ‘Sink or swim,’” says David Klahr, principal at the Ankori School for Creative Thinking and Innovation in Tel Aviv.

The rapid shutdown of schools across the country and around the world has forced the educational system to adapt to a new reality, Klahr observes, by moving it to a distance-learning platform. And while he is not certain what lasting pedagogical changes will result from the shift from physical classrooms to virtual-learning platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet, he believes that educators will need to reflect deeply on how their roles as educators have changed, and how these technologies can be better applied in the future.

“The physical school will continue to exist,” he says. “The question is, how will we take what we are learning now and improve on what we already have?”

Klahr, a London native who immigrated to Israel in 1995 at the age of 24, taught in Jerusalem-area high schools before becoming deputy principal of Moriah College in Sydney, Australia, where he worked for seven years. In 2017, he became principal of the Tel Aviv branch of the Ankori High School system, which specializes in providing personalized, individualized education in small groups.

The Ankori school in Tel Aviv is one of seven high schools in the network. As Klahr explains, “Students all come together looking for something different, a lot more personalized attention, and education taking them into account as individual students. We mold our framework around each student.”

While the school had already taught teachers how to use the Google Meet video-conferencing app, no one expected the need to switch to an online teaching platform so rapidly and completely. There was also concern that distance learning damages the relationships that teachers create with their students. Klahr agrees that it can be difficult to build relationships of personal trust with students in an exclusively distance-learning setting.

Yet today, says Klahr, 80% of the classes that were previously offered during the regular school day are now being held online, in addition to workshops on other subjects such as cooking and exercise.

“In the past seven or eight days, teachers have had to redefine who they are as teachers,” says Klahr.

When contact with students is restricted to communication via tablets and computer screens, he explains, it is difficult for teachers to truly gauge how students are feeling, and what they are thinking.

“It becomes much more of a challenge.”

Klahr says that teachers had to re-learn virtually everything they knew about education.

“We believe that the well-being of students is the most important thing. How do you take care of a kid when you can’t meet them physically? How do you know if a student is not eating or washing or bathing properly?”

When one is teaching classes with a video conferencing app, he says, “essentially, you have lost your vision. Your hearing becomes essential and the connection becomes even more vital now.”

Interestingly, Klahr notes that students who have experienced social anxiety in the classroom seem to be doing well – and even thriving – in virtual, online educational settings.

“There are many kids today with well-being issues, mental health and social anxiety, who find it difficult to come to school. We have seen kids with this all suddenly re-connect to their class. They are closing the learning gaps that have been created because they now have this platform which is much more comfortable for them.”

Klahr adds that one student who joined the school program after Purim and never met his classmates and teachers, is succeeding in school, and is connecting to all of the classes.

One valuable skill that is being developed among Klahr’s students by virtue of distance learning is social etiquette.

“If you don’t mute yourself in these programs, no one else can be heard. There is the social etiquette of a conference call,” he says. “Social etiquette has been forced on kids, and they are actually keeping to it. Your vision has been taken away, so you have to rely on your hearing.”

Distance education via video requires teachers to adjust the way they teach, says Klahr.

“Content in the textbook becomes irrelevant. No more opening of the textbook. It doesn’t work anymore. We need to produce relevant content that can be dealt with different platforms.”

He also notes that when teachers are speaking to their students via video chat, they need to engage them and prepare every single minute of the class. Otherwise, he warns, the student will put themselves on mute, and “you’ll think they are there, but they won’t be.”

Nevertheless, Klahr points out, the very novelty of using programs like Zoom and Google Meet have given educators the chance to create and develop new strategies.

“This is our time because you are working off a blank page. You can make mistakes, but no one will blame you, because everyone is in a mode of ‘let’s try something new.’ If we make a mistake, we’ll fix it the next time. Everything is fluid. There’s no certainty anymore, and you can try whatever you like.”

Lessons are recorded and tagged by subjects so that students can identify and access them whenever it’s convenient. Feedback from students has been positive, according to Klahr, and attendance in the virtual classes is almost identical to what is was before the corona pandemic began.

Klahr says educators are now in the middle of a dynamic reality that is constantly changing, and they are learning new things every day.

“What was relevant to us two days ago is no longer relevant today. What was relevant to as educators three days ago, and certainly a week ago, is no longer relevant today.”

Ultimately, Klahr says, once the crisis has passed, schools will continue to exist as physical institutions, with students, faculty and administrative staff.

“You have to have socialization – that personal meeting between kids and staff. That physical meeting between students and staff, and between staff and students, is critical for preparing for the world. How do they prepare for the world if they don’t meet each other?”

In Klahr’s view, the coronavirus has shaken society to its core.

“We are all being reset in all walks of life, family relationships, and the way that we educate. We need to rethink the way in which we understand education and how we look after the well-being of students.”

This is the time for educators to be as creative as possible, he says.

“I am incredibly proud of what is going on. I am exhausted, but it is exciting and inspiring.”