Reconfiguration of multiple pedagogical modalities for post-pandemic environment

Student learning continues to be adversely impacted in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic. A particularly notable feature of this is the gap in fundamental knowledge of prior content and the consequent limitation in understanding material beyond this. The optimum instructional approach explained in this study begins the remediation of existing deficits in prerequisite courses, while simultaneously introducing new concepts in higher courses, by placing much greater emphasis on the verbal modality described in previous research[1-2]. This change in teaching strategy involves the stronger initial presentation of qualitative ideas, which stimulate intuition in students to create an outline for answers to assigned work before going into extensive detail; i.e. students are prompted to recognize possible paths to an actual solution before formally embarking upon it. Explorations with numerical and graphical forms reinforce the nature of a preliminary answer before progressing to the definitive exposition provided by the analytical form. Appropriate dynamic adjustments in the balance of the four modalities are customized for different student characteristics and topics, resulting in definite signs of improvement in learning outcomes.



[1] APR18.F01.4; [2] APR20.X15.7 (meetings.aps.org)