Teaching in Times of COVID-19: The Evaluation of Distance Teaching in Elementary and Secondary Schools in Germany

Schneider, Rebecca; Sachse, Karoline A.; Schipolowski, Stefan; Enke, Florian

doi:10.3389/feduc.2021.702406

Cited by 22 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…In addition to differentiated education and training opportunities on personalized instruction for teachers, it would seem appropriate in schools with a higher number of at-risk students to have more staff resources to adequately implement individualized support (e.g., feedback to children and parents). These findings are consistent with research that demonstrates the positive impact of teacher-student interaction on learning in online education (Lin et al, 2017), as well as recent studies during the COVID-19 pandemic that highlighted the importance of teacher-student interaction for learning satisfaction and success in distance education (Schneider et al, 2021;Sun et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Conditions of distance learning and teaching and their relation to elementary school children’s basic number skills after the suspension of face-to-face teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Orbach

Fritz²,

Haase³

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

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The suspension of face-to-face teaching, due to the COVID-19 social distancing regulations, raised serious concerns about the impacts on children’s academic learning. Because the implementation of distance education in Germany was entirely the responsibility of individual schools, and because the home learning environments varied across households, school children had very different learning conditions during the pandemic. This fact raises questions whether the conditions of distance learning has impacted children’s development of basic number skills. In this paper, descriptive information on children’s home learning conditions and teachers’ distance teaching approaches during the pandemic, socio-cultural capital, and basic number skills of 484 third and fourth grade students (51.2% girls) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) are assessed. The data revealed risk factors such as not having a tablet/laptop, lack of access to the internet, or a learning environment with siblings without an adult family member present. A negative association was found between multiple risk factors (at-risk levels) in home learning and basic number skills. This link was partially mediated by socio-cultural capital and moderated by teachers’ distance teaching approach. Children whose teachers applied a more personalized teaching approach showed fewer negative relations between at-risk levels and basic number skills. While no evidence was observed for positive effects of videoconferencing, school-based emergency classes, or private tutoring on basic number skills, children whose learning was supported by learning management systems showed better skills than their peers. The findings highlight the differential impact of home-based learning conditions during the pandemic and provide practical implications for realization of distance teaching.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Conditions of distance learning and teaching and their relation to elementary school children’s basic number skills after the suspension of face-to-face teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Orbach

Fritz²,

Haase³

et al. 2023

Front. Educ.

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“…Not only the amount of work has increased, but also the mental stress. Teachers in Germany as well described the social tasks due to teaching in times of the COVID-19 pandemic as particularly challenging: not "to lose" a student, to keep up motivation for learning, and assessing the performance accordingly (Schneider et al, 2021). These challenges have led to a decrease in professional well-being especially for teachers with low resilience and fewer available coping strategies (Hascher et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A survey on 2,447 pedagogists in Germany showed the biggest challenges were the insufficient digitalization, the participation of all students, and their motivation. The evaluation of learning progress was found to be difficult (Schneider et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents from the Perspective of Teachers

et al. 2022

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The effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on children and adolescents are versatile and vast. Reduced quality of life, emotional problems, social withdrawal, and symptoms of anxiety and depression up to suicidal ideations have been reported in numerous studies. They mainly use self-assessment, quite a few use parental assessments. The focus of this study are the challenges for teachers and students as well as observable behaviors and burdens of students from the perspective of teachers during the phase of distance learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online study was conducted in Carinthia/Austria in March and April 2021. 1,281 teachers (29% response rate) from the 5th to the 13th grade participated. The significantly increased workload, the blurring of work and free time as well as the increased physical and mental demands are the largest challenges for the teachers. More than half of the students showed a significant drop in performance, reduced concentration ability and reduced motivation to learn from the perspective of the teachers. Assumed is a critically increased media use. Next to social withdrawal, one can also perceive symptoms of anxiety, depression, or physical ailments. Because of the external assessment through teachers the results are not directly comparable with international studies. However, they do show to the same degree the urgency of preventive and secondary preventive resp. measurements as well as easily accessible possibilities for support for teachers and students. Teachers have a high sensitivity to peculiarities of students and are a valuable source of information. The required performance of the students should be critically analyzed adequately according to the current situation and adapted.

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“…However, deficits in digital competences can be observed in the international literature among both students and teachers [31][32][33][34][35].…”

Section: Digital Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of the Coronavirus Pandemic as an Opportunity for Sustainable Digital Learning in Vocational Education and Training (VET)

2022

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In addition to restrictions in training companies, vocational schools were also closed due to the coronavirus pandemic in Germany. After the unexpected first lockdown, it was the challenge of all those involved to draw lessons from the emergent weaknesses in the system and to prepare for further school closures. These preparations primarily involved shifting to digital learning platforms. This article uses a simple and easy to understand research design and focuses from a practical point of view on the results of a quantitative online survey conducted by the University of Applied Labour Studies Mannheim among 143 apprentices in southern Germany on the differences between the first and second school closures with regard to live communication with teachers, attention to apprentice concerns by the vocational school, access to digital devices, and the use of these devices. The results of the survey show that, according to the apprentices’ assessments, the vocational schools were able to improve live communication as well as better attend to the apprentices’ concerns between lockdowns. In addition, the apprentices were able to improve their own digital devices and competencies and, to a large extent, make up for deficits. They were better able to use digital devices and software during the second school closure compared to the first. Gender differences were observed. However, despite significant improvements, there is still a need to modernize and innovate, which should be considered in future digital developments at schools.

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Teaching in Times of COVID-19: The Evaluation of Distance Teaching in Elementary and Secondary Schools in Germany

Cited by 22 publications

References 37 publications

Conditions of distance learning and teaching and their relation to elementary school children’s basic number skills after the suspension of face-to-face teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Conditions of distance learning and teaching and their relation to elementary school children’s basic number skills after the suspension of face-to-face teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents from the Perspective of Teachers

Challenges of the Coronavirus Pandemic as an Opportunity for Sustainable Digital Learning in Vocational Education and Training (VET)

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