How to Ease Teacher Shortages with Blended Learning

Strategic thinking about the use of technology could turn a crisis into an opportunity

Earlier this year, the House of Commons Education Committee reported what most of us already knew; the country faces a deepening shortage of teachers, especially in secondary schools. 

It’s not simply a question of numbers - the absolute number of teachers is at a record level. It’s more to do with problems recruiting in key subjects, resulting in many teachers taking classes outside their subject specialism and some schools dropping subjects entirely. Factor in the number of teachers leaving the profession early and you can see the scale of the problem.

And it’s not just in the UK. Similar problems in the U.S. are leading more and more schools and districts to rely on companies like Proximity Learning or Elevate K12 to provide ‘live’, synchronous distance learning. 

I can see this might be better than no teacher. Maybe it’s OK as a quick fix? 

But is it where we want to be going? I suggest that a return to Zoom in a Room ought to fill us all with gloom. If we learnt anything from the pandemic it was surely that effective learning depends on real, live interaction with someone who has a genuine investment in your progress.

This image, taken from Elevate K12’s website, looks to me just like a very old-fashioned classroom with a big telly at the front. (I’m sure they’d tell me I’ve misunderstood). I do understand the urgency to find a solution but this looks like a huge missed opportunity.

There is a better way. 

Especially for MATs who can think strategically about how to use technology in a blended way.

We ought to be clear from the start that technology in itself is not a solution. No-one is motivated by a machine, however many virtual gold stars it gives out. In his excellent book Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education, Justin Reich emphasises that great teaching is nuanced, human and demands a huge range of skills, many of which are to do with navigating complex relationships between people.

A properly designed blended approach can still allow for all of that, using technology not to replace but to maximise the impact of a school’s most valuable assets - its teachers. Getting your best teachers in front of the biggest number of students possible should be the aim. Shutting them away in a room with only 30 was perhaps fine when there was no alternative. 

Now, technology has given us alternatives. It allows us to conceive of the teachers involved in delivering a course as a genuine team and allows us to maximise the particular skills of each one. 

Some are brilliant at presenting information in an engaging, clear and exciting way. Others specialise in assessing work with objectivity and rigour. Others flourish when given time to work with small groups or individuals, almost as a tutor would.

We are quite happy with the idea of specialisms in other fields, such as sports teams. No-one cares if the goalie doesn’t score very many goals. But we still expect teachers to be good at all aspects of the job. 

Why not get the subject teacher who is the best presenter of information in the trust to do much of the presenting? Let someone else lead on assessment. Adopting a blended approach won’t create more teachers from thin air but it will allow us to use our assets effectively. Making one poor, non-specialist responsible for a class of 30 could be catastrophic for the chances of that class. Using their pedagogical skills as part of a team led by subject specialists makes them valuable. 

Crucially, decide which parts of the course are best delivered by video. Which parts can be achieved through automated testing. Which parts require live human engagement. 

Using video and other tech in a strategic way frees time for teachers to focus on the things that are best done by a human. 

Even better, in a MAT which can exploit some of the benefits of scale, you can start to foster complex, dynamic learning networks, which is where the learning really starts to accelerate way beyond anything an individual teacher can deliver, however good they are. Innovative modes of delivery such as hybrid live-streams, live marking sessions, small group online tutorials also become possible and advantageous.

No single blended model suits every circumstance. Rather, we need to design courses which pick the best features of the various models and which are engineered to meet the desired learning outcomes, not driven by available resources. 

Sometimes, the very limitations of our resources become the drivers of success. If we approach the problem of teacher shortages in a spirit of strategic innovation we might just be able to make a giant leap forwards.