The COVID-19 pandemic spurred dramatic shifts in post-secondary teaching and learning... shifts that have fundamentally challenged long-held views and practices within higher education. This faculty guide highlights common instructional and assessment strategies that can be adapted to more effectively meet students' needs.
The guide provides an overview of each topic along with practical strategies, contextual considerations, and resources to assist faculty in proactively fostering an effective, innovative student learning experience.
Post-Pandemic Teaching and Learning:
Revisiting Common Practices
As we transition from the active response phase of the COVID-19 pandemic into the post-pandemic era, one thing is clear: the disruption and chaos spurred by pandemic-induced adaptations have fundamentally changed higher education. As such, conversations have shifted from an emphasis on 'return-to-normal' to embrace the need for a 'new-normal' that addresses the cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial needs of modern college students.
Paradigm Shift in Teaching & Learning
Despite the challenges inherent in the pandemic-induced shift to remote teaching and learning, this forced venture into virtual education spurred a range of instructional innovations and insights. As institutions return to 'normal' and students come back to the physical classroom, faculty must consider the most effective strategies to foster effective student learning experiences. The reality is that teaching during the pandemic forced faculty to reconceptualize the fundamental meaning of teaching and learning, utilize technology in new ways, and redesign learning experiences. Now that the pandemic is shifting out of the crisis phase and into a 'new-normal', it is essential to reconsider instructional strategies and approaches to address the needs of modern students.
The Challenge for Faculty
As highlighted by Nathan Grawe (2020; How Will the Pandemic Change Higher Education), "We’re adopting new teaching technologies, engaging with advisees in new ways, and streamlining decision-making to match the speed of the crisis. Some of these changes have the potential to improve student outcomes. When the pandemic abates and campuses return to normal, we should permanently employ the best of those changes.”
The reality is that students in college today are fundamentally different than those just five short years ago; students are returning to our classrooms with unique challenges:
increased mental health concerns
increased economic burdens
increased support needs
increased desire for value-added knowledge and skills that directly impact career opportunities
Complicating the issue, these challenges are intensified by:
decreased attention span
decreased social networks
decreased engagement in learning activities
With falling enrollments and increased pressure to attract and retain students, faculty are faced with the challenge of offering students a value-added learning experience that meaningfully engages students in their courses and in the broader campus community. Beyond just meeting cognitive learning objectives, faculty must adapt to meet students' rapidly evolving expectations for flexible, relevant, hands-on learning while simultaneously creating learning experiences that meet students' core psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness.
Addressing this complex challenge requires more than simply integrating active learning strategies or modifying traditional assessments, it mandates embracing a new philosophy of teaching and learning.
A New Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
Post-pandemic students are uninterested in memorizing information simply for the sake of a grade. They desire engaging learning environments that embrace students' active involvement in the teaching and learning dynamic. But central to this desire is a shift in the role of both faculty and students. Rather than looking at faculty as simply content providers, students are seeking disciplinary experts who are adaptable, student-centered, and value relationship-building over content delivery.
Teaching in the post-pandemic world mandates a shift in philosophy from an emphasis on content delivery to the creation of learning experiences. Within this context, is the recognition that learning is inherently a social experience. So to create high-quality learning, faculty must empower students by designing learning experiences that foster disciplinary knowledge in a manner that embraces students as active collaborators and empathizes with them as individuals. The new philosophy of teaching and learning emphasizes the need to create holistic learning experiences that actively and intentionally consider students' needs and preferences.
Empathy in Education
Inherent in a student-centered approach to teaching and learning is the importance of empathy in education. Effective learning environments must embrace a holistic approach to learning that considers the unique needs, strengths, and motivations of each student. Empathic teaching shifts from a didactic approach to instruction to embrace students as active collaborators in an ever-evolving learning environment. As explained by John C. Maxwell, "Students don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
Revisiting Common Practices
Change and innovation emerge when we explore the edges of our comfort zone. While there are likely many different radical ways that a faculty member could completely revamp and overhaul teaching and learning to try to address students' needs in the post-pandemic classroom, perhaps a more doable strategy is to begin by revisiting common instructional practices.
This faculty guide highlights four common instructional issues (syllabus, due dates, assessment, and academic rigor) that can be reconsidered and adapted to more effectively meet students' needs in the post-pandemic era. While the instructional practices highlighted in this guide are far from comprehensive, they provide a manageable starting point for faculty to shift teaching and learning to better meet students' needs.
Click on each of these common instructional issues below for an overview of each topic along with practical strategies, contextual considerations, and resources to assist faculty in proactively fostering an effective, innovative student learning experience.
The one common document among courses in higher education can be viewed through a trauma-informed lens to engage students before a class begins.
Despite being a staple of most classrooms, flexible due date policies create a more student-centered experience that fosters higher-quality student submissions and promotes a more collaborative learning environment.
The use of authentic assessment in teaching has become more and more popular among teachers and learners. Authentic assessment requires students to perform or create a meaningful product using real-life simulations. Authentic assessment can be applied in many teaching fields.
Pandemic amplified the perceived opposition between academic rigor and inclusive care. However, teachers are finding ways to enact rigor from an inclusive caring perspective.
Page author: Jean Mandernach
Citation: Mandernach, B. J., Ford, D., Xu, Y. & Shi, T. (2022). Post-pandemic teaching and learning: Revisiting common practices. https://sites.google.com/view/revisitingcommonpractices