The attitudes of elementary and middle school students and teachers towards online learning during the corona pandemic outbreak

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the education systems worldwide and most, including the Israeli, have transitioned to online learning. Moreover, closing schools has extreme social, cultural, educational and economic implications on the student, teacher and parent populations. This is especially true for students from families of lower-socio-economic status and young students who need parental assistance. Furthermore, online learning is not suitable for all teachers, because some lack the technological capabilities needed. To examine the attitudes of teachers and students towards online learning, questionnaires were administered to 476 students, grades 3–7 and 250 teachers from the Arab and Jewish sectors. The findings revealed that age plays an important role both among teachers and students, where mainly younger children and older teachers encounter difficulties in this transformation. Furthermore, gender and sectoral differences were found both among teachers and students. These findings show that conversion to online learning may widen the existing gaps.

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“…There is a higher socio-economic stratum of the students in the Jewish schools, as the teachers reported. These findings are in line with findings from previous studies (Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021;Perach, 2020).…”

“…These conditions led to a digital gap between the two societies both in level of usage and goals for the use of technology (Ganayem, 2018). Internal factors include the more traditional school culture and lack of resources required to integrate ICT in teaching in the education system, such as computer labs and teacher training for telecommunications, which influence the Arab teachers' and students' digital literacy (Arar & Masry-Herzallah, 2016;Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021;Masry-Herzallah & Da`as, 2020). These findings are in line with findings of previous research that identify basic conditions essential for the success of online learning in a school in addition to the role of school leadership (Bleakley & Mangin, 2013;Rupp, 2016).…”

“…In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have begun to study online learning in schools. These studies indicate that online learning does not suit every student in the education system and may affect the principle of equal education among students (Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021;Schleicher, 2020). This is due to the fact that not all students in the education system enjoy the same environmental conditions at home that allow them to study online (Welner, 2020).…”

“…Research literature discussing the Arab education system in Israel records significant gaps in the inputs and outputs of this system in comparison with the Jewish education systems (Arar & Masry-Herzallah, 2018;. The Arab education system endures discrimination regarding budgets, infrastructure, learning programmes and participation in decision-making in comparison to the Jewish system (Ayalon et al, 2019) and research shows huge deficiencies in the assimilation of computerization in Arab education schools in comparison to Jewish schools (Arar & Masry-Herzallah, 2016;Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021).…”

“…the students' families and their families' cultural capital. Thus, even if we exclude the digital divide, the online learning model might nevertheless broaden existing educational gaps,(Masry-Herzallah & Stavissky, 2021; Schleicher, 2020).…”