A Disorienting Dilemma: Teaching and Learning in Technology Education During a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The way individuals interpret and reinterpret their experience is central to meaning-making and impacts teaching and learning. Grounded in Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, this research explores whether pandemic-related emergency remote teaching manifested as a “disorienting dilemma” for technology educators. Teachers negotiated curricular outcomes between physical aspects of making and doing, as well as creative problem solving through design, resulting in a pandemic transformed pedagogy. Thematic analysis revealed that making and doing was severely challenged due to decreased communication, student motivation, and engagement. However, most concerning to educators was the heightened disparity in equity and access in their most vulnerable and at-risk students. In conditions of fear and trauma, little is known about the impact a chaotic way of being has on learners and educators. While we cannot predict what the “new normal” will look like for schools, and what the long-term effects of emergency remote teaching will be, our research demonstrates that the disorienting dilemma COVID-19 presents will continue to shape the pandemic transformed pedagogy of technology educators.

Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy During a Time of Crisis

“…In conditions of fear and trauma, little is known about the long-term impact this chaotic way of being has on learners and educators. Grounded in Mezirow's (2009) transformative learning theory, Code et al (2022) determined that ERT challenged TE teachers' conception of their role as educators, both within the classroom and beyond especially given that they no longer had the physical space is so central to the hands-on approach used in TE. Educators also were challenged and often found they could not connect to their students, leaving them with serious concerns about what impact ERT and COVID-19 would have on the future of TE.…”

“…Teaching during a crisis has a transformative impact on educators' ability to engage, educate, and support their students (Code et al, 2022;Cataudella et al, 2021;Eschenbacher & Fleming, 2020). Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is defined as teachers' confidence in their ability to enhance students' motivation and boost learning outcomes (Bandura, 1977).…”

“…Our project's overall aim was threefold. First, we aimed to capture the impact of the pandemic on TE teachers over time (Code et al, 2022). Second, we aimed to find ways to empower secondary TE teachers with evidence-based learning designs that were both flexible in their delivery modality yet meet proscribed learning outcomes (Code et al, 2020).…”

“…Data collection for the PTP project was accomplished using a questionnaire in which participants were asked to first consider their teaching in a pre-COVID-19, in-person context and then consider their teaching in a post-COVID-19, remote teaching context. Participants were asked to answer qualitative, open-ended questions intended to capture the characteristics of the classroom context (see Code et al, 2022); questions concerning how the pandemic has affected their teaching self-efficacy (the focus of this article); and questions related to the changes they see their profession undergoing because of the pandemic (see Code et al, 2020) involves a comparative analysis of the differences between the teachers' and TCs' changes in their sense of efficacy under pandemic conditions. To examine RQ3, we use a two-way mixedeffects ANOVA design.…”

Teachers’ Perception During Pandemic Times: Challenges, Opportunities and Changes

“…Of the selected articles, the researchers come from sixteen different countries (Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, USA, Slovakia, Philippines, Italy, Israel, Canada, Brunei, Brazil, India, South Africa, Turkey, Austria and Malaysia), and four different continents -which is relevant, as the pandemic did not impact all countries in the same way, considering geographic, cultural, political and economic differences, as well as the different views of these countries' governments on the pandemic. It is worth mentioning that six studies focus on the teaching of specific subjects, which are Physical Education (Kaya, 2021;Centeio et al, 2021), English as a second language (Ludovico et al, 2021;Denardi et al, 2021), STEM (DeCoito and Estaiteyeh, 2022) and technical subjects (Code, Ralph and Forde, 2022), and two others focus on the teaching of students with Special Educational Needs (Toquero, 2021;Schuck and Lambert, 2020;). There is also one study whose objective was to investigate the case of Natural-Science teachers of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Learners (LDHH) (Adigun, 2022).…”