Ten problems to overcome at school and just as many ways to do so. Because the new normality is an achievement that must be pursued with responsibility and kindness.
In this strange year of 2020, marked both by the climate changes that opened the year in Australia with the terrible wildfires that devastated its surface, and by the Covid-19 pandemic that is still with us in these final days of December, much about our habits has changed. Radically, forcibly. Entirely unexpectedly. Changes that have also affected schools and our students of all ages, between distance learning and new social rules to observe.
We have seen that building a new paradigm lies at the heart of behavioral economics. And of nudging, the gentle push towards doing the right thing. In the classroom too, and above all there, as a mirror of the society we inhabit. Having examined what a nudge is and how it can be applied to schools, we begin our journey to explain how this gentle revolution works. We do so by following a typical student's day, stepping inside — at least virtually — schools and homes to examine the various forms of support that can be offered.
Reorganising classroom spaces to maintain proper distancing. Thinking through entry and exit signage for schools. Encouraging correct social interaction that leaves no one behind, not even in virtual settings. But above all, enforcing the rules and finding ways to ensure that these Covid-19 measures are not top-down impositions, but a set of good practices to be observed in life outside school buildings too — to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
Designing this behavioural change is among the tasks of the choice architect, a new professional figure within the field of behavioural economics and, more broadly, the behavioural sciences. This figure can be fundamental during this period — especially for schools of every level and type — as they are called upon to face this new challenge. For this reason, the team at aBetterPlace and Nudge Italia has made available its guide on nudging and behavioural economics in schools, entitled Una spinta gentile per far ripartire la scuola. A genuine toolkit of suggestions and good ideas to experiment with independently, each in their own classrooms across Italy.
"Our mission is to accompany schools on this long journey they are undertaking," explains Francesco Pozzi, professor of Behavioral economics, financial director of the Istituto europeo per lo studio del comportamento umano and co-founder of aBetterPlace, "and for this reason we envisage further updated versions of this document, with an increasingly vertical focus each time."
For the time being, ten barriers have been identified and addressed with an equal number of solutions: risk perception, inclusion, distancing, sanitisation, information, compliance with rules, collaboration with families, fears and constraints, cycling to school, and finally new habits. "We have reformulated these problems in scientific terms," the professor previews, "trying to analyse the biases involved and attempting to offer some initial practical advice." Let us look at them as they play out in a typical student's day.
If we calculate the hours in a typical student's typical day, we realise that the family is one of the places where children and young people spend the most time. Time that, since last March, with the onset of the lockdown and distance learning (DAD), has increased even further — in turn making families more responsible for the proper prevention measures for their children.
"This change places an additional burden on schools, which must find a way to extend their educational reach into the family," Pozzi explains. "Schools need to stretch out their arms and embrace families, engaging more with parents, equipping them with educational tools, resources and ideas, so that there is a consistent approach across different families and between home and the classroom. The broader education that goes beyond school walls and reaches parents must not be neglected."
Among the guide's practical suggestions is the idea of providing families with a checklist of procedures to follow — such as taking temperatures or monitoring the possible appearance of symptoms like a sore throat. "It is not necessary to create endless checklists covering everything that will be done at school," the document reads. "What matters instead is focusing on a small number of key actions that will need to be put into practice at home and on the journey to the school entrance."
A collaboration between teachers and parents, but also among parents themselves, who can keep one another informed through word of mouth, thereby creating a set of virtuous behaviours to follow.
Lessons in person but with social distancing. Virtual lessons without distancing, because everyone is behind their own computer, alone, most of the time sitting in their bedroom. In each of these two situations, which we have already lived through and experienced, it is first and foremost the inclusion of our students that suffers. With a whole series of attendant problems: "In these months we have had the impression that social distancing, and therefore digitalisation — in schools as in other contexts — has somewhat amplified problems of discrimination and isolation."
A complex situation that must also take into account the other side of the coin: "But then other accounts reached us from people who, through digital tools, have had greater opportunities for inclusion," the professor continues, "such as students who perhaps struggled to integrate into the school routine, to speak up, to express their opinions, but who are now able to do so in this more structured setting, breaking down certain barriers directly linked to physical inclusion."
One suggestion for fostering more inclusive dynamics, both in person and through remote learning, may be the creation of shared routines "capable of making everyone feel part of a group and thereby encouraging cooperative and mutually supportive behaviour," as we read in the document. "It could also be an opportunity to have each class create its own form of interpersonal greeting, important for two reasons: ensuring physical distancing and promoting a sense of inclusion."
"This is a difficult and very delicate issue to manage, even in a traditional school setting," Pozzi continues, "transferring this process to video conferencing is like an earthquake: if it is not carefully monitored, this change risks becoming dangerous. Because those who were already weak and fragile — students as well as teachers — risk being destabilised and lost sight of in the process. And this can be a major problem for those who are already on the margins."
Over the summer, the greatest challenge for schools was finding a way to reopen in complete safety. Now that a couple of months have passed since the start of the school year, all the controversies over lack of advance notice or over desks on wheels seem like such distant problems that yet another priority has emerged: keeping schools open for as long as possible. With the attendant disputes varying even between individual regions.
This situation illustrates well another of the most widespread biases in our lives: that of the status quo. At stake is our tendency to take for granted that everything will stay as it is. We continually fall into this error which, moreover, "is constantly being disproved," comments the co-founder of aBetterPlace. "In fact, this very pandemic is the greatest proof of that."
What is left for us to do, then, at school as in everyday life? "We must accept the fact that change is constantly being asked of us; we must commit to living with this situation by forming new habits in an intelligent way, drawing on the resources available to us," concludes Professor Francesco Pozzi.
"We start from this somewhat pessimistic idea: it is better to expect the worst, which means that perhaps for another year or more we will continually need to change and adapt. Our forecast, therefore, is one of maximum flexibility, and schools too are called upon to embrace it."