Digital teaching and learning: Exploring primary school teachers’ approaches, sources of concern & expectations

Abstract

Concerning the use of digital technologies in education, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for rethinking educational policies. With the shift to emergency remote teaching, schools experienced a paradigm shift in delivering education. School leaders and teachers found themselves in the necessity of quick adaptation to various new modes, from using digital/online platforms to responding to the needs and expectations of their students. The experience led to contingency plans in the process and shed some light on the future-oriented plans and scenarios in education, which accelerated the use of digital technologies in education. In parallel with those, professional development courses and support provided for teachers have grown in number, variety, and extent. In this regard, the current study aims to examine primary school teachers’ approaches to digital teaching & learning, their sources of concern, and their expectations from effective professional development courses based on their remote/digital teaching experiences. A focus group, a qualitative research method, was used in the study with a sample of primary school teachers. The findings were revealed under four themes: Transition to digital teaching & learning; obstacles of the digital environment as a teacher/learner; opportunities of the digital environment as a teacher/learner; expectations from PD opportunities.

Keywords

• Professional development
• Teacher approaches
• Future-oriented
• Digital teaching
• Digital learning

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