Pedagogical challenges in Distance Learning during COVID-19 conditions – Experience of Latvia

Due to the global pandemic caused by the spread of coronavirus disease, the educational process has experienced very significant transformations – in the pedagogical process both pupils and parents, teachers and education policy makers have encountered essential challenges and an unprecedent experience The aim of the research, based on the theoretical study of the distance learning concept and empirical research, and finding out the teachers’ attitude towards distance learning, is to describe the Latvia experience in distance learning during COVID-19 conditions. The research's methodology is based on teacher survey, regulatory analysis, and concessional analysis. The study highlights problems in the context of distance learning and makes a significant contribution to further research. Analysing the results of the empirical study and outcomes of the survey, it has been concluded that teachers feel psycho-emotional and physiological overload due to distance education. Keywords: distance learning; education; pedagogical process; pupil; teacher

Do principals really know what their teachers believe about evaluation? Exploring principals' reactions to teachers’ beliefs in the United States

This study explored principals’ reactions to findings from a survey regarding their teachers’ evaluation beliefs. As participants in a longitudinal study, these principals were invited to focus group meetings to discuss the teacher survey data, which were sent to them for review prior to the meetings. They were asked to consider data that were puzzling, surprising, inconsistent, or consistent with their perceptions of conducting teacher evaluation. The focus group data were analyzed using the Johari Window, consisting of four domains of awareness. Based on the Johari Window analysis, principals shared teachers’ awareness of a checklist approach to observations but maintained different beliefs about a checklist's intentions and efficiencies. Principals were unaware of or disagreed with the following teacher beliefs: (a) principal feedback is marginally effective for teachers’ instructional improvement, (b) the evaluation ratings are applied unfairly, and (c) too much of principals’ time is allotted to the evaluation process. This study illustrates that principals and teachers have contradictory beliefs regarding the practice and value of teacher evaluation. The researchers suggest that principals should consider applying the Johari Window construct to reveal and explore teacher perceptions that could hinder an effective supervision and evaluation process.

What Kind of Learning Media do You Want? Need Analysis On Elementary School Online Learning

This preliminary research was conducted to find information on learning media that teachers and students want in online learning. The qualitative descriptive research method is applied in this study. The study was conducted in August 2021. The study was conducted in an elementary school in both urban and rural areas. A total of 105 people were interviewed at the school, including teachers and students. The data collection technique was carried out through a survey using a google questionnaire form which was divided into 2 forms, namely forms for teachers and students. The findings of the teacher survey indicate that learning media is needed to provide students with a realistic picture of phenomena in online learning. By providing interactive learning media, students feel it will be easier to understand the material than just being explained or given assignments. On the other hand, the results of student questionnaires also indicate that they want learning media in the online learning process. learning media that can convey the topic so that students can see the phenomenon.

ENRICHING VOCABULARY WITH ADJECTIVES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PUPILS’ READING LITERACY

The trend observed in the education system is that pupils often spend their free time using mobile phones or computers for entertainment. As a result, pupils have a rather modest vocabulary, which poses a problem to formulate and express their thoughts in the learning process, to describe the central thesis in more detail, for example, using adjectives.The research aim is to determine the methods used in teaching adjectives and their usefulness in the Latvian language class in order to improve pupils’ reading literacy. The research methods include analysis of corresponding theoretical and methodological literature, a teacher survey, and processing and interpretation of the data obtained. The most appropriate methods for teaching the topic “Adjective”, according to the teachers, are the explanatory illustrating and reproductive method; whereas the documents studied concerning the introduction of competency-based education recommend mainly the heuristic and research method, and this creates a relative mutual discrepancy. To promote the pupils’ reading literacy, teachers need to explore the children’s interests and use them as the basis for creating methodological materials about adjectives which correspond to modern reality and are fascinating and interesting to pupils. Such an approach would motivate pupils to appreciate the importance of using adjectives in everyday life. In the Latvian language class, when teaching the topic “Adjective”, teachers need to try and work as counsellors, gradually guiding their pupils to achieving the goal by noticing different patterns for adjectives, like competency-based education provides.

TEACHERS’ COOPERATION WITH PARENTS OF STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Teachers’ cooperation with parents of students with special educational needs (SEN) is particularly important for students with special educational needs. Theoretical analysis has found that there are often problems of cooperation between teachers and parents of children with special educational needs. In order to clarify this, a quantitative study was carried out. The research aim – to reveal the peculiarities of cooperation between teachers and parents of students with special educational needs. The method of a questionnaire survey was chosen for the research, a questionnaire of semi-closed questions was created. The study involved 353 general education teachers. The results of the teacher survey showed that parents are not sufficiently involved in the process of cooperation. The most common forms of cooperation between teachers are individual consultations. The majority of the teachers indicated that they usually cooperate with parents of students with SEN in solving teaching/learning problems of the child, less often they cooperate in developing an individual curriculum. According to the respondents, the main problems are different understanding of responsibilities and demands of teachers and parents on each other.

Contemporary State of Readiness of First School Pedagogues to Use Pro-Health Education Technologies

The article includes the current issues of maintaining the health of younger students, namely determining the readiness of primary school teachers to use pro-health technologies in the educational process. For this purpose, a teacher survey was used, and the results of the experi-mental study were analyzed and generalized. Teachers' answers to thirteen questions of the survey were described in detail, and the ranking of exercises used by teachers during "PE-minutes" during primary school lessons was presented. It was concluded that the use of health-promoting technologies is not a very widespread phenomenon in the practice of primary school tea-chers. The least used are aromatherapy, color therapy, musical accompaniment and art technology. On the basis of the received conclusions, it was predicted that the basic condition for the functioning of a health-promoting educational environment is the use of a complex of functional components, ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of influencing the conscious behavior of students.

The Impact of COVID-19 and Homeschooling on Students' Engagement With Physical Activity

The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented global shutdown that closed schools for months. In many nations, schools were closed to students, and teachers directed educational activities remotely via digital devices or homeschooling resources. This article explores how these months of homeschooling have affected the physical activity of Norwegian students in Grades 1–10. All Norwegian students are supposed to have at least 60 min of physical activity every day in school. We draw on data from two surveys, one with parents (N = 4,624) and the other with teachers (N = 726), to provide an indication of the daily physical activity students engaged in during the period of homeschooling. An important finding from the teacher survey is that the degree to which schools prioritized physical education among the school subjects varied greatly between schools and teachers. Key findings from the parent survey were that reported time spent on physical activity increased with the age of the students, that many parents expressed concerns about increased sedentary behavior, and that the most active students were those who showed the greatest engagement and effort in schoolwork in general. Our findings raise the questions of whether students were given too much responsibility for their own physical activity during this period and whether teachers should provide their students with more digital workout sessions and instructional videos.

Policy capacity matters for capacity development: comparing teacher in-service training and career advancement in basic education systems of India and China

Capacity development is central to the study and practice of public policy and administration, but ensuring its effectiveness requires a substantial amount of policy capacity from government agencies tasked to design and implement it. Identifying the right mix of policy capacity that governments should possess has been made difficult due to conceptual and operational problems. This article addresses the gap by developing a framework that conceptualizes policy capacity as the ability of governments to perform analytical, operational, and political functions. Drawing on the results of an original teacher survey and complementary sources, the article shows that variations on different dimensions of policy capacity have led to significant differences in the effectiveness of capacity development initiatives, especially as perceived by teachers. Therefore, without understanding and catering to the needs of the targets whose capacity is supposedly being developed, capacity development initiatives meant to be supportive are likely to be dissatisfying and disappointing instead. Points for practitioners This article highlights the importance of policy capacity and further unpacks how its analytical, operational, and political dimensions are essential to the successful delivery of capacity development. Through a rich account of the comparative case of India and China, it illustrates that all these dimensions are important, without any one being a stand-alone panacea. Above all, it is important to pay attention to the recipients of capacity development programs; without doing so, top-down program delivery ignorant of their needs is likely to be poorly received despite the original intention of developing capacity.