Creative and vocational education online

All upper secondary schools within the Academedia Group began preparing for distance and distance education when the government on 17 March recommended closing schools’ teaching premises. About seventy teachers received a quick introduction to services for videoconferencing and other suitable tools. The very next day, they shared the knowledge with their colleagues; nearly a thousand people," says Martin Thuvesson, one of two school principals in Academedia’s creative upper secondary school area.

“If we had sat down and assumed that we would do everything as usual, then we would have had problems. Instead, we have read through what the steering documents say, and based on that, assessed whether we can carry out various practical teaching at a distance. Most of the schools within my area of responsibility are small units with between two and three hundred students. The teachers have monitored the students for a long time. The students must carry out some last steps physically on the school premises, but otherwise, the teachers usually have sufficient material to grade.”

Adaptation of practical skills education

Internationella Hotell- och restaurangskolan, located on Kungsholmen in Stockholm, runs a restaurant with the students. “Now that the restaurant is closed due to the pandemic, it is no longer possible to work with practical skills training in a realistic environment. Instead, we focus on the theoretical part of the practical restaurant work “, says Johan Bondesson, serving teacher and deputy principal on a part-time basis.

“We could not continue where we were but had to rethink. I record instructional videos about various practical aspects of serving that the students watch. Instead of the students practically learning how to do when serving, we reason about why you do in a certain way when they have watched the films. It is still about the purely practical work, but the students get a more theoretical approach to it.”

In Stockholm, Designgymnasiet Sickla conducts education in three national programmes: the aesthetics programme, the technology programme, and the crafts programme. The students in the various programmes work with the entire design process, from analysis and planning to sketches and prototypes and production and marketing.

Terese Jerfström is a workshop teacher and teaches design, layout, and architecture. She says that it worried her when the school switched to distance and distance education.

“Developing design models is largely about how to work practically with original materials, tools and machines. We can not do that when the students are at home, so I had to redo the design tasks completely. Students learn to read house drawings and then build models on a small scale. For three weeks, they may build wooden huts at a scale of 1:50, to show that they can handle both the theoretical and the practical work. I drive around with my car to different places in the Stockholm area, so the students can come and pick up small trees in which they can then build their huts.”

Terese Jerfström feels satisfied with how it runs, even though it means a considerable limitation not using the school’s workshop.

“The students have received the information positively, everything works beyond expectations, and I think the students perform unexpectedly well. But even though the students are good at telling how they have worked, it is difficult for them to show me how they have thought about problem-solving. To some extent, it is possible to report in writing, but it gets better when you can show, talk and discuss. It is also difficult for me to judge everything when I can not see what the students do.”

At Rytmus musikgymnasium in Gothenburg, students study the aesthetic programme with different music orientations. Viktor Olofsson, a guitar and ensemble teacher, does not notice any considerable differences in guitar teaching. The only crucial difference is that the students can not carry out the ensemble play as usual. A tenth of a second network delay is sufficient for the entire experience to be destroyed. But the disadvantage has become an advantage. Now the ensemble playing is at an exciting stage of development, he says.

“The basic idea is to play together, but that does not mean that everyone has to play at the same time. We have started a project where the first-year students get a file with a background from a famous song uploaded in a web-based service, which they will play along to with their instrument. In the second year, we work in the same way, but here, the students do everything from scratch. Someone plays, and then the file goes around among the students until everyone has recorded their part.”

“This is how you work in the music industry today, so it’s just good that the students get used to it,” says Viktor Olofsson. “The students have been asking for the teaching to be more hands-on and more creative. It is happening now. This is also an excellent way to start the collaboration between the students in different specialisations. Music production is one specialisation of the aesthetic programme, and now they have to show each other that they know this.”

Distance education has both limitations and advantages

“The practical work in a restaurant kitchen is very much about collaboration and collaboration, from the initial discussions to establishing menus and drink recommendations. This works to some extent also at a distance, but there is a lot that is not possible to do,” says Johan Bondesson.

Of course, theory cannot replace concrete contact with the guests. If we have to continue teaching at a distance for a long time, problems will arise. I try to keep the schedule as best I can, but it is challenging to have a six-hour session serving when all students are sitting at home in front of the computer… Therefore, I have instead added some fixed hold times and let them work with different tasks in between. It is vital to have a structure that holds the teaching together, and that makes sense."

“It can probably be redemptive to be forced to throw yourself into something new and foreign, without having time to think much before,” says Johan Bondesson. “Teachers allow themselves to lower the requirements and together test new ways of teaching. There is an emergency, and it is essential to do the best possible according to the circumstances. If a solution does not work, we must rethink and try another path next time. “

“A clear advantage that I can see is that it will be easier to reach students who have previously had a bit of a hard time at school. For example, I have students who usually barely open their mouths, but who now record excellent films where they present their menus. Another thing is that we were anxious about the presence in the beginning, but now we have a better presence than we usually have.”

Martin Thuvesson agrees that some students with difficulties in regular school do much better when teaching takes place at a distance. It applies to both theoretical and practical subjects. One reason may be that there are less disruptive stimuli. Another may be that teachers are forced to be more precise about what students should do. It is something that benefits all students.

“I am not worried that the results will fall, but believe that they will increase. It is something we must remember when the pandemic is over. Now we see how easy it is to get started and what benefits it can provide. The infected debate about screen time and the danger of computers in the classroom has also disappeared. I hope we take that with us. “

“This month has been a lot of extra work for most teachers,” says Viktor Olofsson.

“This is, of course, because the change came so quickly and that virtually no one had any experience of distance education. But now all teachers get new experiences that they can build on in the future. For example, I like to teach guitar at a distance once a week, provided that I can then follow it up at school. It can benefit the student if I record films that they can use as support when they train and watch. The students become more focused, and it is also good that they can go back and repeat a step when needed.”

It is necessary to have access to the physical premises when needed

“Distance education works for a limited time,” says Terese Jerfström, “but in the long run it will be unsustainable if the students are to be able to reach the knowledge requirements and skills that are in the criteria for the practical courses.”

“It is good that we can soon start opening up the school premises so that the students can come back in smaller groups. Above all, it is important for the third-year students who work with large jobs that require a workshop. Although I have enough data to assess and grade the students, it can be unfair for those who want to show the little extra when we only can meet online.”

“For my students and me, the challenge is that we need to have external guests in the restaurant,” says Johan Bondesson.

“Normally, it is almost only pensioners who come, which can create difficulties in the future, as the elderly belong to the risk groups. I have some backup plans, and I hope the worst may soon be over. But whether or not we can open the restaurant before the end of the semester, we can work out an assessment that is fair and correct.”

Sharing experiences and reflecting on how we teach

“A positive side effect of the rapid transition to distance education is that the sharing culture finally seems to have taken off among teachers,” notes Martin Thuvesson. “Many ask questions, share experiences and discuss in various Facebook groups, and the conversations have also gained momentum on Academedia’s internal platform for teachers and other staff.”

“I think it was an advantage that we were all thrown into this at the same time. Everyone faces completely fresh problems, and no one needs to be afraid to expose their ignorance. There have been many attempts to get the culture of sharing, and collegial learning started, but there have not been strong enough incentives. Now we are facing a sharp situation that we have to deal with together as well as possible. Hopefully, this professional evolution will continue and develop further once the pandemic is over. “

This article was originally written for the collaborative project Skola Hemma.