Small classes and rotational timetables as effective curriculum-recovery teaching methods during Coronavirus-19 pandemic

Abstract

When the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic broke out in South Africa in 2020, many aspects of life, including the education system, were disrupted. Schools in almost all countries were shut down to observe social distancing, which was meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. In South Africa, a hard lockdown of the country was instituted during which teaching and learning came to a standstill, as schools were shut down too. Nonetheless, teaching and learning continued in schools that could afford to teach online. Schools that were unable to teach online suffered immense loss of teaching and learning time, leading to their inability to cover the academic curriculum. Initially, the implemented hard lockdown stopped all learning institutions from learning in person on campus and this was later named Level Five Lockdown. As infection numbers dropped, a lower level of lockdown was put in place. Lockdown levels were numbered from level one to five, with one having the least restrictions and level five having the most restrictions. Schools had to find ways to recover the teaching and learning time lost to COVID-19 lockdown by adopting small classes and rotational timetable strategies. Abundant research has been conducted on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning. However, there is a dearth of research on the effectiveness of small classes and rotational timetables as curriculum-recovery methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative case study research investigated teachers’ perceptions of whether and how these strategies helped them to recover the academic curriculum lost during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data was collected through open-ended Google Form questionnaires sent to 13 teachers in three Western Cape Education Department (WCED) schools that predominantly had large classes before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was analysed thematically using colour-coding and emergent themes. Results revealed that small classes and rotational timetables contributed immensely to the recovery of the lost teaching and learning time. Participants reported on how these strategies helped them to manage learner behaviours and offer individual attention, both of which contributed to the quick recovery of lost teaching and learning time. They further observed improved academic performance among learners, and that teachers were more able to identify gaps in learners’ knowledge much more quickly and to implement support plans more promptly than they had in large classes. Nonetheless, 5 participants reported encountering challenges that sought to threaten the effectiveness of these strategies. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that since the COVID-19 pandemic is not the last pandemic that will occur, and due to the threats of the climate change, the Department of Basic Education and schools should have contingency plans in place for dealing with crises that can adversely affect smooth teaching and learning in the future. More research is needed to investigate other strategies that the other countries employed to recover the lost teaching and learning time during the COVID-19 pandemic.