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Changing classes could be a model for schools in the corona pandemic. The federal and state governments are discussing it, but even educators don’t always agree.
By Johanna Wahl, SWR
In the classrooms of the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium in Bad Dürkheim, Palatinate, there are only individual desks. But there is not enough space to separate the tables. And so the students sit there, as almost everywhere in Germany, together for hours, albeit wearing a mask. A minimum distance of one and a half meters: this is not possible with classes of up to 30 children.
Cornelia Schwartz teaches mathematics and English at the secondary school in Bad Durkheim, she is also president of the Rheinland-Pfalz Association of philologists, which represents the interests of secondary school teachers. Due to the still high number of infections in Germany, it finally requires a change to so-called scenario 2. Then the classes would be divided in half and the groups would alternately have face-to-face lessons and home study phases.
But she is not primarily concerned with the health of her colleagues, says the teacher. Her fear: “School-age children can pass the virus on to their families.”
For classroom teaching
Unlike Schwartz, the director of the Werner-Heisenberg-Gymnasium advocates sticking to classroom teaching. Armin Rebholz discusses the low number of infections at his school. Currently, only one of the 90 teachers is infected with Corona. There is currently no known infection among the 1050 students. Overall, there was only one crown case in high school before that.
From a pedagogical point of view, regular lessons are the best alternative: “Without work paper, no explanatory video replaces the real lessons,” emphasizes the director. School is not just about imparting facts, but also about working together and exchanging ideas directly. At home you lose some of the students, that showed in the spring. Math teacher Schwartz, however, assumes that the number of infections in Bad Dürkheim’s primary school is actually higher. That is a simple probability calculation. Not all corona positives have symptoms and are being tested.
Does it make sense from an educational perspective?
By the way, the president of the Association of Philologists of Rhineland-Palatinate also considers the alternate teaching model to be sensible from an educational perspective. Because this could probably prevent a later complete closure of schools. If that were necessary, it would be a much harder blow, argues Schwartz. He believes that teachers have a special duty to ensure that students are not left behind during alternate lessons at home.
Since the groups are smaller in the face-to-face phase, educators could focus more on the individual student. Armin Rebholz notes: “When the children are at home, I don’t see any frowns.
Parents’ needs
How should teachers tell from a distance whether a child has understood the material or not? The director of the Bad Dürkheimer Gymnasium also monitors the needs of parents. For many, schools closed in the spring were stressful. However, Schwartz emphasizes that alternate lessons are not homeschooling.
Parents shouldn’t have to tutor. Rather, teaching staff are asked to specifically prepare students in the attendance phase for the tasks they are required to do at home. For fifth and sixth grade students who cannot study at home unsupervised, there must be emergency care. If the change model were to come along, it would be a clear additional burden on staff, that’s clear to Director Rebholz. And you don’t consider additional emergency care with your school’s staff panel feasible.
Clear expectations
He and Schwartz agree on that. Ask for help in schools for emergency care, if necessary by non-specialized care personnel. Schwartz sees a challenge for herself and her colleagues in alternating lessons, but thinks it’s manageable. However, it should be clear: “Face-to-face lessons for some and simultaneous video lessons for others, that would mean twice as many hours for teachers. That is not possible.”
The home school group must independently deepen the material previously learned in the face-to-face phase with exercises. Schwartz has clear expectations of the discussions between the federal states and the Federal Chancellor: “The protection of health in schools must no longer be trampled on.”
The president of the Association of Philologists of Rhineland-Palatinate hopes that politicians will come out in favor of the alternative teaching model, recommended by the Robert Koch Institute with an incidence of 50 in seven days.
Rebholz, on the other hand, does not want the Corona summit to make a blanket decision for all schools in Germany. On the contrary: the director of the Bad Dürkheimer Gymnasium would like the schools to be able to decide on a case-by-case basis, depending on the infection situation at the site. And then Rebholz awaits the support of politicians for the respective decisions that are made on the spot.
