This presentation explores innovative, research-based approaches to overcome pandemic-related gaps by focusing on relevant real-life and employability skills. Also, by shifting from traditional lectures to dynamic activities, educators can create immersive learning experiences that resonate with today's students. This session will showcase the strategies that worked for us to successfully eliminate gaps across all subgroups at the Anoka-Hennepin Secondary Technical Education Program.
Full description:
In a July 1, 2024 article, the New York Times referred to the situation facing schools today as “a pandemic tsunami”. Many educators feel like the water just continues to rise. Worldwide, students acquired gaps in academic, physical, and social skills at no fault of their own. Rather than complaining about this lack of skill, we need to address how to fill those gaps overtly. This presentation explores innovative, research-based approaches to achieve this goal by focusing on relevant real-life and employability skills. Also, by shifting the focus from traditional lectures to dynamic, participatory activities, educators can create immersive learning experiences that resonate with today's digital-native students. This session will showcase the strategies that worked for us to successfully eliminate gaps across all subgroups at the Anoka-Hennepin Secondary Technical Education Program. Attendees will leave equipped with actionable insights and inspiration to transform their teaching practices, fostering a more engaging, equitable, and collaborative learning environment that will help students “catch up” and take the lead.
This presentation is intended for educators, instructional designers, and educational leaders interested in proactively and overtly addressing the gaps created by the pandemic. The goal of this presentation is to explore research about learning gaps created by the COVID-19 pandemic and share innovative approaches to overtly address the missing skills. We will share research from around the world and suggest instructional strategies to best take advantage of the research. We will focus on the intentional teaching and design of a classroom environment with conditions and supports that will help students prepare for real-life application of the skills necessary for success in school and beyond. We will share what these relevant real-world and employability skills are and how we overtly addressed them at STEP. This structure is designed to help teachers support students to understand the role that these skills and behaviors play concerning their academic achievement, self-worth, well-being, self-regulation, and ability to collaborate with others.
Coe, Erica with Jenny Cordina, Kana Enomoto, Raelyn Jacobson, Sharon Mei, and Nikhil Seshan, "Addressing the unprecedented behavioral-health challenges facing Generation Z." McKinsey and Company. 14 January 2022.
Guryan, Jonathon and Jens Ludwig. "Overcoming pandemic-induced learning loss." Aspen Institute. 8 November 2023.
Kyles-Smith, Kristina, "To Address Learning Gaps, Go Deeper." ASCD Ed Leadership. 1 September 2023.
Ross, Elizabeth M. "Despite progress, achievement gaps persist during recovery from the pandemic." Harvard Graduate School of Education. 31 January 2024.
Zhang, Linfeng with Qingyun Li, Peter Duffy, Zhongyang Zhang, Junyi Xu, and Jingming Cai, "Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on graduate learning experiences in higher education: insights and recommendations." Sage Open. April-June 2024.
Zhou, Yong and Jim Watterson, "The changes we need: Education post COVID-19." Journal of Educational Change. 18 February 2021.
What you will learn:- Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the research being done to identify what the gaps are.
- They will see data that demonstrates the benefits of using interactive, relevant, and rigorous strategies to enhance student engagement and collaboration.
- They will leave with actionable strategies that are research-based and proven to work, practical tools, and renewed enthusiasm to integrate interactive elements into their teaching practices, thereby creating more dynamic and inclusive learning experiences for their students that will eliminate the gaps that were created by the pandemic.
