Remote Education from the Perspective of Students, Parents, and Teachers of Elementary School in Grades I–III

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the results from a study that was conducted in the context of distance learning and implemented by schools from March 25, 2020. The study was carried out twice on the same group of students, teachers, and parents of classes I–III. These studies used a qualitative method for collecting data. The first survey was conducted at the end of June 2020 and the second one – in February 2021. An original questionnaire was used to collect data. Sixty parents responded to the questions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 students and 6 teachers. The purpose of the survey was to find out opinions about distance learning and the challenges that were posed to teachers, parents, and students. These studies are trying to answer the following questions: 1. How was remote education implemented during the first and second waves of the pandemic?; 2. What difficulties were encountered by teachers, parents, and students in the implementation of distance education?; 3. What positive sides of remote education could be identified? The results demonstrated that despite many difficulties and fears, teachers managed to maintain continuity of teaching to the best of their ability by moving education to the digital world. Their digital competencies have increased, and their workbench has been enriched with new, previously unknown programs and educational portals. Remote education has shown how demanding the educational aspect of teachers’ work is. Parents have learned the multidimensional nature of pedagogical work. They were able to learn the level of independence, and resourcefulness, verify the level of interest and concentration on the task and observe their own children’s strategies of problem-solving when encountering difficulties. The students felt the importance of direct contact with their peers. They experienced fatigue resulting from constant computer use.