K-12 teacher perspectives on the pandemic pivot to online teaching and learning

Abstract

The study examines teacher perspectives on preparedness to implement the transition of over 50 million K-12 students to online and virtual teaching formats. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, students were instructed to remain at home and to avoid the potential dangers of virus spread in schools. Once this transition began, and then continued on as the pandemic ignited, attention and scrutiny was aimed at how well teachers had been prepared for this shift. Relationships between these perceptions in terms of years of teaching, grade level, content area, school type, and school level were examined in this study. Over 140 teachers, ranging from kindergarten to senior English teachers completed the survey. The researchers analyzed emerged patterns and sentiment scores for the most prevalent themes. The study sought teacher perceptions of preparation as provided by schools, districts, and universities as well as perceptions on how engaged parents and students felt during this dramatic and sudden shift. Findings demonstrate that significant differences exist between how teachers perceive their levels of preparedness for teaching remotely depending on their teaching experience. It was evident that the pandemic affected K-12 school systems in one state harsher than in higher education. Conclusions from this study better inform future decisions of this nature and that could ensure higher levels of teacher preparation.

Virtual literacy instruction: An investigation of how elementary educators exhibited TPACK during COVID-19 school closures

“…Participants were aware of these challenges and survey results revealed that they did not feel highly confident in their abilities meeting the demands required for teaching literacy virtually (M = 3.67). Many of the challenges identified aligned with trends found in recent COVID-related research, such as student technology access and skills Ogodo et al, 2021;Taimur et al, 2021;Schleicher, 2020;Steed & Leech, 2021;Walker-Dalhouse & Risko, 2020), student motivation and engagement DeCoito & Estaiteyeh, 2022;Eadens et al, 2022;Francom et al, 2021;Taimur et al, 2021), and student learning and accountability (Doll et al, 2021;Locke et al, 2021;Marshall et al, 2020;Steed & Leech, 2021). In the study survey, participants did not note high ability in their use of formative assessment to inform literacy instruction.…”

“…Student engagement is necessary for successful K-12 virtual learning (Borup et al, 2014). Worldwide, during the COVID-19 pandemic, educators identified student engagement as a challenge during virtual teaching DeCoito & Estaiteyeh, 2022;Eadens et al, 2022;Francom et al, 2021;Taimur et al, 2021). The online environment, especially the asynchronous format, results in less interaction between students and teachers.…”

“…A study conducted by researchers at RAND found that 99% of teachers by May 2020 were facilitating online instruction (Hamilton et al, 2020). Few educators felt they were prepared to shift to online learning (Francom et al, 2021), especially at the elementary level (Eadens et al, 2022). Educators' feelings of success in the classroom immensely decreased when instruction pivoted to online (Kraft et al, 2020), possibly because virtual teaching has a large learning curve (Washburn et al, 2021).…”

Teachers’ online preparedness in times of crises: trends from Norway and US

“…A number of studies have focused on teachers’ readiness and preparedness to teach online amid the pandemic. The focus of these studies include quantitative studies in higher education (e.g., Scherer et al, 2020 ), quantitative studies in secondary education (e.g., Howard, et al, 2021 ), qualitative studies in select secondary education disciplines (e.g., Sengıl Akar, & Kurtoglu Erden, 2021 ), and several studies that were country/state- specific (e.g., Eadens et al, 2022 , Fatimawati & Badiozaman, 2021 ; Li, 2022 ). Readiness was also studied through the lens of TPACK (e.g., Li, 2022 ; Scherer, et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Readiness was also studied through the lens of TPACK (e.g., Li, 2022 ; Scherer, et al, 2020 ). Eadens et al ( 2022 ) examined US teachers’ perceptions of readiness, primarily through quantitative methods to determine differences in teacher perceptions of preparedness among teacher demographics as well as among levels of support from universities, districts, and schools. In addition, five open-ended questions structured responses focused on challenges and successes during the shift to online teaching as well as suggestions on how schools/districts/universities could have prepared teachers differently or more effectively.…”