Every pandemic has a silver lining

2021

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teacher perception of changes in the instructional delivery and learning opportunities via technology during and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 until May 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected educational organizations. School closures in March 2020 forced teachers to change their instructional delivery from an in-person platform to a virtual platform. This disruption to the delivery of instruction with the use of technology changed the way teachers plan for learning, delivery content, present learning activities, and assessment. The urgency required teachers to develop new strategies and experiment with adaptations to their traditional instructional delivery. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of teachers as they adapted their instruction to a new platform. The theoretical framework used was change theory. The research was accomplished by interviewing 11 core-con...

Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada

For decades now, in the context of teacher education, we have been discussing the importance of paying attention to the fast and profound changes both in society and in people’s personal lives, as a consequence of the widespread use of new digital technologies. Yet, not much has changed in schools, where traditional teaching still rules. Students continue to be more knowledge consumers than active knowledge producers; besides, the use of technology for educational purposes remains as either a threat or an unattainable goal. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled educational institutions to rethink the role of technology in education. In this article, we comment on the crisis that has struck higher education and how it has set our institutions and ourselves, as professors and teacher educators, into a deep process of rethinking our past practices and reimagining our future.

2021

As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sphere of human life and the schools across the country are closed due to the risk of spreading the virus, online teaching has become a major alternative pedagogical strategy among the private schools in particular. This article reports a study that explores how private school teachers perceive and adopt technological learning, how they transfer their technological knowledge and skills into the online classroom and how they self-assess their practices. This is done through a phenomenological study focusing on the meaning the participants make from their lived experience on ‘technological learning and application’ in the face of the pandemic. The study found that dealing with uncertainty and fear of the COVID-19 and the additional pressure for doing online teaching amidst the crisis evoked frustration and anguish among the teachers. Despite a number of challenges and crisis, teachers, however, learn to deal with the technological challenges a...

Barbour, M. K. (2022). 5 minutes on K-12 online learning with… A re-boot for educational leaders. In E. Baumgartner, R. Kaplan-Rakowski, R. E. Ferdig, R. Hartshorne, & C. Mouza (Eds.). A Retrospective of Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 65-70). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221522/ In March and April 2020, a series of interviews with veteran classroom and online teachers, independent evaluators, online school leaders, change agents, government officials, university faculty, and/or researchers were posted to the Virtual School Meanderings blog. Entitled “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” the series was designed to provide advice to teachers on what to do to provide some form of continuity of learning or to parents on how to structure their child’s learning at home during the emergency remote learning that occurred in the Spring of 2020. Following this first series, in an effort to help school leaders plan for a disrupted school year that was inevitable, interviews were conducted with additional veteran school leaders, university researchers, and independent evaluators. The goal of this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” was to ask them for guidance on (1) how to finish out the current school year and what impact that may have on how they open the coming school year, and (2) what to do to ensure that when the system has to shut down again due to local flare ups or a second wave, the toggle from in person learning to remote learning would be done in a more seamless way. Unfortunately, as most school and district leaders failed to adequately prepare for what has been two disrupted school years, this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” likely had little impact on school leaders.

2022

Technology has taken over the education field as there has been a sudden shift of learning modalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutions moved towards various learning modalities like blended learning and online learning which integrate technology. These modes of delivery have encouraged all, especially teachers who are key factors in the learning process, to become more technology savvy. This outbreak has increased the global demand for online learning which then imposed the need for educators to revalidate the adoption of cutting edge technologies to teach and deliver knowledge. This study aims to determine how such technologies used in teaching in the new normal are experienced by secondary educators. Specifically, it investigates the thoughts and perspectives on the integration of technology in online learning so that their concerns may be properly addressed. In this context, online learning is defined as the new learning modality of the present academic year. It makes use of gadgets and the internet to participate in virtual classrooms. The researchers used a qualitative approach, a phenomenological strategy to be exact, to explain the perception of the secondary educators regarding their experience upon integrating technology. The study employed a total of 36 participants from different high schools and of any grade level who are currently teaching in the present academic year 2021-2022. Responses and data obtained from online interviews, survey, and observations were analyzed and interpreted to answer the posed research questions presented in the study. The results showed that age is not associated with the teachers' ability to teach with technology. However, technological experience was found to be related with the challenges they have faced These results suggest that age is not a deteriorating factor in teaching online, as the respondents believe that age is just a number and what only matters in technology-integrated teaching is the willingness to learn and adopt new learnings. The teachers who are lacking prior technological experience are most likely to encounter obstacles, and they may find them difficult to overcome. On this basis, continuing on implementing the necessary training, webinars, etc. that would help them grow and gain more knowledge in regards with the use of technology should be taken into account by administrators.

British Journal of Teacher Education and Pedagogy

The covid 19 pandemic has greatly affected the whole world including the education spectrum. In this study, the researcher described the realizations, challenges, and coping strategies of teachers on the sudden shift of classes to online teaching during the pandemic. It also aimed to propose an assistance program to improve the experience of teachers in online teaching. It was conducted using a qualitative phenomenological research design where the researcher interviewed 8 college instructors in an extension campus using a validated interview guide. The following themes emerged in view of their realizations on the sudden shift to online teaching: Realizations on the Use of Technology, Realizations on the Effectiveness of Online Teaching, Realizations on the Teachers’ and Students’ Safety.The following themes were unveiled in view of their challenges on the sudden shift to online teaching: Technological Challenges, Students’ Concerns, Work From Home Set Up. The following themes wer...

Revista Argentina De Clinica Psicologica, 2021

The rapid outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic was just sudden and dramatic. The current study aimed to identify the challenges facing pre-service English teachers while teaching online classes during school closure due to covid-19 in the spring 2020 and the lessons learned for teacher education. Data were collected through multiple methods, namely semi-structured interviews, with five English pre-service teachers. Inductive and deductive analysis followed, and the study found the followings:1) there are six significant challenges faced by pre-service English teachers: a) nature of remote teaching, b) content delivery and limit, c) teaching styles, d) online assessment methods, and e) students' interests and differences; 2) pre-service teachers felt lost, anxious, and enter survival stage; 3) focusing on effective integration of technology and developing more aspects of teachers' competence are just some of the lessons learned for teacher education. The study offers some lessons learned for the novel experience of researchers, teachers and other educational personnel.

Educational Technology Research and Development, 2021

This mixed-methods study explored K-12 teachers' feelings, experiences, and perspectives regarding online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also examined teachers' perspectives of the "new normal" after COVID-19 and of what should be done to better prepare teachers for future emergencies. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from an online survey and follow-up interviews. A total of 107 teachers from 25 different states in the United States completed the online survey, and 13 teachers from 10 different states participated in the follow-up interviews. The results revealed teachers' feelings about online teaching and various strategies and tools they used during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The major challenges faced by teachers during the pandemic included lack of student participation and engagement (or lack of parental support), students without access to technology, concerns about students' well-being, no face-toface interactions with students, no work-life balance, and learning new technology. Four major themes emerged regarding how to better prepare teachers for future emergencies: (1) professional development for online learning, (2) technology access, (3) technology training for both teachers and students, and (4) action plans and communication. Regarding teachers' perspectives of the "new normal," five major themes emerged: (1) more online or blended learning, (2) rethinking normal, (3) hygiene and social distancing, (4) smaller classes and different school schedules, and (5) uncertainty and concerns about the "new normal."

Education Sciences, 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread educational system closures, prompting a shift to online learning for instructors and students in higher education. This study examines how pedagogical instructors enhanced accessibility to online training during this crisis. Employing a qualitative case study approach, the research focused on the high school training program at a multicultural college of education in Israel. Semi-structured interviews with six pedagogical instructors were conducted to explore their roles as educators, their management of pedagogical training, the execution of didactic workshops and practical work, and their responses to the pandemic across technological, pedagogical, and emotional dimensions. The findings emphasize the vital role of pedagogical instructors during the transition to remote learning. They facilitated communication among pre-service teachers, coaching professors, and students using digital tools, akin to conducting an orchestra with multiple participants. Amid growing educational, technical, and social disparities among students, pedagogical instructors and their pre-service teachers were crucial in adapting the curriculum and managing the crisis within the school context.

International Journal of Education, 2021

The paper proposes a reflection on the new development trajectories of teacher training in light of the impact with the Covid-19 pandemic. The health emergency is producing, among other aspects, a rethinking of the relationship between those who teach and new technologies. The hypothesis to be demonstrated is that the current experience is configured as an important opportunity for professional growth for the teacher if this profession becomes increasingly open to the demands of the present time, ready to respond to emergencies that may arise in teaching practice, skilled in managing and mastering a conscious and mature relationship with technology. The paper also presents the partial results of a research, carried out in three Italian universities, on the relationship between teachers in the training phase and technologies in this pandemic time.