Distance learning at the Mentora Gymnasium in Berlin
Distance learning is also called distance education, online learning or home-schooling. Especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, these terms and their variations have also arrived in Germany. But unlike in other countries, the school system in Germany is characterized by face-to-face teaching and teachers motivating students to be active. The students are encouraged and challenged accordingly through the use of suitable methods and didactic preparation in the analogue classroom. Due to the persistent external conditions and contact restrictions, schools were sometimes forced to suspend classroom teaching for a longer period, especially in Berlin. However, in order to avoid pupils missing learning material and the connection to learning in a class, the concept of distance learning and the digital transmission of learning content had to be established.
Nobody should be left behind
What has previously posed great difficulties for some teachers in the analogue transfer of knowledge is now becoming a real tangible problem and question: How can we ensure that no one is left behind in distance learning? So far it has been observed that especially the underperforming students often lose motivation and desire when learning in an online classroom and therefore no longer complete their given tasks. As a school, in order to ensure that all students are treated equally and that the knowledge and learning content from the curriculum is conveyed to them, it is first necessary to deal with the reasons why students could lose the connection. One of the reasons is obviously the wrong didactic approach to digital teaching. As long as this digital path is only viewed as a transmitter of tasks that are used for independent processing, high-performing students are encouraged and supported, while the under-performing students are quick to feel overwhelmed and left alone. Very few children and adolescents can count on 24-hour care at home, which supports them in handling difficult and sometimes very demanding tasks.
Distance learning taken further
In order to avoid precisely this, the Mentora Gymnasium takes a slightly different approach. Distance learning with us is not just sending tasks to students over the various digital channels. It is more about promoting and challenging the students on a different level. While students have come into contact with analogue methods a lot, the changed conditions allow their work to be more process and result-oriented when it comes to digital learning. This means a more creative approach to the individual tasks and content. We encourage the independent and above all critical use of digital media, which plays a major role in the lives of young people today. In addition, we encourage our student’s own ability to express themselves on these very channels. By including the everyday life of our students in the lessons and in the curriculum material, the motivation to deal with the individual topics - even if these are sometimes difficult and demanding - is encouraged and maintained.
However, in order to keep pupils from only watching the lessons for the entire morning, we have reduced the actual teaching time from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. The remaining 10 minutes are used by students for self-study, homework or their own preparation and follow-up work on the individual topics. This approach enables us, at the Mentora Gymnasium, to accept all children at our school - regardless of their intrinsic motivation and the possibilities at home.