Equanimity in Education: Post-pandemic Considerations for Student Retention
If this is your first time reading an article about education with the word equanimity in the title, you may be interested in the following posts published in recent years.
Nurturing development of character strengths, taking a trauma-informed approach to teaching, raising awareness of social emotional skills… These big ideas are related to the concept of equanimity: the ability to experience life events with mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper - especially in difficult situations. We don’t strengthen character without the mental clarity to both acknowledge opportunities for improvement and receive strategies for improvement. We’re not positioned to connect with students in a trauma-informed way without evenness of temper in difficult situations. One key element of emotional intelligence is self-regulation (self-control, composure).
Click here to schedule a training that dives deeper into these concepts and recent research.
Each learning challenge or teaching challenge or parenting challenge worsened as we realized the permanence of covid-19. Few believed their lives could change so drastically in such a short span of time. The healthcare crisis quickly snowballed into an education crisis as decision makers rushed to mitigate the effects of coronavirus slide.
Coronavirus slide is like summer slide (or summer learning loss)… but worse.
Challenges, Opportunities, & Solutions
We’ve come to expect that students will be out of school two months for summer break. We’re prepared when this happens; we have reliable performance data that is used to support students during summer months. What happens when summer slide turns into covid-19 slide, when the typical two-month break becomes two years of sporadic disruptions in the way students learn?
Today, online learning is the norm for educators and families. Educational technology makes learning possible when students quarantine following exposure to one of the deadly strains of coronavirus. The benefits of online learning have even prompted education leaders to invest in professional development centered on e-learning tools and best practices. Parents have invested in the technology and technical support. Thankfully, good health and effective vaccines result in shorter recovery times. The combined efforts result in students spending more time engaging in meaningful learning.
Students who excel in traditional classroom settings struggle with online learning. Students who struggle in school buildings excel in online learning. Each has his reason. Consequently, blended learning (or hybrid learning) options are expected to become more popular as part of the movement to personalize the student experience.
Though we haven’t entered the post-pandemic period yet and can’t be sure whether masking and social distancing are here to stay, research reveals one change in education is as permanent as the virus: student satisfaction with the learning experience will dictate how we structure learning environments and determine the success of academic institutions.
Take-home points are that (1) equanimity in education will inevitably gain traction (in one form or another) as society places greater emphasis on soft skills; and that (2) from recruitment and enrollment through post-graduation engagement, educational institutions will improve the student experience by continually taking student choice to next level.
Click here to schedule a training that dives deeper into these concepts and recent research.