What Can We Learn about Science Teachers’ Technology Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe teachers’ experiences in a technology-mediated teaching context during the COVID-19 pandemic. We mainly focused on teachers’ experiences with technology use (change and variety of the use) and their willingness to use technology in teaching. We designed an interview-based study. The participants were Estonian science teachers who voluntarily agreed to share their experiences about teaching in new and—for most of them—unexpected, distanced learning conditions. Based on teachers’ reflections on technology use we could distinguish between three groups in which teachers described different levels of willingness to use technology, change in technology use from pre-COVID to distanced learning, and variety in the use of technology. Our results revealed that the higher teachers’ perceived willingness to use technology, the easier it was for them to overcome potential obstacles and cope with the unexpected distanced learning. The main obstacles there were grouped as external (e.g., issues with internet connection, lack of students’ digital skills) and internal (e.g., teachers’ beliefs about technology use for teaching). I was observed that some obstacles were shared by all teachers (such as limitations on students’ digital skills) whereas others where more prevalent in separate groups. This highlights the importance of understanding and considering the variability in the possible obstacles that emerge in using technology in education for teachers with different levels of experience.

University Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Distance Learning During COVID-19 Pandemic: Hurdles, Challenges, and Take-away Lessons

“…In concordance with Adov and Mäeots (2021), the current study found that other problems pointed out by the respondents were related to logistics and technical matters. Both external and internal obstacles were reported by the respondents.…”

“…These hurdles were found to negatively affect teachers' attitudes toward the e-teaching experience during the pandemic. Adov and Mäeots (2021), for instance, indicated that different internal and external obstacles hinder teachers' use of e-Learning platforms. They observed that poor infrastructure, lack of control, and lack of digital skills are the main obstacles faced by teachers.…”

Teachers’ Satisfaction, Role, and Digital Literacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Teachers played a more crucial role in monitoring students' learning effects, and their psychological or technical problems appeared in online teaching platforms. Recent studies (e.g., Almazova et al, Daumiller et al, Sales et al, Adov & Maeots) showed that teachers needed to positively influence their students who had problems with self-regulated learning ability, attention, and computer literacy [60,76,84,85]. Furthermore, students were inclined to fall into depression or frustration when they met difficulties with distant learning.…”

Resilience in Higher Education: A Complex Perspective to Lecturers’ Adaptive Processes in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Adaptation processes during the pandemic have involved many organizational challenges. Several studies so far have highlighted educational challenges related to the pandemic [4][5][6]. Research has highlighted challenges such as the weakness of online teaching infrastructure, the limited exposure of teachers to online teaching, the information gap, a non-conducive environment for learning at home, and inequality in many countries.…”