Online Teaching Method in Response to the Pandemic

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 virus pandemic has inevitably caused many children’s education centres to shift their physical classes online. Plenty of parents, as well as teachers, struggle to find the balance between providing the optimum amount of offline and online education for their children. Indeed, the real physical environment for childhood education still remains a priority due to its indispensable contribution to a child’s physical & mental development. Now, the unresolved issue faced by many is finding the perfect type of education for their child while being kept at home, due to the pandemic. In December 2019, StoryChopsticks developed a unique pedagogy to teach young kids the Chinese language through story creation. The classes are 100% online yet their method cultivates the child’s interest in learning and creativity. The curriculum that’s been designed meets the standards of Singapore’s education, with an ongoing mission to build comprehensive cloud solutions widely used by future schools. Their method starts off with a storytelling session by a teacher and is followed by recalling keywords from the story through the use of flash cards. The child’s interest to learn is piqued by encouraging them to draw, speak, and write the words they learnt throughout the class. Then, the children are guided to create their own stories using the keywords they have learned. This way, the children’s imagination is constantly stimulated. StoryChopsticks has also launched their first Kidspublish programme where they give children the opportunity to become young authors. StoryChopsticks constantly highlights that the creativity of a child should be cultivated from a young age. A creative person never lacks the chance to create opportunities for themselves. This is important especially when AI has started to replace many aspects of our lives. Only the creative ones will be invaluable in the future. This paper discusses StoryChopsticks’ online teaching method which meets the needs of children’s education.

Keywords: creativity, storychopsticks, pandemic, teaching method, preschool education

JEL Classification: i20