Upskilling Teaching and

Learning Strategies during the

limited Face to Face Classes

MARY GRACE L. AUSTRIA

Speaker
 Given new conditions, our education system faces the monumental task of
preparing teachers for teaching and learning in the year ahead. Our Schools are not
alone however and can look to organizations inside and outside of education to inform
and guide initial steps are three considerations for staffing and development in the wake
of COVID-19.

1. Identify Upskills Within Existing Teacher Competencies

The need to update and train our educator workforce existed long ahead of the novel
coronavirus. In 2019, the World Economic Forum estimated that the effects of
automation, shifts to virtual work, and advances in technology would require 
more than half of all employees to be upskilled or reskilled by 2022. Work-from-home
and social distancing requirements have simply accelerated these needs.

Educators can look to the healthcare industry to see the kind of rapid upskilling that will
be needed across our more than three million teachers this Fall. To ensure an ‘all-hands-
on-deck’ pandemic response, medical professionals across every area of expertise have
received training on the basics of treating infectious diseases, performing common
 For example:

Competencies Pre-COVID Post-COVID Upskills

•Expectations for camera use, chat,

•Clear and consistent routines and
headphones
procedures
•Screen monitoring, digital FAQs
Classroom •Management strategies (proximity,
Management anchor charts, incentives)
•Teaching and learning with face
masks
•Seating arrangements to
•Student seating and no-contact
accommodate 20+ 
collaboration

•Focus on models for small group

2. Consider Reskilling for New Competencies
Our education system faces unprecedented pressures on staffing in the year ahead.
Budget cuts, limits on class sizes, and a significant number of teachers required to stay
will stretch an already understaffed workforce to new limits. To ease capacity concerns,
leaders will need to consider how to reskill both traditional and newly created roles to
meet capacity demands.

Educators might again look to the healthcare industry for a model of this kind of
reskilling. To alleviate similar stretches on capacity, Schools should consider a reskilling
of new and existing roles. For example, parents could receive training on leading guided
or independent practice with students.

Counselors might lead daily small-group instruction on health and wellness to ease
classroom sizes. To meet unprecedented demands on capacity and physical space,
schools will need to think beyond the traditional teacher role to support new demands on
teaching and learning. Regardless of role and title, a reskilling of new knowledge,
mindsets, and skills will need to occur across all positions. Skills and knowledge
Example:

Pre-COVID Post-COVID Reskills

Competencies

•Daily integration of School Learning Management

Systems
N/A or not
Digital Content •Use of virtual instruction software, polling, and
universally
and Instruction digital formative assessment tools
required
•Technical troubleshooting for hybrid and virtual
learning

•Readiness to shift between virtual and in-person

N/A or not learning
Comfort with
3. We Need to Recalibrate Hiring, Development, and Evaluation
Efforts

Upskilling and reskilling will require significant human resource efforts across hiring,
onboarding, and development structures. By identifying present and future state of skill
development, teams can begin to identify both barriers and bridges along new and
existing competencies.

Teams might start revisiting hiring profiles to reprioritize knowledge, skills, and mindsets
for successful applicants. Previously ‘nice-to-have’ attributes like digital instruction or a
high comfort with ambiguity might become must-haves upon hire. Structured interviews
will need to be adjusted to include questions and performance tasks that reflect new
priorities, for example through virtual lesson demonstrations or questions that probe on
how candidates maintain productivity and quality in the face of shifting conditions.
 
Learning Strategies during the limited face to face Classes
"Limited face-to-face classes are now allowed under Alert Levels 1, 2 and 3, subject to
certain conditions,
such as (1) 50% indoor venue capacity, (2) no opposition from the local government
unit concerned, and (3)
participation of fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching personnel and students
only.
Thank You And God Bless
Us All !!!