A Case Study of Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions in a Finnish High School during the COVID Pandemic

Abstract

This study describes one local upper secondary school in Finland during the COVID-19 pandemic. All teaching was changed to distant for around two months. The study describes students’ and teachers’ perceptions during that time. Participants responded to the survey four times and freely described their experiences five times. The number of participants varied from 56 to 72 students and 9 to 15 teachers at different times. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, and qualitative content analysis. The main findings indicate that distance teaching was implemented very successfully. However, open comments and cluster analysis revealed many challenges. Students complained of heavy workloads and fatigue. Some students lost motivation. These difficulties did not disappear over time. The main challenges for teachers included non-authentic interaction and a lack of the spontaneity that in-person teaching provides. Teachers quickly learned to use technological platforms, but interaction through it was not of as high quality. Teachers were also worried about students’ progress. Teachers did not recognize students’ heavy workload and motivation problems in the way that students described them. The study provides several recommendations for future remote teaching.

A leap to the digital era—what are lower and upper secondary school students’ experiences of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia?

“…Some of our more specific findings are more expected than others. For example, expressions on how demanding instruction was, of feeling overwhelmed by the overload of digital content and excessive tasks and homework, are fully coherent with findings from other countries reported by Niemi and Kousa ( 2020 ), Bubb and Jones ( 2020 ), & Pelikan et al ( 2021 ). Similarly, self-regulation, which is repeatedly reported on and theorized as highly relevant for successful distance education by researchers (OECD, 2020 ; Pelikan et al, 2021 ), also comes through as pivotal in the narratives of our students.…”

Lecturers’ Readiness and Emotional Presence on Online Teaching Data in a Malaysian University During COVID-19

“…However, teachers and educators also face various challenges in the online classes on how to handle the access to quality of education and how to utilise technology for effective teaching. Niemi and Kousa [9] in their study at one local upper secondary school in Finland found that the teachers faced several challenges in conducting online classes during Covid-19 pandemic such as non-authentic interaction and a lack of the spontaneity that in-person teaching provides, also, they were worried about students' progress although teachers quickly learned to use alternative platforms, but interaction through it was not of as high quality as face-to-face interaction. In the Philippines, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sudden shift from face-to-face classes to distance learning education in early 2020.…”

Opinions of the students of the Model High School “Evangeliki School of Smyrna” about the synchronous distance education during the Spring of 2020

“…Με την αναστολή λειτουργίας των δομών εκπαίδευσης τον Μάρτιο του 2020, εξαιτίας της πανδημίας του κορωνοϊού, μια καινούργια (για τους περισσότερους εκπαιδευτικούς) πραγματικότητα δημιουργήθηκε στα σχολεία: η εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση (εξΑΕ) που στηρίχθηκε και στις δύο μορφές της, σύγχρονη και ασύγχρονη εκπαίδευση (Bozkurt et al, 2020;Dhawan, 2020), (Niemi & Kousa, 2020). Λόγω του ότι αυτή η εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση είναι μια παροδική λύση για να αντιμετωπιστεί η πανδημία έχει προταθεί να αντιδιαστέλλεται από την (εξΑΕ) που προσφέρεται συνήθως στην Τριτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση) και να ονομάζεται απομακρυσμένη διδασκαλία επείγουσας ανάγκης (remote emergency teaching) (Hodges et al, 2020).…”

“…μικρόφωνο, γραφίδα, πρόσβαση σε πληκτρολόγιο πολυτονικών χαρακτήρων κ.τ.λ. Όσον αφορά την ίδια τη διδακτική πράξη, οι μαθητές υπογράμμισαν την έλλειψη οπτικής επαφής με τους δασκάλους τους και τους συμμαθητές τους, κάτι που τους δημιούργησε μια αίσθηση απομόνωσης, όπως διαπιστώνεται και από αντίστοιχες μελέτες, οι οποίες έχουν διεξαχθεί, τόσο πριν την πανδημία (Ozaydın Ozkara & Cakir, 2018;Rice, 2006), όσο και κατά τη διάρκειά της (Niemi & Kousa, 2020). Σημαντικό ποσοστό τόνισε και την ενόχληση από θορύβους που περνούσαν από ανοιχτά μικρόφωνα.…”