Experiences and practice of online teaching from the teacher’s point of view

Abstract

We conducted a survey among educators about the forced online teaching during coronavirus lockdown in Spring 2020. The aim of the study was to get an accurate picture of the online teaching-learning. On the one hand the questionnaire examined the type of help teachers had received and had asked for, on the other hand the changes in their well-being and in their educational practices, both in terms of methods used and their judged effectiveness. Finally, teachers were also asked about their relationship with students and students’ assumed well-being. Our results show that although educators have received significant help, it has not come from those whom they had asked it from. Basically, they would have liked to get more help from colleagues who were proficient in IT, and they were overwhelmed by the help they received from the heads of the institutions, the work community, friends, and other colleagues. The work they invested increased significantly during online education, but they were less able to judge students’ knowledge and so they decided to grade students’ work less rigorously. Despite teachers’ increased attention to students’ well-being, deterioration in student well-being, attitudes toward learning, and disturbed daily routines were reported. The number of students' independent exercises increased significantly and the proportion of tasks requiring students’ collaboration (pair and group tasks) decreased. It can be seen that there were significant differences between teachers in their choice of methods and their effectiveness. The source of difficulties was investigated in light of methods used. Drawing on information gained in this research suggestions for possible directions towards changes were made.