By Assistant Professor Xie Huichao, Psychology and Child & Human Development, the National Institute of Education
Home-Based Learning (HBL) can be challenging for students with special educational needs but teachers can help them overcome learning obstacles by attending to their needs during the preparation of lessons
The HBL model during the Circuit Breaker period has inspired discussions on the future direction of education in Singapore. While HBL has served as an opportunity to adopt new approaches of teaching and learning, it has also posed challenges to many students, especially those with identified special educational needs or have limited resources at home.
For this segment of students, barriers to having engaging and meaningful HBL experiences include, but not limited to, a lack of a structure (e.g., schedule, routines, physical facilities) to facilitate learning at home, a lack of home-based and web-based learning materials designed to meet their individual needs (e.g., instructional videos relying on visual inputs for vicarious learning cannot be used by students with visual impairment), and a lack of peer interactions and cooperative learning.
Parent-teacher collaboration to conduct successful classes at home
Many parents have explored creative ways to support their children’s HBL and some benefited from this opportunity to know more about their children and to strengthen the parent-child bond.
However, not all parents and families have the same resources. For policy makers and educators, it is important to always keep in mind the needs of parents who struggle to set up a quiet study corner for their children who have difficulties staying focused; or who are unfamiliar with web-based technologies to be able to help their children in web-based seminars; or who have limited time to help their children in HBL due to other work or family responsibilities.
Being flexible in working with different families is the key to avoid barriers in HBL resulting from diverse home environments and family resources. For example, when recording audio-visual instructions, consider whether it would be more effective for learning to have five short three-minute clips instead of one long 15-minute video. For students whose families have limited or no access to the Internet, they should be provided the learning materials in softcopy and hardcopy.
Redesign pedagogy and materials for individualised learning
It is important to facilitate self-directed learning opportunities in HBL for all students. However, some students may need specialised and individualised support to become a self-directed learner. This could be one-on-one direct instruction or speech therapy or occupational therapy.
Web-based technologies, with their potential to facilitate remote interactions synchronously and asynchronously, can be a good channel to deliver these specialised and individualised instructions. However, face-to-face teaching and online instruction are not quite the same thing. Effective online instruction will require teachers to acquire new skills.
SchoolVirturally (https://schoolvirtually.org/), for example, is a great resource for both educators and families in supporting effective online and distance education for children with special educational needs. The website provides practical guidelines on designing online learning materials using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and monitoring of students’ progress towards their respective goals under individualised education programs.
Another helpful HBL programmes for parents and teachers is the Wide Open School (https://wideopenschool.org/), which provides learning materials and activity plans specific to each subject and grade.
Potential to facilitate peer interactions and inclusiveness
While this area has not been sufficiently studied, HBL may have the capacity to facilitate interactions among peers and create strong group identities and a sense of belonging among students (see https://schoolvirtually.org/udl-online-providing-multiple-means-of-engagement/). The HBL backdrop itself, which is set in students’ homes, can be a good opportunity for both teachers and students to get to know one another’s home language, culture, and facilitate a greater appreciation of diversity and inclusiveness.
Other tips on conducting a successful HBL programme can also be found in this teachers’ guideline on promoting positive social interactions: http://faculty.uml.edu/darcus/01.505/NASET_social_inclusion.pdf.
For students requiring specialised or individualised educational supports, HBL requires schools and teachers to adopt a more inclusive approach and work with the students’ families to provide meaningful and engaging learning for the students at home, and to facilitate healthy interactions and relationships between the students and their peers.
