Specifying Hybrid Models of Teachers’ Work During COVID-19

The term “hybrid” emerged as a common descriptor of pandemic-modified schooling configurations. Yet this umbrella term insufficiently captures the variations among hybrid models, particularly as it pertains to the structure of teacher workdays and related workload demands. Drawing on qualitative research documenting K–12 U.S. teachers’ experience teaching during COVID-19, this brief introduces and explicates three terms specifying structural hybrid models—parallel, alternating, and blended—and their implications for teachers’ work. Differentiating among the models facilitates future analysis of the implications of hybrid schooling for teacher and student experience. Initial analysis indicates teachers experienced one model, blended hybrid, as more challenging than others. This teacher perception highlights the need to discern among the three hybrid models more closely when analyzing schools’ responses to the pandemic. Differentiating among hybrid models may prompt future analysis of hybrid schooling for teacher workload and student learning.

Emociones de profesoras de Educación Física chilenas en el contexto de pandemia: estudio de casos (Emotions of Chilean physical education teachers in the context of pandemic: a case study)

El contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19 ha tenido múltiples consecuencias en la educación escolar formal, incluyendo en la asignatura de Educación Física. Por ello, se considera pertinente estudiarlas desde la perspectiva emocional. El objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar, analizar y comprender las emociones del profesorado de educación física en el contexto de pandemia en Chile. Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa y fenomenológica. Participaron cinco profesoras pertenecientes a tres tipos de establecimientos educacionales de la Región de Valparaíso y Coquimbo. Los datos fueron recogidos por medio de cuestionarios no estructurados y gestionados de forma virtual. Los datos obtenidos fueron sometidos a un análisis de contenido deductivo-inductivo con ayuda del programa informático Atlas.ti 7.5. Los resultados muestran nueve códigos o atribuciones emocionales que se refieren a emociones positivas y negativas para el bienestar subjetivo. Entre los significados emocionales, destaca la desigualdad social, el agobio laboral docente, la hegemonía del ámbito intelectual, la colaboración docente, las innovaciones pedagógicas y el aprendizaje digital. Abstract: The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has had multiple consequences in formal school education, including in the subject of Physical Education. Therefore, it is considered pertinent to study them from an emotional perspective. The objective of this research was to identify, analyze and understand the emotions of physical education teachers in the context of the pandemic in Chile. A qualitative and phenomenological methodology was used. Five female teachers belonging to three types of educational establishments in the Valparaíso and Coquimbo Regions participated. The data were collected by means of unstructured questionnaires and managed virtually. The data obtained were subjected to a deductive-inductive content analysis with the help of Atlas.ti 7.5 software. The results show nine codes or emotional attributions referring to positive and negative emotions for subjective well-being. Among the emotional meanings, social inequality, teacher workload, hegemony of the intellectual sphere, teacher collaboration, pedagogical innovations and digital learning stand out.

The Influence of Emotional Intelligence and Teacher Workload on Teacher Performance

There are still many teachers who have not been able to act professionally. Lack of emotional intelligence and motivation of teachers to complete tasks hampers teacher performance. This research was an ex post facto research. The population in the study involved 46 respondents. The techniques used to collect data are observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The instrument used in analyzing the data is a questionnaire. The data analysis method used consists of classical assumption tests and hypothesis testing. Classical assumption test consisted of residual normality test, heteroscedasticity test, multicollinearity test, and SPSS-assisted linearity test. Hypothesis testing used simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis assisted by SPSS. The study results based on simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis showed that (1) there was no effect of emotional intelligence on teacher performance. (2) There was an effect of workload on teacher performance with a contribution of 98%. (3) There is an influence of emotional intelligence and teacher workload on teacher performance with a contribution of 14.3%. It can be concluded that there is an influence of emotional intelligence and teacher workload on the performance of elementary school teachers.

Development of a Kanji Reference Tool and its Moodle Integration Edukanji 2.0: Design, Development and Implementation

Due to the COVID-19 emergency, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice has reorganized a large part of its courses for on-line delivery through the LMS Moodle. Unfortunately, this platform, besides having a particularly complex interface to use, does not have modules dedicated to the teaching of Japanese. Addressing this issue, this paper proposes the design of a module for kanji teaching integrated with the Moodle workflow, to produce complete and printable kanji sheets with all the necessary information, thus reducing teacher workload. The methodology used derives from an Instructional System Design development model (SAM, Successive, Approximation Model) that allows continuous feedback from the teacher, so as to adapt the developed prototype to his/her teaching needs.

Making Internal Feedback Explicit: Exploiting the Multiple Comparisons that occur during Peer Review

This article takes the view that students generate internal feedback about their own work by comparing it against some external information. Based on this framing, it explores the inner feedback that students generate during peer review when they compare their work with the work of peers and with comments received from peers. The outputs of these comparisons were made explicit by having students write an account of what they learned from them. This allowed us to evaluate the extent to which students’ internal feedback would match the feedback a teacher might provide. Analysis revealed that inner feedback builds up over sequential comparisons and that this, and multiple simultaneous comparisons, resulted in students generating feedback that not only matched the feedback a teacher might provide but went beyond it in powerful and productive ways. The implications are that having students make the internal feedback they generate explicit not only helps them build their self-regulatory abilities but can also decrease teacher workload in providing comments.

Interactive Planning of Competency-Driven University Teaching Staff Allocation

This paper focuses on a teacher allocation problem that is specifically concerned with assigning available academic lecturers to remaining courses from a given student curriculum. The teachers are linked to tasks according to competencies, competence requirements enforced by the curriculum as well as the number and type of disruptions that hamper the fulfilment of courses. The problem under consideration boils down to searching links between competencies possessed by teachers and competencies required by the curricula that will, firstly, balance student needs and teacher workload and, secondly, ensure an assumed robustness level of the teaching schedule. The implemented interactive method performs iterative solving of analysis and synthesis problems concerned with alternative evaluation/robustness of the competency framework. Its performance is evaluated against a set of real historical data and arbitrarily selected sets of disruptions. The computational results indicate that our method yields better solutions compared to the manual allocation by the university.

Reducing Teacher Workload: Part 2

In the second of two Best Practice Focuses looking at reducing teacher workload, Matt Bromley continues his practical advice for schools, middle leaders and teachers, including effective marking techniques, reasonable approaches to data, better planning – for the curriculum and lessons – and more efficient creation and management of resources

Reducing teacher workload: Part 1

Excessive and inappropriate workload is a key reason for teachers quitting the profession. In a two-part SecEd Best Practice Focus, Matt Bromley looks at how schools can keep workload in check. In part one, he touches upon the role of leadership, culture, student behaviour, school routines, email and more. He also offers tips to help teachers protect their own wellbeing