Educating Heads,Hands,and Hearts in the COVID-19 Classroom

Dear Editor:

As campuses across the country and around the world are shut down in response to COVID-19, professors contributed to the monumental task of shifting the vast majority of course content to online delivery. Seemingly overnight, every student became a distance learner, and every college instructor became a digital media producer. Although this transition has been hailed across higher education as nothing short of amazing, there has been very little discussion of the impact on student motivation to learn.

In the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom and coworkers described three domains of knowledge, namely (1) cognitive, (2) psychomotor, and (3) affective. The cognitive domain includes the recognition and recall of facts and figures as well as the processes of discussion, analysis, evaluation, problem solving, and synthesis. The psychomotor domain includes physical manipulation of the material world, which contributes to a wide realm of education from chemistry experiments in the laboratory to piano recitals in the concert hall. And the affective domain includes much of what is now known as “emotional intelligence” including motivation.

When faced with the herculean task of moving all learning in higher education into the online world, the twofold immediate response of many professors was (1) “how do I teach a hands-on laboratory using an online platform” and (2) “how do I get the knowledge from my own notes into the notebooks of my students without a face-to-face lecture?” Fortunately, simulation—from advanced virtual reality to simple digital videos—offered a solution to the first question. And existing learning management systems—such as Canvas or Blackboard—offered a ready-made solution to the second question. But what many professors may not have had time to ask was, “how do I teach my students to love my subject matter?”

Teaching is more than “just” an answer to the question, “what” or, “how,” because teaching is also an answer to the question, “why?”

Professors of environmental engineering and science programs have accomplished an amazing feat in a short period of time by providing students with “head” knowledge—such as the meaning of “flattening the (epidemiological) curve”—as well as “hand” knowledge—such as how to create a homemade respiratory mask. But we may not have had the opportunity to provide students with “heart” knowledge, and early evidence suggests that this is a significant and growing problem.

Important why questions include, “why” do we shelter in place and “why” do we reopen the economy? Additional why questions include, “why” do I feel so anxious and “why” is it so difficult to get out of bed and concentrate on my work? The pedagogy—the method and practice of teaching—prevalent on campuses across the country depends upon more than “just” the transmission of cognitive and psychomotor domain knowledge from expert professors to novice students. Routine is part of learning. Feeling safe is part of learning. Having confidence that the future will be better than the past is part of learning.

Transitioning students from face-to-face to online instruction—often after returning to their family homes—represents a twofold traumatic event. First, our students are dealing with culture shock—the feeling of disorientation experienced when someone is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way or life, or set of attitudes. Second, our students are dealing with grief, including the five stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Online is not face to face. And, socially isolated at a family home is not “college life.” It is important that professors recognize these facts and adapt our teaching accordingly.

As we wrap up the final portion of the spring 2020 academic term and look forward to summertime instruction as well as the uncertainties of the autumn 2020 academic term, will we return to face-to-face instruction, or will we continue to use online course delivery? Teachers of environmental engineering and science have both an obligation and an opportunity to expand the narrow definition of “emergency teaching” to include a more holistic view of head, hands, and heart. Environmental engineering and science is a progressive discipline. We promote diversity and inclusion. We protect human health and the natural environment for the generations to come. Our professors and our students care deeply about answers to the “why” questions, because caring deeply is a hallmark trait of our profession. Moving forward, it is important to remember who we are as a discipline, and to lead the broader engineering and scientific community to be sure professors have time to answer, “how do I teach my students to love my subject matter?”