In her essay ‘From the pedestal’ (V, 7/1) Marjolijn van Heemstra describes the constant stretching of our expectations ‘that everything would return to normal’ in the context of the performing arts. Exhausting and frustrating for makers and the public: emotions that we now see everywhere in society. Van Heemstra calls for letting go of the cramped clinging to the way it used to be. She calls for not following but leading, to search for new rituals on a new stage.
Van Heemstra’s words touch us because of the similarity with our own domain, that of (higher) education. We also have our beloved stage: the classroom. Since the industrial revolution, our educational platform has remained surprisingly the same. Wherever you walk into a lecture hall in the world, you will quickly feel at home. Lecture halls are almost identical everywhere. Of course, many innovative didactic teaching models have been developed, but these too are still mainly used in classrooms.
Our stage, classroom education in buildings, appears to be vulnerable. It is currently being hit hard by the corona restrictions. The distance learning that takes its place – thanks to the extra efforts of all those teachers, supporters and students – is often no more than the same performance on a comparable, but virtual stage. This virtual stage is a short-term solution. In the long run, this affects study progress and undermines the motivation and well-being of students and teachers.
Creative possibilities
We also have to look for new rituals in education. As with the performing arts, we look for creative opportunities to change our stage. We are used to working with it’community of inquiry’-fashion model. This model consists of three elements that interact with each other: the cognitive element, the social element and the teacher element.
In practice, this means that a teacher selects the teaching material and transfers it in collaboration with the student. This takes place in a safe and stimulating learning environment, in which the students process the teaching material together. The social element is difficult to achieve in an online environment, unless lecturers and students already know each other well or can meet every now and then. Research by the VO Council has shown that online education sometimes works very well, but sometimes not at all. Here we have to look for a new stage and for new rituals.
Our continued expectation that things will soon be back to normal has been holding our education captive since March 2020. We get stuck in old rituals. We are constantly surprised by a new wave of pandemic. But what if we see this wave coming and ride it? The contamination figures of the past two years and the associated restrictions on education show a rhythm, linked to seasons.
Socialization
In September, October and November the infections were limited. There was no limit to the number of students on location. Use these months for socialization and for education that is ideal for classroom use. We can expect lockdowns from mid-December to March, April. Surf with it and design education in which students follow education online or in small groups, indoors or out. The major challenge is to develop new methods for this. From May until the summer holidays there is again room for face-to-face education and testing.
To move with the rhythm of the corona waves, we have to adapt our rituals and stages. For this, administrators, teachers and students will have to have the courage to let go of the current, deeply ingrained habits of education and choose the uncertain flight forward. The UNESCO last year already argued for a long-term strategy. A strategy that leads to an open, inclusive and flexible education landscape and that is resilient to pan- and endemics. The message was urgent then and is now inevitable. Let our education surf the waves of corona.
Berent Prakken is vice dean of education at UMC Utrecht. Harold van Rijen is director of the Graduate School of Life Sciences at Utrecht University.